Audriana backed up until her bare heels hit the cold, wet stone of the fountain. There was nowhere left to go.

"Get away from me, Eston," she ordered, her voice trembling despite her best efforts to keep it steady.

Eston laughed. It was an ugly, wet sound. He swung one crutch out and hooked the rubber-padded curve of it around her waist, yanking her off balance. As she stumbled toward him, his free hand shot out and grabbed her bare shoulder, his fingers digging painfully into her skin. "You think you're so smart, playing hard to get? You just wanted his money!"

Bile rose in Audriana's throat. She twisted her body violently, bringing her right hand up and smashing the heel of her shoe directly into Eston's chest.

Eston grunted in pain, but the alcohol numbed him. He ripped the shoe from her hand and flung it sideways. The heel skipped across the stone and plopped into the fountain water. He grabbed both of her wrists, pinning them against her sides.

He leaned down, trying to force his mouth onto hers. Audriana snapped her head to the side. His wet lips dragged across her cheek, leaving a trail of disgusting saliva.

Audriana brought her knee up, driving it hard into his stomach.

Eston's crutches clattered to the ground. His hands let go of her wrists. He collapsed forward, his palms barely catching the edge of the fountain to keep his face from smashing into the stone. He gasped for air, but one hand still clawed up, seizing her wrist again.

Audriana opened her mouth to scream.

Before a sound could escape her lips, a massive hand shot out from the darkness. Long, thick fingers wrapped around the back of Eston's collar.

With a terrifying surge of brute strength, the hand yanked Eston backward. He was ripped off his feet. His braced leg twisted at an unnatural angle and his crutches spun away as he crashed heavily onto the manicured grass.

Ellwood stepped into the moonlight. His face was a mask of pure, murderous fury. The air around him felt thick enough to choke on.

Audriana's legs gave out. She slid down the side of the fountain, her breathing erratic.

Ellwood closed the distance in two strides. He dropped to his knees and pulled her tightly against his chest. The familiar, clean scent of cedarwood hit her senses. The tension in her body snapped. Hot tears flooded her eyes, spilling down her cheeks.

Ellwood felt her shaking. The muscles in his arms bunched. He stripped off his suit jacket and wrapped it tightly around her bare shoulders.

Eston groaned, rolling onto his side. He looked up, squinting through the pain. "Uncle… she seduced me…"

Ellwood let go of Audriana. He stood up slowly. The sound of his leather shoes crushing the grass was the only noise in the garden.

He didn't say a word. He walked over to Eston, pulled his foot back, and kicked him squarely in the face.

The sickening crunch of bone breaking echoed loudly. Eston screamed, clutching his shattered nose as blood poured through his fingers.

Ellwood lifted his foot and pressed the sole of his shoe down hard on Eston's chest, pinning him to the dirt.

He leaned down. His voice was a demonic whisper. "You touch what is mine, and you die."

Eston sobbed, his body convulsing in terror. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Flashlight beams cut through the darkness. Three estate security guards ran over, freezing in horror when they saw the scene.

Ellwood slowly turned his head to look at them. "Drag this garbage to Frances's room. Tell her to leash her dog."

The guards nodded frantically, grabbing Eston by the arms and dragging him away into the shadows. One of them scooped up the abandoned crutches and hurried after the others.

The garden fell silent again.

Ellwood walked back to Audriana. He crouched down. He pulled a clean white handkerchief from his pocket. With rough but controlled movements, he wiped the side of her face where Eston had touched her. He rubbed the skin until it turned pink, erasing every trace of the other man.

He stopped, his dark eyes locking onto her red, tear-filled ones.

Audriana thought he was going to yell at her for causing a scene. Instead, he slid one arm under her knees and the other behind her back. He lifted her effortlessly into his arms.

She gasped, her hands instinctively grabbing his broad shoulders.

"We are going home," he muttered against her hair.

He carried her through a side gate, avoiding the main ballroom, and walked straight to a waiting black Lincoln parked in the rear driveway.

The driver opened the door. Ellwood placed her gently on the leather seat and climbed in beside her. The privacy partition immediately rolled up, sealing them in a quiet, dark box.

Audriana pulled his jacket tighter around herself. She looked at his sharp profile in the dim light. "Thank you," she whispered.

Ellwood didn't look at her. He picked up a bottle of water, opened it, and handed it to her. "You are my wife. Protecting you is my obligation."

The Lincoln glided into the underground parking garage of a hyper-luxury high-rise in Tribeca. The engine cut off, leaving a heavy silence in the car.

The driver opened the door. Ellwood stepped out. He looked back at Audriana, who was staring down at her bare, dirty feet, hesitating to step onto the concrete.

Without a word, Ellwood leaned in and scooped her up into his arms again.

Audriana's face flushed hot. "I can walk," she protested weakly, pushing lightly against his chest.

Ellwood's arms tightened around her, pressing her closer. "Stop moving," he commanded.

He carried her into the private elevator. He pressed his thumb against the biometric scanner, and the doors slid shut. The elevator shot up to the penthouse level.

