She didn't feel pain immediately. It started choking in Seraphina Vale's chest, a pressure that made breathing feel like she was breathing through water. Voices mix above her, and the chandelier lights broke into halos that pulsed and blurred. She could taste something strange at the back of her throat, sharp and wrong.
She tried to move her fingers, but they felt far away, as though they didn't belong to her.
"Seraphina, stay with me."
Adrian's voice cut through the noise, steady and controlled. His hand cupped her cheek with careful pressure, anyone watching would see a devoted husband panicking over his collapsing wife.
She made her eyes focus on his face but his expression was calm, he wasn't terrified, and he wasn't panicked but he was composed.
"Call the ambulance," someone shouted again.
"It is already on the way," Evelyn Crane answered quickly.
Seraphina remembered that detail through the fog creeping over her thoughts. Evelyn's voice did not shake, and she did not sound surprised.
The marble under her cheek felt cool against her skin. Shards of her shattered champagne glass glittered near her hand, and the scent of citrus and alcohol hung thick in the air.
Her heart hammered violently in her ears."Adrian," she whispered. He leaned closer, his breath warm against her temple.
"I am here," he said.
Her heart pounded in irregular sound, and she felt a wave of nausea roll through her body. Panic surged, clawing at her lungs.
"What did you do?" she managed, though the words felt slow and heavy. His thumb traced the curve of her jaw with unsettling tenderness.
"You overwork yourself," he said quietly, as if explaining something reasonable. "Your body finally protested." That was not an answer.
Seraphina tried to lift herself, but her arms were too weak. The ceiling slanted a little and the edges of the room darkened.
She felt hands on her shoulders. She heard her father's voice, strained and frightened.
"Phae, can you hear me?" She wanted to tell him she could, and she wanted to reassure him but her tongue felt thick.
The paramedics arrived in a minutes, though they wasted time. They lifted her onto a stretcher and secured her with straps that pressed into her skin. The world became a blur of movement and fluorescent lights.
Adrian climbed into the ambulance without delay. Her father tried to follow, but someone held him back.
"I will call you," Adrian assured him, his tone smooth and reassuring. The ambulance doors slammed shut, and the siren wailed.
Seraphina lay under the harsh white lights, her body shaking in waves she could not control. One of the paramedics inserted an IV line with practiced efficiency, and another checked her pulse repeatedly.
"What did she drink?" a paramedic asked.
"Champagne," Adrian answered calmly. "Only one glass."
"Does she have allergies?"
"No." He replied. Seraphina forced her eyes open again.
Adrian sat opposite her, his back straight, his expression calm. His gaze rested on her with careful focus, as though he were monitoring data rather than his wife's failing body.
"You will be fine," he told her. The words sounded like they had been practiced. Her chest tightened painfully. A spasm went through her hands and legs.
"She is tachycardic," the paramedic muttered.
The vehicle jolted over a bump, and Seraphina's vision flickered, and the bitterness on her tongue got worse. Memory came into place with sickening clarity, and she remembered that Adrian didn't take the drink, he had lifted his glass and only pretended. The realization struck her like cold water.
She tried to speak again, but a sharp pain speared through her abdomen. Her body arched involuntarily against the restraints.
"Adrian," she gasped.
He leaned forward slightly. "Yes?"
"Why did you not drink?" The question escaped her in fragments of breath, he did not respond immediately. Instead, he regarded her with the same careful interest she had seen at the dinner table.
"You always notice details," he said softly. Her heart pounded harder.
The paramedics continued working, unaware of the silent exchange unfolding between husband and wife.
"You replaced my glass," she whispered. His gaze sharpened, but he did not deny it.
"You are confused," he replied smoothly. "You are not thinking clearly." The ambulance swerved sharply and Seraphina's body convulsed.
She thought about the past five years with ruthless speed. The joint management agreement, the gradual transfer of operational authority, the advisors he installed within Vale Holdings, and the way her father's signature appeared less frequently on official documents.
Every step had seemed logical, and every concession had seemed temporary."You filed something," she breathed.
He studied her as if she were an equation nearing its solution."I ensured efficiency," he said.
"You stole it."The accusation hung between them.
One of the paramedics glanced at Adrian briefly, then returned attention to the monitors.
Adrian exhaled slowly."Do not make this dramatic," he murmured. "I expanded it."
"You removed me."He did not deny that either. Her pulse monitor beeped randomly. The ambulance screeched to a halt outside the hospital entrance. Doors flew open, and cold night air rushed in.
They wheeled her inside under bright fluorescent lights that stabbed at her eyes, doctors surrounded her in the emergency room. Questions flew over her head, and her blood pressure dropped. Her body felt as though it were sinking into the mattress.
Through the chaos, Adrian remained present but distant. He answered questions calmly, and he signed consent forms without delaying. At some point, her father arrived. Seraphina heard his voice break as he demanded answers."What happened?"
