Realizing she couldn’t stop him or maneuver around him, Chloe stopped dancing around it and asked outright.
“Did you have someone run her down?”
“What are you talking about?” Nathaniel’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re the one who called me here.”
Something shifted in his expression, and his voice turned to ice.
“How is she, exactly?”
“Nathaniel Cole!” Chloe’s temper flared too, and she yanked him aside.
“Someone deliberately drove their car straight at her”
She didn’t get to finish.
“Nathaniel!” Vivian had caught up.
She’d already scrubbed the fake blood from her face no way she was letting a doctor get a close look at that.
Her expression was pure worry.
“How’s Eliana?”
The moment Chloe saw her, fury boiled over.
“Nathaniel, you came to see Eliana, and you brought her?” Chloe jabbed a finger at Vivian.
“Are you trying to push her over the edge?”
She didn’t give either of them room to linger outside the room; she steered them bodily toward the emergency exit instead.
Vivian looked startled, shrinking slightly behind Nathaniel.
“Dr.
Bennett, it’s not what you think.
I was already in the car when you called him.”
“Parking was a nightmare, and he was so worried about Eliana, we just came straight in together.”
Chloe thought that was the most ridiculous excuse she’d ever heard.
Everyone knew exactly how Eliana felt about this woman and Vivian had still marched straight in behind him like she belonged there.
Couldn’t she have waited in the car?
Taking a walk around the block, maybe?
Chloe almost laughed at the sheer nerve of it.
“Oh, right, I almost forgot.
You two walked out of Cole Tower together tonight and left arm in arm in the same car.”
Chloe’s tone dripped sarcasm.
“Saw it trending, actually.”
“You!” Vivian’s eyes welled up, wounded.
At the emergency exit, Nathaniel instinctively stepped in front of Vivian, shielding her.
That only made Chloe angrier.
They’d been splashed across every gossip feed in the city together, and now they showed up here looking like this?
Was he actually worried about Eliana, or putting on a show for her benefit?
“If you two want to play house, do it somewhere else.
I’m not putting up with it here.”
Vivian said nothing, just dropped her head, the picture of quiet suffering.
Nathaniel’s frown deepened.
“Don’t take this out on her.
What exactly did you mean, a second ago?”
“Someone deliberately ran a car into Eliana.
And I think you had something to do with it,” Chloe said, blunt as ever.
“I think you wanted her out of the way, fast, so you could marry Vivian without any complications.”
Before Nathaniel could respond, Vivian stepped forward.
“Dr.
Bennett, isn’t that a little insulting?”
Her voice rang with righteous indignation.
“There are a dozen possible explanations for what happened to Eliana.
Why jump straight to blaming Nathaniel?”
She pressed on, voice sharpening.
“You called him here yourself.
We’ve been standing out here for ages, and you still won’t let us see how she’s doing.
What exactly is going on, Dr.
Bennett?”
“Is Eliana actually fine?
Is that why you won’t let us see her?!”
That pushed Chloe past her limit.
She thought back to the state Eliana had been in when they’d wheeled her in.
The fear is still sitting cold in her chest from hearing the full story.
Eliana had rare Rh-negative blood even without a pregnancy involved, an accident like this could turn fatal fast.
And she was pregnant.
With Nathaniel’s child.
And here was Vivian, standing in the hallway slinging accusations like she had any right to.
“Vivian, why are you so worked up about this?” Chloe snapped.
“Did you run her over and panic when it didn’t work?”
“You!” A flash of panic crossed Vivian’s face before she smoothed it back into wounded innocence.
Nathaniel moved to shield her again, voice cold.
“Vivi left her studio at 8:45 tonight and had paparazzi on her the entire way.
Her whole route’s been documented online.
She’s been with me this whole time.”
Chloe’s jaw clenched.
“She could’ve hired someone.”
His eyes flashed with sharp anger.
“Chloe.
Don’t push this.”
…
Inside the hospital room.
Eliana fought against an endless dark.
It pulled at her like wet earth, dragging her deeper, swallowing every direction she reached toward.
Something felt unfinished.
Missing.
Something she needed to fight for.
Fear.
Real, bone-deep fear.
She tried to move arms, legs, but nothing responded.
She had no sense of how much time passed before a single point of light appeared somewhere ahead.
She threw everything she had left into reaching it.
The instant she touched it, the scene shifted completely, a small family of three, living together in a modest villa.
A soft white wool rug underfoot.
A black grand piano in the corner.
A little girl sat at the bench, fingers stumbling through unfamiliar notes.
Für Elise.
A breeze drifted through the room, lifting the sheer white curtains framing an old European-style window.
Warm afternoon light spilled across a home decorated in soft Western-country tones.
Bright.
Peaceful.
After several failed attempts, the girl’s patience snapped, and she started slamming her hands haphazardly across the keys.
A gentle, handsome man crossed the room toward her.
His voice reached her like something carried across years.
“Eliana.
Patience, sweetheart.
Everything worth doing takes patience.”
The girl pouted, her dark eyes brimming with frustration.
“Dad, I’ve practiced this for over a week and I still can’t get it right.
It’s so hard.”
He smiled, ruffled her hair, and sat beside her on the bench, playing the piece through from start to finish himself.
Für Elise, note-perfect.
As he played, he glanced at her.
“Look Daddy figured it out.
And if Daddy can learn it, so can you.”
Her eyes lit up with pure adoration.
“Wait when did you even learn that?!”
He laughed softly, took her small hand in his, and guided her fingers across the keys clumsy at first, then smoother, then flowing entirely on their own.
“Only just recently, actually,” he told her.
“Because you started learning piano, so I decided to learn it too.”
She played on with fierce concentration, breathless with awe.
“Dad, you’re amazing.”
“The one who’s actually amazing is you.” He smiled and slowly let go of her hand, watching her keep playing entirely on her own, without even realizing he’d released her.
“All you ever needed was to believe you could.”
He let go completely.
“You’re my only daughter.
Everything I have is yours.
From the day you were born, it was always going to be you carrying the Hart name forward.”
“Dad, can I really do this?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“You can.” He laughed warmly.
The music rippled on, gentle as a warm breeze, and his eyes stayed fixed on her, full of quiet pride and love.
“See?” he said.
“You already are.”