On the third day after Nina left the hospital, Julian's order arrived.

"Seven tonight. Warehouse No. 7 at the docks. You're coming with me to a negotiation."

The note was delivered by one of Julian's bodyguards, his tone leaving no room for refusal. "Mr. Blackwell said you understand his injuries better than anyone. If anything happens, it's safest to have you there."

She had wanted to refuse.

But the contract had not yet expired. She was still his "concierge doctor." She had no choice.

Under the night sky, the salty scent of the sea filled Nina's lungs.

Nina wore a black turtleneck sweater, her long hair tied back. As she had done countless times before, she stood half a step behind Julian.

At his side, Aria held his arm, dressed in an elegant suit, her makeup flawless and her smile bright.

The leader across from them puffed on a cigar, his gaze moving between the three of them before he sneered. "You really know how to live. A woman on each arm. Aren't you worried that might cause a little trouble at home?"

Julian's expression didn't change. "Aria is my fiancée. Dr. Avery is my concierge doctor. If gossip is all you have to offer, we might as well move straight to the terms."

"Oh?" He narrowed his eyes. "I heard this doctor has been by your side for ten years. Even the honey trap your uncle sent lost her hands because of you. What happened? Change of taste?"

The entire warehouse fell silent.

Nina lowered her eyes, her nails digging into her palm.

She should have known. In their eyes, she was nothing more than a high-class mistress.

Julian suddenly spoke, his voice sharp and clear. "My heart has never changed. The one it belonged to ten years ago is still the same today."

Aria's eyes reddened instantly as she clung tightly to his arm.

Nina felt as if she had been struck by lightning.

Hearing those words felt like a giant hand closing around Nina's heart, squeezing until it bled, until she could barely breathe.

Five years ago, he had carried her through a hail of bullets, both of them soaked in blood. Through clenched teeth he had said, "Hold on, Nina. I'm taking you home."

Back then, she believed she had a place in that home.

Now she knew the home in his heart had always been waiting for only one person.

The negotiation collapsed without warning.

The opposing leader slammed the table. "Julian! You swallowed three of my docks. If you don't give them back tonight, you're not leaving here alive!"

Men rushed out of the shadows, and gunfire exploded through the warehouse.

In the chaos, Nina instinctively lunged toward Julian. "Watch out!"

But he had already pulled Aria behind him while drawing his gun to fire back.

He didn't even look at Nina.

The enemy had prepared an ambush. More than a dozen gunmen poured out from the shadows.

Amid the firefight, two masked men rushed forward. One grabbed Aria. The other seized Nina.

"Julian! Choose one!" the man shouted. "Or they both die!"

Time seemed to freeze.

Nina looked at Julian, a faint spark of hope still lingering in her eyes.

Maybe… maybe he would hesitate. After all, she had saved his life three times and stayed with him through his darkest nights.

But Julian's eyes held no hesitation.

He raised his gun and shot the man holding Aria, then rushed forward to catch her as she stumbled.

Meanwhile, the man holding Nina dragged her toward the warehouse's back door.

Julian's bodyguards started to chase after them.

"Leave her!" Julian shouted, tightening his hold on the trembling Aria. "Get Aria to the car first!"

Leave her.

At the moment between life and death, Julian had abandoned the woman who had stood beside him for ten years without hesitation.

As she was dragged away, Nina's back slammed into a metal rack, forcing a sharp breath from her lips.

She looked back and saw Julian checking Aria for injuries, his movements gentle as if she were a priceless treasure.

The thug shoved her into a van and kicked her hard in the stomach.

Nina curled up, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

So this was her ending. A discarded pawn thrown into the dark.

After an unknown amount of time, she was dumped at an abandoned shipyard.

The thug grabbed a steel pipe with a vicious grin. "If Mr. Blackwell doesn't want you, we'll cripple you and make him regret it for the rest of his life!"

As the pipe swung down, Nina closed her eyes.

She didn't try to dodge.

Her heart had already gone numb. What did a little physical pain matter anymore?

Just as the pipe came down, a gunshot rang out. Julian burst in with his men.

In the chaos, Nina felt a sharp explosion of pain in her abdomen.

She had been shot.

Nina lay in an ICU bed. Beneath the oxygen mask, every breath felt like knives cutting through her lungs.