Adrian's reply carried steady authority."She collapsed unexpectedly," he said. "The doctors are still assessing."
Seraphina forced her eyes open once more. Her father stood at the foot of the bed, his face pale."Daddy," she tried to say, but no sound came out.
A doctor leaned over her."We suspect a toxic reaction," the doctor explained to Adrian in hushed tones. "We are running tests."
Adrian nodded."Do everything necessary," he said. His performance was flawless.
Seraphina felt anger surge through the weakness flooding her body. She wasn't confused or wrong, she could see the tension in his eyes and she felt the deliberate absence of panic. A nurse adjusted her IV line the world blurred again, and time slipped in fragments.
She drifted in and out of consciousness as machines beeped steadily around her. Each time she surfaced, Adrian stood nearby, speaking softly to doctors or reassuring her father.
Hours passed. The doctors stabilized her temporarily, but they could not identify the toxin immediately. They moved her to a private room for observation, citing rare complications.
Adrian dismissed most of the staff once the immediate crisis subsided. He closed the door behind the last nurse silence settled over the room.
Seraphina lay weak and trembling beneath white sheets. Adrian approached her bedside slowly. "You should not have tried to figure it out," he said.
Her heart stuttered."You admit it," she whispered. He looked down at her with something resembling regret."I admit necessity."
"Why?" Her voice broke. "Why would you do this?"
He pulled a chair close and sat."Vale Holdings was resistant to restructuring," he said evenly. "Your loyalty to your father slowed progress."
"He built that company," she said.
"And I will turn it into something greater."
"By killing me?"His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
"I did not intend for it to look violent," he replied. "The dosage was calibrated."
A wave of terror hit her."You planned this."
"I planned the transition."
"You are murdering your wife."
"I am preventing instability." Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes, though her body lacked the strength to sob.
"I loved you," she said. He held her gaze."I know, and I loved you too."
"Was it ever real?" He considered the question as if weighing financial risk.
"I valued you," he answered at last. "You were essential, and you are special." The words essential cut deeper than any blade, it sounded like the past tense.
Her vision blurred again."You will tell them it was a rare reaction," she said weakly.
"The doctors will reach that conclusion," he replied calmly. "Evelyn ensured the compound is difficult to trace."
The name Evelyn made the betrayal real."You both planned this." He did not deny it.
"She understands growth," he said simply.
Seraphina's chest constricted painfully."And my father?" she asked.
"He will sign what is necessary once he grieves."
Her heart twisted violently."You will destroy him."
"He will survive."
"You are wrong."
Her strength waned rapidly. The machines beside her beeped with increasing urgency. Adrian stood as a nurse knocked lightly and entered to check her vitals. He stepped back, his expression returning to concerned husband instantly.
"She seems unstable again," the nurse said.
"Do whatever you must," Adrian replied.
The nurse adjusted medication levels and Seraphina's consciousness slipped once more.
When she surfaced again, the room was dim. It was well past midnight. Only the soft sound of machines accompanied her.
Adrian stood near the window, speaking quietly on his phone."Yes," he said. "The documents will be finalized tomorrow." He pause.
"No, Theodore suspects nothing." He kept quiet for a while.
"She will not regain capacity." The words cut through the remaining strength she had left. Capacity. He was discussing her as an asset already written off.
"I will handle the board," he continued. "You focus on the transfer."
He ended the call and turned. He saw her eyes open, and he looked surprised for a moment, but quickly hid it.
"You should rest," he said.
"You underestimated me," she whispered.
He approached slowly. "I think correctly," he replied.
Her pulse monitor spiked sharply. Anger ignited beneath the weakness."You think you will get away with this," she said.
"I already have."
Footsteps approached in the hallway. Adrian's expression shifted instantly into concern as a doctor entered.
"We are transferring her to imaging," the doctor explained. "Her internal response is worsening."
They began moving her bed. Adrian walked beside it, his hand resting lightly on the rail. As they reached a stairwell corridor due to temporary elevator maintenance, a problem arose unexpectedly. A gurney hit some equipment ahead, and staff rushed to move it out of the way.
In the confusion, Seraphina's bed jolted violently. Her weakened body moved. The brake on one wheel failed to lock properly, and the slope of the service ramp that led to an adjacent wing made things move quickly. Someone shouted. The bed moved forward, and Adrian's hand slipped from the rail.
Seraphina felt the world tilt. The gurney rolled toward the unguarded edge where temporary construction barriers stood unsecured. Time slowed into something terrible.
She saw Adrian standing still, he did not move forward, he did not grab the frame he watched. The force broke throughthe barriers, the bed fell over and she looked into his eyes for a moment. There was no panic in them, and no certainty, Then she became afraid.
The world turned into screaming air and bright light as she fell into the dark and her final thought was not of fear but of fury at the man who had just let her die.