Shattered

Hospitals smelled like death pretending to be sterile.

Elena stared at the ceiling tiles in the emergency room, counting the water stains. Seventeen. No eighteen. Anything to avoid thinking about the doctor's words, still echoing in her skull like a death knell.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Castellano. We did everything we could. You've suffered a miscarriage."

The baby was gone.

Elena had called 911 herself. Had stumbled to the building's lobby, leaving a trail of blood behind her, while Damien stayed upstairs with his mistress. The paramedics had been kind. Professional. They'd asked questions Elena couldn't answer through the pain and shock.

Now she lay in a hospital bed, hollowed out. Empty in every sense that mattered.

Her phone buzzed. Sienna. Elena had texted her friend from the ambulance just three words: Hospital. Need you. Sienna Cross didn't do subtle things when someone she loved was in trouble.

The privacy curtain flew open. Sienna burst through, her dark eyes blazing with fury, her lawyer-sharp suit somehow still immaculate despite the late hour.

"Elena." Her voice cracked on the name. Then she was there, arms around Elena, holding her together when Elena couldn't hold herself. "Oh God, sweetie. What happened?"

Elena tried to speak. Couldn't. The words stuck in her throat like broken glass.

Sienna pulled back, her expression shifting from concern to something darker when she saw Elena's face. "It was Damien, wasn't it? What did that son of a bitch do?"

"I was pregnant," Elena whispered. "I was going to tell him. I had dinner ready. I bought the wine he likes. I—" Her voice broke. "I found him with Natasha Volkov. In our bed."

Sienna went very still. The kind of still that preceded violence.

"And the baby?" she asked quietly.

Elena shook her head. That was all she could manage.

"I'm going to kill him," Sienna said flatly. "I'm going to walk into that penthouse and murder him with my bare hands."

"Don't." Elena grabbed her friend's wrist. "Please. I just….I need to get out. I need a divorce. Can you help me?"

Sienna's jaw clenched. "Hell yes, I can help you. I'll make sure he doesn't see a penny more than the law requires. We'll destroy him."

Elena closed her eyes. Destroying Damien felt impossible right now. She could barely destroy the hope that kept insisting this was all a nightmare.

"Elena." Sienna's voice was gentle. "I need you to listen to me. You're going to survive this. You're going to leave that bastard. And you're going to remember who you were before him."

"I don't know who that is anymore," Elena admitted.

"I do. She's brilliant. She's strong. She's the woman who earned a PhD from MIT at twenty-five. She's still in there." Sienna squeezed her hand. "We're going to find her again. I promise."

Elena wanted to believe her. She did. But right now, she felt like a ghost haunting her own body.

Her phone rang. Elena glanced at the screen and her heart stopped.

Seattle General Hospital.

No. Not now. Please, not now.

She answered with shaking hands. "Hello?"

"Is this Elena Morgan?" A woman's voice, professional and tired.

"Yes. This is her daughter."

"Ms. Morgan, I'm Dr. Patricia Chen. I'm calling about your mother, Margaret Morgan. She was admitted two hours ago following a severe myocardial infarction and a heart attack."

The room tilted. Elena gripped the bed rails.

"What is she okay with ?"

"She's stable for now, but I won't lie to you, it's serious. She needs immediate surgery to repair the damage. Without it..." Dr. Chen paused. "Without it, I'd estimate she has two to three weeks. Maybe less."

Elena couldn't breathe. "How much will the surgery cost?"

Another pause. "With your mother's insurance, you're looking at approximately five hundred thousand dollars out of pocket."

Half a million dollars.

Elena had three thousand dollars in her personal account. Everything else was joint with Damien, and he'd probably already frozen those accounts out of spite.

"Ms. Morgan? Are you there?"

"Yes. When does she need the surgery?"

"Ideally within the next seventy-two hours."

Three days. Elena had three days to find half a million dollars.

"Thank you, Doctor. I'll….I'll figure something out."

She ended the call. Sienna was staring at her, dread written across her face.

"What's wrong?"

Elena told her. I watched her friend's expression crumble.

"Okay," Sienna said, her mind clearly racing. "Okay. We'll figure this out. Your family's company—"

"Is bankrupt." Elena felt numb saying it. "Marcus embezzled funds. I got the call last week. I was trying to fix it, but—"

"Loans? Credit?"

"All maxed out trying to save the company."

Sienna pulled out her phone. "I'll call my firm. We can arrange something—"

"Sienna." Elena caught her hand. "You can't. I know you would, but that's your career. Your future. I won't let you destroy yourself for me."

"Then what are you going to do?" Sienna's voice broke. "Elena, what are you going to do?"

Elena looked down at her hands. They were shaking. She couldn't stop them.

"I don't know," she whispered. "I don't know."

The machines around her beeped. Steady. Mechanical. Indifferent to the fact that Elena's world had just burned to ash.

She'd lost her baby. She'd lost her marriage. And now she was losing her mother.

Elena closed her eyes and tried to remember how to breathe.