She had barely crawled back from the brink of death. The doctors had said that if she had arrived two hours later, no one could have saved her.

But the moment she regained consciousness, she heard Aria's weak sobbing from the next room. "Julian… I'm so cold… Am I going to die?"

Julian's voice was low but firm. "You won't. Hang on. I'll get someone to transfuse blood for you right away."

"But… the blood bank is running low," the nurse said anxiously.

Julian's tone left no room for argument. "Nina and Aria have the same blood type. Take hers."

Nina's entire body froze.

In that moment, it felt as if her soul had been torn apart.

He had once taken a bullet for her. Now he was willing to drain her blood to save another woman.

The attending doctor immediately protested. "Mr. Blackwell! Dr. Avery just suffered massive blood loss. Her hemoglobin is only sixty. If we draw more blood, she could die!"

"She won't die." Julian's eyes were cold. "She's tough. Aria has lost too much blood. We can't wait."

The doctor's voice trembled. "This really isn't possible!"

"I said take her blood." Julian spoke each word slowly, carrying the unmistakable pressure of a mafia heir. "If something happens, I'll take responsibility."

When the needle pierced her vein, Nina didn't resist.

She simply stared at the ceiling, letting the warm blood flow drop by drop into the transfusion tube.

So in his eyes, her life was nothing more than a resource that could be measured and sacrificed.

The transfusion lasted forty minutes.

Nina's blood pressure suddenly plummeted, and the heart monitor shrieked with a sharp alarm.

The nurse screamed. "The patient is going into shock!"

Julian only glanced over coldly. "Stabilize her. How is Aria doing?"

"Miss Monroe is out of danger."

"Good." He turned and walked away without looking back.

As Nina drifted toward unconsciousness, she heard those words. A tear slipped from the corner of her eye into her hair.

It took an entire day and night before she woke again.

Her body felt as if it had been crushed and stitched back together. She was too weak to even lift a hand.

The hospital door opened. Aria walked in wearing a patient's gown, her complexion rosy and her smile bright.

"Nina, thank you for saving me." She sat beside the bed, her voice syrupy sweet. "Julian said your blood worked perfectly. I felt better almost immediately."

Nina closed her eyes and ignored her.

Aria leaned closer and lowered her voice. "Do you know what you are? Just a tool. I'm the rose he keeps in the palm of his hand."

Nina suddenly opened her eyes, her voice hoarse. "Get out."

"Oh, angry?" Aria sneered. "What do you think you are?"

Nina stared at her. "At least I didn't fake an illness to get sympathy."

Aria's expression changed. Suddenly she grabbed the glass from the bedside table and smashed it against her own forehead.

"Ah!" she screamed as she collapsed, blood instantly pouring down her face.

Julian rushed in at the sound. Seeing Aria covered in blood, he immediately picked her up. "Aria! Who did this?"

Aria pointed at Nina through tear-filled eyes. "She… she yelled at me… and hit me…"

"I didn't!" Nina protested urgently. "She did it to herself!"

Julian didn't even look at her. "Lock her up," he ordered the bodyguards. "No one sees her without my permission."

"Julian!" Nina screamed. "You believe her? Are you blind?"

Julian finally turned back, his eyes icy. "Nina, I've already shown you more mercy than you deserve. Don't force me to make you disappear."

He carried Aria away without hesitation.

Nina collapsed back onto the bed as silent tears slipped down her face.

This time, even anger was gone.

All that remained was a barren silence.

The next day, she checked herself out of the hospital.

As she stepped out of the hospital entrance, a black Maybach pulled up in front of her.

The window rolled down. It was the butler from the Blackwell family's estate.

"Ms. Avery, Mr. Blackwell would like you to come to the estate."

Nina felt a slight tremor run through her body. A bad feeling crept over her.

The car drove toward the century-old estate outside the city, the true center of Blackwell power.

The iron gates slowly opened, revealing rows of guards in black standing on both sides.

Edmund sat at the head seat, his expression grave.

Julian stood by the window, the gaze behind his gold-rimmed glasses impossible to read.

Julian's voice was low. "Nina, why did the other side set up an ambush in advance during yesterday's negotiation? They even knew our retreat route perfectly."

Nina froze, the color draining from her face. "You… you're asking me?"