The doors opened directly into a massive, open-concept living space. It was decorated in stark black, white, and gray. It looked like a museum—cold, expensive, and completely devoid of human warmth.

Ellwood set her down on a plush gray sofa. He walked away and returned a minute later with a white first-aid box.

He dropped to one knee in front of her. He gently took her right wrist. Angry purple bruises in the shape of Eston's fingers stained her pale skin. Ellwood's jaw clenched so hard a muscle ticked in his cheek.

He opened a tube of ointment and squeezed a cold drop onto her skin.

Audriana hissed sharply as the medicine stung.

Ellwood's movements instantly slowed. He lowered his head, blowing softly on the bruised skin as he rubbed the ointment in with extreme care. The harsh lines of his face softened in the dim light.

Audriana stared at his thick eyelashes. Her heart skipped a beat. A strange, warm feeling bloomed in her chest. She felt safe.

"Go take a shower," Ellwood said, standing up and closing the box. "The master bedroom is down the hall. There are clothes in the closet."

Audriana nodded. She walked down the long hallway and entered the master suite. The bathroom was the size of her old apartment. She stood under the scalding hot water until her skin turned red, scrubbing away the memory of Eston's touch.

When she stepped out, she opened the massive walk-in closet.

There were no women's clothes anywhere to be seen, only endless rows of dark, meticulously tailored men's suits and crisp dress shirts. She reached up and pulled down one of his heavy black silk dress shirts from a mahogany hanger. She slipped it over her head. The fabric was incredibly soft, but the hem fell past her mid-thigh, and the sleeves completely swallowed her hands. It was entirely too large, hanging off her slender frame, yet the fabric smelled intensely of cedarwood and him. The sheer size difference made her acutely aware of whose territory she was in.

She walked out into the bedroom.

Ellwood was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window. He wore a dark grey bathrobe. A cigarette burned between his fingers, the smoke curling around his face.

He heard her footsteps and turned around. His eyes swept over the silk shirt clinging to her curves. His gaze darkened, turning heavy and predatory.

Audriana crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling very exposed. "Should I sleep on the couch?"

Ellwood crushed the cigarette into an ashtray. He walked over, grabbed her by the shoulders, and gently pushed her down onto the massive king-sized bed. He pulled the heavy duvet over her legs.

"Sleep right here," he ordered, his voice a low, rough rumble that brooked no argument. "Do not leave this bed without my permission."

Audriana was too tired to argue. The moment her head hit the soft pillow, her brain shut down.

Hours later, she woke up gasping for air. A nightmare about her father flatlining had ripped her out of sleep. Cold sweat coated her forehead.

She opened her eyes in the dark.

Ellwood was lying next to her. He wasn't asleep. He was propped up on one elbow, staring down at her face.

The coldness in his eyes was completely gone. Instead, there was a look of agonizing, desperate longing. It was a look so intense it made Audriana's chest ache.

Before she could speak, Ellwood reached out. His cool fingertips brushed a damp strand of hair away from her forehead. He traced the line of her cheekbone, his touch feather-light, as if he were touching something fragile that might break.

He leaned down, burying his face in the crook of her neck. He inhaled deeply.

"Annie…" he whispered. The word was muffled against her skin.

Audriana didn't hear it clearly. The syllables blurred together against her collarbone, sounding like a fragmented nickname or perhaps just a garbled attempt to say her own name. She was entirely too exhausted to decipher it, assuming it was just a garbled attempt to say her own name. The sound tugged at something deep in her chest—a thread of warmth tangled with a faint, inexplicable unease—but exhaustion swallowed the thought whole before she could chase it down. She let go of the prickle of tension and wrapped her arms around his broad back, letting his warmth chase away the nightmare.

She fell back asleep in his arms, completely unaware of the tear that slipped from the corner of Ellwood's eye and soaked into her pillow.

When the morning sun hit her face, Audriana woke up. The bed beside her was empty. The sheets were cold.

The shrill ringing of the bedside phone shattered the morning silence.

Audriana bolted upright, her heart instantly hammering against her ribs. She snatched the phone from the nightstand.

"Audriana!" Her mother's voice was a hysterical shriek on the other end. "He's crashing! The doctors say that mass they found—it's cancer. It has spread. His organs are failing. They told me to say goodbye!"

The phone slipped from Audriana's fingers, hitting the carpet with a dull thud. Her brain short-circuited. The mass. The thing Dr. Finch had warned about. She had pushed it to the back of her mind, buried it under the chaos of the gala and the marriage and Eston's assault. And now it had come due. She threw the blankets off and sprinted out of the bedroom, her bare feet slapping against the hardwood floor.

She burst into the living room and collided hard with a solid wall of muscle.

Ellwood grabbed her arms to steady her. He was wearing black sweatpants and a grey t-shirt, sweat glistening on his neck from a morning run.

He saw her chalk-white face and the wild terror in her eyes. He dropped the towel he was holding. "What happened?"

"My dad," Audriana choked out, her lungs refusing to expand. "He's dying. The mass—it was cancer all along. It spread."

