POV: Liora Hayes
The town car moved through the city like a silent ghost. As we left the crumbling brick of my neighborhood and merged onto the highway toward the gleaming skyscrapers of the financial district, a cold realization began to sink in.
I was in a car with a man I didn't know, heading toward a man I only knew from terrifying news headlines, to perform a "service" I didn't fully understand.
I turned away from the window, looking at Xavier. He was tapping away on a thin, glowing tablet, his face illuminated by the blue light. He looked so calm. So clinical.
"You haven't told me what I'm actually doing," I said, my voice shaking. "You keep saying 'service.' You keep saying 'heir.' I need to know the truth. Is this... is this a laboratory thing? Am I just a surrogate?"
Xavier stopped tapping. He looked at me, and for the first time, he didn't look cold. He looked charming. He gave me a small, reassuring smile that made him look like an older brother…except his eyes remained as sharp as a predator's.
"Don't think of it in such ugly terms, Liora," he said, his voice smooth and melodic. He shifted in his seat, leaning toward me. "Think of it as a gift. You have something that the most powerful man in this country lacks. You have the perfect genetic slate."
"I'm a waitress from the South Side," I whispered. "I don't have anything 'perfect.'"
"That's where you're wrong," Xavier purred. The way he spoke was like silk, but I could feel the snake underneath. "We checked your family history back three generations. No history of chronic illness. High intelligence scores in your school records. And you're beautiful, Liora. That's not vanity; it's a fact. You are exactly what is needed for the Volkov bloodline. You're the soil for a very important seed."
"The soil," I repeated, a sick feeling rising in my stomach. "You're talking about me like I'm a farm."
"I'm talking about you like you're a savior," he countered. He reached out as if to pat my hand, but I flinched away. He didn't seem offended. "Darian Volkov needs an heir to keep his empire. You need half a million dollars to keep your mother. It is the most honest transaction in this city."
"And after the nine months? What then?"
Xavier leaned back, his charming mask slipping just a fraction. "Then you are free. You take your money, we take the child, and we never see each other again. You go back to being a girl with a bank account, and the child grows up as a king. Everyone wins."
"But I'll be the mother," I argued. "I'll—"
"No," Xavier interrupted, his voice turning sharp. "You will be the birth-giver. There is a legal difference. The contract will ensure you have no rights, no claim, and no memory of that child. You aren't being hired to be a mother, Liora. You're being hired to be a vessel. If you can't handle that distinction, tell me now so I can turn this car around and let the hospital proceed with the transfer."
I looked at him, my heart breaking. He was so casual about it. He was talking about a human life like it was a business merger.
"Is he... is Darian going to be... with me?" I asked, my face burning with shame.
Xavier's smile returned, but it was thinner this time. "Darian Volkov doesn't leave things to chance, Liora. He prefers the precision of a clinic. He won't be 'with' you in the way you're imagining. He is a man of ice. He doesn't want your heart, and he certainly doesn't want your affection. He just wants the result."
I wanted to throw up. The luxury of the car suddenly felt suffocating. I felt like I was being wrapped in expensive ribbons just to be slaughtered.
"I'm scared," I confessed, the words escaping before I could stop them.
"Fear is a luxury you can't afford right now," Xavier said, looking back at his tablet. "Just remember why you're doing this. Think of your mother's face. Think of her breathing without that machine. That's what you're buying."
I closed my eyes, trying to picture my mother's smile. I tried to focus on the sound of her voice before the heart failure took it away. I can do this, I told myself. I can survive anything for nine months if it means she lives.
Suddenly, the phone in my pocket began to vibrate violently.
My heart skipped a beat. It was the hospital's emergency line. I scrambled to answer it, my fingers fumbling against the cracked screen.
"Hello? Hello!"
"Miss Hayes?" It was the nurse from the ICU. Her voice was frantic, drowned out by the sound of alarms blaring in the background. "Liora, you need to get back here. Or you need to give us authorization for the emergency bypass."
"What? What's happening?" I screamed.
"Your mother's heart rate is dropping! She's going into respiratory arrest. The transport team was moving her and the portable unit failed. We're losing her, Liora! She's flatlining!"
"No! No, wait! The money..the money is coming!" I looked at Xavier, my eyes wide with pure terror. "Xavier, help! They're losing her! Send the money now! Tell them to do the surgery!"
The sound of a long, steady beeeep echoed through the phone line. The sound of a heart that had stopped fighting.
"Liora?" the nurse's voice called through the static. "Liora, she's gone cold. We're starting CPR, but without the private surgical team on standby, we can't—"
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone, my world collapsing into a thousand jagged pieces. I looked at Xavier, my face white as a sheet.
"She's dying," I whispered. "She's flatlining right now."
Xavier didn't panic. He didn't even flinch. He just held his own phone up, his thumb hovering over a glowing "Confirm" button.
"The surgical team is one floor away from her, Liora," he said, his voice cold and terrifyingly calm. "I have the power to put them in that room in thirty seconds. But I don't send the signal until you give me your word. Are you in? Or do we let her go?"
I looked at the black screen of my phone. I could almost hear my mother's last breath.
"Save her," I sobbed, grabbing his arm. "Save her! I'll do it! I'll do anything! Just save her!"
Xavier smiled…a real, predatory smile. He pressed the button.
"The team is moving," he said. "Welcome to the Volkov family, Liora."