He stepped closer, his tone icy. "Who else could it be but you?"

The words struck Nina like lightning, pain tearing through her chest.

He actually suspected she was the traitor.

"I didn't!" Her voice trembled. "You know I've never leaked a single one of your secrets in ten years. How could I possibly betray you?"

"But Aria almost died!" Fury burned in Julian's eyes. "If she hadn't dodged in time, that bullet would have gone straight through her head."

His voice turned glacial. "I didn't expect you to be this vicious."

Vicious?

Aria almost died?

But the one who had nearly died in the shootout and almost lost her life in the ICU after having her blood drawn was her.

Aria leaned against the doorway, her arm wrapped in bandages, tears shimmering in her eyes. "Julian… don't blame Nina. Maybe she just made a foolish mistake."

"A foolish mistake?" One of the elders sneered. "Colluding with enemies and putting Julian in danger is a grave crime. According to family rules, she should be thrown into the sea."

Voices immediately echoed around the room. "Yes! Throw her into the sea!"

Nina looked around the room and suddenly laughed.

She had treated his wounds countless times, yet now she was about to be executed as a traitor.

"Julian." She looked straight into his eyes. "If I told you I was innocent, would you believe me?"

Julian remained silent for three seconds, then slowly removed his glasses. "Family rules allow no mercy. Take her away. Throw her into the sea."

Two bodyguards stepped forward and grabbed her.

All the strength seemed to drain from Nina at once. She didn't even struggle. She only asked softly, "Ten years ago you said, 'As long as I'm here, no one will dare touch you.' What about now?"

Julian's voice remained utterly calm. "That promise was for someone loyal. Not for a traitor."

She was dragged out of the estate and thrown onto a speedboat.

The sea was pitch-black under the midnight sky, waves rising under fierce winds.

The bodyguards tied her hands behind her back, shackled an iron chain to her ankles, and pushed her to the edge of the boat.

The next second, she was shoved into the sea.

Freezing seawater swallowed her whole as the iron chain dragged her rapidly downward.

Saltwater flooded Nina's lungs, her chest bursting with pain as her consciousness quickly faded.

So this was her ending—silent and unseen, buried in the belly of the sea.

Just as she was about to stop struggling, the roar of an engine thundered in the distance.

A black speedboat cut through the waves. A man stood on the deck in a silver-gray suit, dark hair slightly curled, a reckless smile playing at the corner of his lips.

"Well, well. Isn't this Julian's doctor?" He raised his voice. "What happened? Your own boss toss you out here to feed the sharks?"

It was Damon Hale, heir to another major mafia family on the Eastridge Coast—and Julian's sworn enemy.

Nina had never had any personal grudge against him, but because of Julian she had never treated Damon kindly. Every time they met, the two of them clashed head-on.

Under normal circumstances, Nina would have snapped back immediately. But now she felt utterly hollow, and even Damon's mockery no longer meant anything to her.

The next moment, Damon plunged into the sea. He caught Nina's sinking body, unlocked the iron chain around her ankles, and hauled her back to the surface.

Nina spat out seawater and weakly opened her eyes to look at him. "Why… did you save me?"

Damon lifted her onto the boat and wrapped his coat around her. A crooked smile spread across his face. "Because you're valuable. And…"

He glanced toward the distant Blackwell speedboat. "I've been wanting to get under Julian's skin for a long time."

Back at the Hale estate, Nina burned with a relentless fever. Damon stayed by her bedside himself, feeding her medicine.

"Relax. You're under my protection now," he said with a faint chuckle. "If he doesn't want you, I do."

A few hours later, Nina lay in the hospital bed when her phone suddenly lit up.

It was a notification from the bank informing her that fifty million dollars had been deposited into her account from the Blackwell Trust. The note attached read that the contract had been terminated and the money was given as a gift of freedom.

She stared at the ceiling and suddenly laughed.

Damon pushed the door open, holding a cup of hot cocoa. "Awake? Stick with me from now on. I'll make sure you live well."

Nina took the cup and said softly, "Thank you."

"Don't hate Julian anymore?" Damon raised a brow.

She looked toward the dawn outside the window, her eyes calm as the deep sea. "Hate is exhausting. From now on, whether he lives or dies has nothing to do with me."