Chapter 5

Rosalyn's POV

With that, she slammed the door shut with a "bang" and locked it without mercy.

"Leon... Leon, wake up..." My hands trembling, I pulled him into my arms.

His body was alarmingly hot, his forehead burning like fire.

His eyes were tightly shut, his brow furrowed in pain, his small body convulsing constantly in my embrace.

"Mommy..."

He murmured unconsciously, his voice so faint it was barely audible.

"It hurts... Leon hurts..."

Tears burst from my eyes, falling in big drops onto his face.

Even though he had once spoken harshly to me.

Even though he'd been brainwashed by Valentina and didn't recognize me as his mother.

He still carried my blood.

He was the child I'd carried for ten months, the one I'd risked my life to bring into this world!

"Don't be scared, Mommy's here, Mommy will protect you..."

I held him tight, my heart aching so badly it felt like it would tear apart.

His breathing grew more and more rapid, his body temperature climbing higher.

I knew that if I didn't get him to a hospital soon, he could die from the high fever and infection!

I carefully laid him on the mattress, then stumbled toward the iron door, pounding hard on the solid panel.

"Open up! Please open the door!"

I shouted at the top of my lungs.

"Leon has a fever! He needs a doctor! Please, I'm begging you, open the door!"

There was no response from outside, only deathly silence.

"Someone! Help!" I kicked at the door frantically, my nails scratching bloody marks across the panel.

"You can take my life if you want! Just please save the child! He's dying!"

Heavy footsteps finally echoed down the hallway.

"What's all this noise!" came the guard's impatient voice through the door.

"Please..."

I dropped to my knees behind the door, my forehead pressed against the cold iron, humbling myself to dust.

"Leon is very sick, he's covered in wounds and running a high fever... Please, can you call a doctor or take him to the hospital? He'll die, he really will die!"

"Ms. Montfort gave orders that no one is to open this door tonight," the guard said coldly. "Mrs. Montfort, you should save your energy."

"No! You can't do this!"

I screamed in despair, tears covering my entire face.

"He's Lysander's son! If he dies, Lysander won't let you get away with it! Please, I'll do anything if you'll just save him!"

Outside the door, silence fell again. The guard seemed to have left.

I collapsed on the floor, listening to Leon's increasingly weak breathing behind me, feeling the whole world crumbling bit by bit.

Footsteps sounded outside the attic again, but this time, it wasn't the guard's heavy, dull rhythm.

These were sharp, hurried, carrying a kind of bone-chilling excitement.

The iron door was suddenly pushed open, hallway light stabbing into the darkness like a blade.

Valentina stood in the doorway.

She had changed into a neat silk nightgown, her pale face wearing an almost twisted expression of grief.

But her eyes gleamed with triumph.

"Oh, God! Leon! My baby!"

She shrieked, her voice deafening in the narrow attic.

I clutched the burning-hot Leon tightly in my arms, shrinking warily toward the corner.

"Get away! Valentina, you lunatic, stay away from him!"

"You... you did this to him?" Valentina acted as if she hadn't heard my curse. She turned her head and shouted into the empty hallway.

"Someone come quick! Help! Rosalyn's gone crazy, she's trying to kill Leon!"

I froze, a chill shooting straight up my spine to my head.

She was going to pin this on me.

"You're lying! You hit him, you threw him in here!"

I roared, my voice broken from all the crying and shouting.

But Valentina didn't give me a chance to defend myself.

She rushed forward and grabbed my hair, her sharp nails digging deep into my scalp.

Her movements were vicious, nothing like the delicate lady she usually pretended to be.

"You bitch, you lost your baby, so now you want to drag my son down with you?"

She cursed while slapping me hard across the face.

My head hit the wall hard, and my vision went black.

The wound on my abdomen tore open again from the violent movement, warm liquid seeping out—I knew it was blood.

But I couldn't let go. Leon was in my arms.

If I handed him over to this crazy woman, he really would die.

"Let go... let him go..."

I resisted weakly, trying to push her away.

Seeing I wouldn't let go, Valentina's eyes turned vicious, and she kicked me hard in the ribs.

I seemed to hear the sound of bone cracking.

The intense pain instantly drained my strength, and my grip loosened.

Valentina seized the opportunity and shoved hard. I flew backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing into the bed frame. My forehead hit the hard wood, blood flowing down past my eye.

"Stop."

A voice cold as ice, without a trace of warmth, came from the doorway.

Lysander had arrived.

He wore a dark suit, as if he'd just returned from some high-end reception, still carrying the faint scent of cedarwood.

He stood there, looking down coldly at the mess on the floor.

His eyes finally showed a tiny flicker of emotion when they touched on the unconscious Leon.

"Lysander! Save Leon!"

Ignoring the pain throughout my body, I crawled toward his feet like grasping at a last lifeline, my trembling fingers clutching at his pant leg.

"Please, Leon has a high fever, he's covered in wounds... Take him to the hospital, please take him to the hospital!"

Lysander lowered his eyes, looking at me covered in blood, as humble as a stray dog.

He didn't reach out to help me up. Instead, he stepped back in disgust, letting me fall onto the cold floor.

"This is how you ask for help?"

He parted his thin lips, his tone mocking.

"Rosalyn, you tried to use Leon to escape, and now you want to threaten me by hurting him?"

"I didn't! It was Valentina who hit him!"

I defended myself loudly, pointing at Valentina, who was pretending to cry.

"It was her! She whipped him, she threw him in the attic to die!"

"Zander, don't listen to her lies..."

Valentina threw herself into Lysander's arms, crying pitifully.

"When I came in, I saw her choking Leon's neck, saying she'd make the Montfort family die without heirs... How could she do that to a child..."

"Rosalyn, you really disgust me."

Lysander's voice was ice-cold.

I looked up at this man whom I once thought was my safe harbor.

His face was still handsome, but in this moment, it looked more hideous than a demon from hell.

"Lysander, even if you hate me, Leon is your own son!"

I knelt on the floor, my forehead hitting the marble heavily with a dull thud.

"I'm begging you, you can torture me however you want, just please take him to the hospital now... I'm begging you!"

I knocked my head again and again, blood spreading across the white floor.