Submit to Me, Gentlemen

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Chapter 5 ELLA'S POV

Vivian leaned against the doorframe, dressed in a fresh cream-colored trench coat, makeup flawless, looking as though she'd slept soundly and was full of energy.

She walked in, her heels clicking against the hospital floor tiles at an unhurried pace.

"You......"

"I'm here to pick up my son."

I thought I'd misheard her.

"What did you say?"

"I said," Vivian stopped and turned her head to look at me, enunciating every word, "from now on, Leo is my son."

My head began to buzz.

"You're insane."

"The insane one is you." Vivian raised a hand and brushed the loose strands of hair from her forehead. "Justin has already signed the temporary guardianship transfer documents. Do you know what a temporary guardianship transfer means? It means that legally speaking, Leo is now under my care."

She reached into her handbag, pulled out a folded piece of paper, and slapped it down on the bedside table.

"See for yourself if you don't believe me."

I didn't look at the paper.

I looked at Vivian's face while my stomach churned with bile.

Ten months of carrying him. Thirty-six hours of labor. A hemorrhage so severe after the birth that the doctor issued two critical condition notices.

Leo's first cry was something I'd bought with my life.

His first time rolling over, his first time calling me Mama, his first fever of forty degrees when I held him through an entire night in the emergency room — all of that was me.

And this woman standing before me — the woman who had nearly killed him by feeding him peanuts — was telling me Leo was her son?

I stepped up to face her, trembling all over. Not from fear. From rage.

"On what grounds? What right do you have to take my child?"

Vivian didn't flinch.

She looked me up and down with the kind of eyes one reserves for a stranger on the street — a gaze of complete contempt.

"Look at yourself."

She extended one finger and pointed at me.

"Covered in bruises, clothes wrinkled like a rag, face swollen and bruised — you look like you crawled out of a dumpster. Leo being seen with you in public would be an embarrassment to the Brennan family name."

She paused, then added:

"He needs a proper mother. A mother who can give him the best education, the best resources, the best environment."

She lifted her chin slightly.

"Someone like me."

I clenched my fists, nails digging into my palms.

It hurt.

But not as much as the grinding, displaced ache deep in my shin bone. Not as much as hitting the ground back-first after falling from the third floor.

I was about to speak when a voice came from behind me.

Small, thick with tears, hoarse with the weakness that follows surgery.

But every word was perfectly clear.

"You're the wicked one!"

I spun around.

Leo had woken up at some point without my noticing.

He had pulled free of the bodyguard's hold and pushed himself upright in bed, his small face flushed crimson, tears streaming down both cheeks, the IV line pulled taut from his struggling.

He was glaring at Vivian. A four-year-old child, not even twenty-four hours off the operating table — and yet the way he glared was more fierce and certain than anyone else in that hospital room.

"You're a bad woman! You're bullying my Mama!"

He sniffled, his voice shaking terribly, but he didn't stop.

"I won't let you talk about her like that!"

A sharp, burning sting hit the back of my nose, and my eyes flooded instantly.

In all my life, I could count on one hand the number of times someone had stood up for me.

Right now, the one standing up for me was a four-year-old boy with tubes running all over his body.

The smile on Vivian's face froze.

There were two things she could never stand: being humiliated in public, and being contradicted to her face. Leo had just done both at once.

She turned and fixed her eyes on Leo.

The way she looked at him... I knew that look all too well.

It was exactly the same look she had when she fed him the peanuts.

She raised her hand and reached toward Leo.

"Don't touch him!"

I moved to block her. Vivian's hand landed on my face instead.

A slap. Sharp and clean.

I turned my head with the impact, and felt my lip split open. I tasted blood.

She wasn't finished.

A kick to the back of my knee, and I went down. My kneecap struck the tile floor and my entire leg went numb.

She leaned over and gripped my chin in her fingers, hard enough that my jaw made a cracking sound.

"You love your son so much, do you?"

She dropped her voice low, just for me to hear.