Ellwood's expression hardened into granite. He didn't waste a single second asking questions. He pulled his phone from his pocket and hit a speed dial number.

"Get the car out front. Now," he barked into the phone. He grabbed Audriana's hand and pulled her toward the private elevator.

Ten minutes later, the black Maybach was tearing through the streets of Manhattan, running three red lights. Ellwood sat next to Audriana, making rapid-fire calls. He was mobilizing the top oncologists and surgeons in the state, his voice a low, commanding whip that demanded impossible results.

The car screeched to a halt at the emergency entrance of the hospital.

The hospital director and three department heads were already standing outside, sweating profusely in the cold morning air.

Ellwood threw the car door open and pulled Audriana out. The director rushed forward, practically bowing. "Mr. Maxwell, the cancer has spread rapidly. A standard operation will kill him on the table."

Audriana's knees buckled.

Ellwood caught her by the waist, holding her upright. He glared at the director, his eyes burning with a terrifying intensity. "Then don't use a standard operation. Fix him."

They reached the ICU waiting area. Edythe was collapsed on a plastic chair, sobbing violently. When she saw Audriana, she lunged forward, wrapping her arms around her daughter's neck. "The sedatives wore off and they told me everything," Edythe sobbed into Audriana's shoulder. "I've been sitting here all night. I couldn't leave him." Audriana held her mother tightly, the guilt of abandoning her to this vigil slicing through her chest.

Ellwood stepped back, giving them space. He turned and walked directly into the doctors' conference room, slamming the door behind him.

Inside the room, Dr. Finch pointed to a brain scan. "There is an experimental targeted therapy. If we administer it during a high-risk bypass… he might survive. But the mortality rate is eighty percent. No one wants to take the liability."

Ellwood slammed his hand down on the conference table. The loud bang made all four doctors jump.

"I take the liability," Ellwood snarled, leaning over the table, projecting absolute dominance. "Use the experimental drug. Do the surgery. If he dies, I will personally ensure this hospital loses every dime of its research funding for the next decade. Do your jobs."

Ellwood's lead surgeon from the private team—a gray-haired man Audriana recognized from the first surgery—stepped forward from the corner of the room where he had been reviewing scans. "We have the protocol ready, Mr. Maxwell. But we need the hospital's full surgical infrastructure to execute it. That is why Director Chen is in the room." The hospital director swallowed hard, nodding. The doctors scrambled out of the room, yelling orders to the nurses.

Ellwood walked back out to the hallway. He held a clipboard with a surgical consent form. He handed it to Audriana. "Sign it. It's his only chance."

Audriana took the pen, but her hand was shaking so violently she couldn't grip the plastic.

Ellwood stepped behind her. He wrapped his large, warm hand over hers, his chest pressing against her back. He guided her hand, forcing the pen down, helping her trace her signature onto the paper.

Her hand stilled. The pen hovered over the page. She looked up at him, her eyes searching his face. "What aren't you telling me about this procedure?"

Ellwood's hand tightened over hers. "Sign it, Audriana."

"What aren't you telling me?" Her voice was barely a whisper, but it did not waver.

A muscle feathered in his jaw. For a long moment, he said nothing. Then: "The drug is not FDA-approved. If he survives, there will be legal exposure. I will handle it."

Her breath caught in her throat. She stared at the signature line. The weight of the risk pressed down on her chest—not just her father's life, but Ellwood's exposure, the company's fragility, everything. Then she pressed the pen down and signed.

The steady, rhythmic thumping of his heart against her back acted like a physical anchor. The panic in her chest slowly receded. She looked up at him, her eyes shining with desperate gratitude.

At some point during the long hours of the surgery—she could not remember exactly when—a nurse had approached her and silently handed her a pair of soft hospital slippers. Audriana had put them on without thinking, her bare feet numbed from the cold linoleum.

The surgery took five agonizing hours.

When the operating room doors finally swung open, Dr. Finch walked out. He looked like he had run a marathon, but he was smiling. "The tumor is out. The drug stabilized his vitals. He's going to make it."

Audriana let out a loud, broken gasp. She spun around and threw her arms around Ellwood's waist, burying her face into his chest. She cried, her tears soaking through his sweaty t-shirt.

Ellwood's body went completely rigid. For a long moment, his arms hovered in the air. Then, slowly, he lowered his hands and wrapped them around her back, pressing her closer.

Edythe wiped her eyes and walked over. She cleared her throat loudly.

Audriana jumped back, her face burning red. She quickly wiped her face, looking at the floor.

Ellwood didn't look embarrassed at all. He adjusted his shirt and looked at Edythe. He gave a polite, measured nod. "Mother-in-law."

Edythe froze. Her eyes darted from Ellwood's calm face to the massive diamond ring on Audriana's left hand. Her expression morphed from relief to absolute shock.

"I need to settle the hospital accounts," Ellwood said smoothly, stepping away. He gave Audriana a meaningful look. "I will leave you two to talk."

He walked down the hall, leaving Audriana to face the storm.

Edythe grabbed Audriana's arm and dragged her toward the empty stairwell.