"Good. Then I'll make you feel exactly what that love costs."

She let go and flicked her chin at the bodyguard.

The bodyguard walked to the bed and reached for Leo.

Leo fought with everything he had. His cries were sharp enough to pierce the stillness of the entire floor.

"Mama! Mama, I don't want to go! Mama......"

His small hands stretched toward me, all five fingers spread wide, reaching desperately, unable to reach.

The back of that little hand was still covered in medical tape, the IV line attached — and in his struggling, the needle had been pulled loose. A bead of blood welled from the puncture.

I lunged forward and grabbed Vivian's leg.

My knees ground against the floor, hot with pain. I pressed myself at her feet, my voice worn down to almost nothing.

"Please. Please don't hurt him."

"I'll do whatever you want."

"I'm kneeling before you."

Tears and blood mingled together, dropping one by one onto the floor.

Leo was sobbing so hard he couldn't catch his breath. The bodyguard held his shoulders down while he fought with his small body with everything he had, but he couldn't break free.

"Mama! Mama, don't kneel to her! Mama......"

I didn't dare look at him.

I was afraid that if I did, I wouldn't be able to hold on.

Vivian looked down at me, prostrate at her feet.

She looked for a long time.

Then she gently raised her foot and pushed me aside.

"Why couldn't you just do this from the start?"

She moved to kick again, but the older of the two bodyguards spoke up.

"Miss Weston, that's enough. If this goes on any further, it'll be difficult to explain to the hospital, and it won't sit well with Mr. Brennan either."

Vivian frowned, clearly unsatisfied, but she pulled her foot back.

"Take him."

The bodyguard lifted Leo from the bed.

I pressed against the floor trying to stand. Another bodyguard planted one hand on my shoulder — the same shoulder that had been injured in the fall.

The pain radiated from my shoulder down the entire length of my arm, and every last bit of my strength collapsed under that single hand.

I knelt on the floor and watched them carry my son toward the door.

Leo was draped over the bodyguard's shoulder, his face turned toward me, crying until his whole face was red, calling out Mama again and again.

Vivian paused at the doorway and turned back.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

Her voice was soft.

"This is Justin's decision. If you try anything, I can't guarantee nothing will happen to Leo."

The door closed.

Leo's crying came through the door in pieces, growing fainter and fainter, then swallowed entirely by the distance of the corridor.

I knelt in the empty hospital room. Something in my chest had gone hollow.

Not pain. Hollow.

Like someone had reached inside and scooped something out with their bare hands.

A few nurses passed in the corridor, slowing their steps, but not stopping.

I heard voices, low and hushed.

"...The Brennan family... don't get involved..."

"...That doctor who crossed them last time, they say he was transferred to..."

The voices drifted away.

I braced myself against the bed and stood. Every joint protested.

I wiped the blood and tears from my face and walked to the nurses' station, tapping on the counter.

The duty nurse looked up at me, hesitation in her expression.

"Could I borrow your phone? My phone is out of battery."

She paused for a few seconds, then pushed the desk phone toward me.

I dialed Justin's number.

My fingers shook so badly over the keypad that I misdialed twice. The third time, I got it right.

Four rings.

He picked up.

"What is it?"

His voice carried no emotion whatsoever.

I bit down on the already-raw skin inside my lip, drew a long breath, and forced my voice to hold steady.

"Justin, please — Leo cannot be left in Vivian's care."

Silence from the other end.

I kept going, words coming fast, because I didn't know when he might hang up.

"He's allergic to peanuts. Severely allergic. You know this. Vivian doesn't care about any of that. She doesn't even care what might kill him... she's already hurt him once. Trust me this one time. Just this once."

The last few words were nearly scraped out of my throat.

Silence from the other end. Several seconds of it.

Long seconds.

Then Justin spoke.

His tone was different from before. I couldn't quite say how — but I heard something in it.

"Are you telling me that Vivian gave Leo peanuts?"

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