Chapter 165

Chapter 165

Elizabeth reached out, trying to hold Elara's thin hand, but her fingertips passed right through.

As a spirit, Elizabeth couldn't touch anything.

Elara looked at Elizabeth with heartbreak in her eyes, her lips moving as if she had so much to say.

The heart monitor let out sharp beeps—things were looking bad.

"Mom, don't get worked up. Take it slow, I'm right here." Elizabeth tried to comfort her, her body flickering slightly with the emotional turmoil.

"Elizabeth..." Elara's voice was weak. "Mr. Moore is a good man. You need to live well."

Elizabeth's tears fell into the void as she choked out, "Mom, I know. He's the one who loves me most in this world."

"With him protecting you, I can rest easy."

"Mom, don't go." Elizabeth kept calling out, her voice full of pleading.

Elizabeth tried to hug Elara, but her body passed through again, touching only cold air.

Elara raised her hand, gently touching Elizabeth's hair, her eyes full of reluctance. "Elizabeth, don't cry. Be safe and happy from now on."

After saying this, Elara closed her eyes with a slight smile on her lips.

Elizabeth knelt by the bed, trying to grab Elara's cooling hand, but kept passing through it again and again.

Roy rushed into the room with nurses. After confirming the time of death, he began handling what came next.

Matthew stood in place, his face dark, his jawline tense.

Matthew couldn't see Elizabeth—he just stared at the old woman on the bed who had stopped breathing.

Elizabeth watched Roy pull the white sheet over Elara's body and reached out to stop him. "Don't touch her, my mom hasn't left yet."

But no one in the room could hear or see Elizabeth's voice and tears.

Matthew stood silently and said in a low voice, "Arrange the funeral. Top tier."

"Yes, Mr. Moore," his subordinate replied respectfully.

"Liars... all liars..." Elizabeth cried, shaking all over. "Mom, I'm sorry. I came too late. I didn't get to repay you..."

In the hospital room, the ceiling lights flickered with a "zzt," and the heavy curtains moved without any wind.

Elizabeth's spirit began to convulse, as if countless invisible hands were pulling her in all directions.

The edges of her transparent body gradually scattered into specks of light, about to disappear completely.

"Mom..."

She lunged forward with all her strength. Her fingertips just touched the white cloth when a huge suction force came from beneath her feet.

Everything spun. Her consciousness was swept into darkness.

At Serena's Haven, chaos reigned.

In the top-floor master bedroom, sunlight streamed through bulletproof glass onto the soft Persian carpet.

On the large bed, Elizabeth, who had been unconscious for so long, suddenly arched her back.

"Beep—beep—beep beep beep beep!" The vital signs monitor suddenly let out a piercing alarm.

The woman on the bed convulsed violently.

Her eyes were tightly shut, large beads of cold sweat rolling down her forehead, quickly soaking the pillowcase. Her full-term belly was contracting rapidly.

The medical team waiting outside heard the alarm and immediately rushed in, panicking.

Roy lunged to the bedside, his eyes bloodshot, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Check blood pressure! Check fetal heartbeat!"

The nurse beside him was shaking.

She pressed the probe onto Elizabeth's belly. The numbers on the screen made her face turn pale.

"Dr. Murphy... fetal heart rate dropped to seventy and still falling!"

"Mother's heart rate is one-sixty, she;s in distressed! Contractions less than a minute apart!"

Roy threw back the covers—the sheets were already stained red with blood.

"Placental abruption, water broke!" He immediately ordered, "Get the gurney, take her to the OR! Prep for C-section, the baby's suffocating!"

Several nurses rushed forward, clumsily moving Elizabeth onto the gurney.

In the hallway, the gurney wheels made a harsh rolling sound.

John stood guard at the operating room door with bodyguards. When he saw Elizabeth covered in blood on the gurney, his legs went weak and he nearly collapsed.

If something happened to Elizabeth and the baby, then Matthew...

Could Matthew even survive this?

The heavy metal doors slammed shut with a "bang," and the red "Surgery in Progress" light came on.

John fumbled for his phone with trembling hands.

It took him three tries to pull it out.

He pressed that familiar number. During the three seconds waiting for it to connect, John felt like a century had passed.

At the nursing home hospital room.

Matthew still stood there rigidly.

Subordinates were handling Elara's body. The room was terrifyingly quiet.

The man's face was hidden in shadow, his aura making everyone struggle to breathe.

No one noticed his eyes were already red.

Just then, a vibration in his pocket broke the silence.

Matthew pulled out his phone. Seeing "John" on the screen, he answered immediately.

"Speak."

On the other end, John's voice was tearful and shaking badly.

"Mr. Moore... Ms. Winters is going into labor!"

"Severe hemorrhaging, she's been rushed into the OR!"

Matthew's mind went blank with a buzz.

His tall body swayed. The phone case cracked under his grip.

Elara had just passed away, and now Elizabeth's life was in danger.

"Helicopter." Matthew's eyes instantly turned bloodshot as he barked, "Get the rooftop helicopter ready now. I need to leave in three minutes!"

His subordinates jumped and rushed out to make arrangements.

On the rooftop helipad, the rotors whipped up fierce winds that made it hard to open your eyes.

Matthew stepped into the cabin in one stride. Before the door even closed, he shouted, "Take off! Full speed back!"

The pilot pushed the control stick all the way forward. The helicopter tore through the clouds, flying toward Serena's Haven.

The cabin pressure was low. Matthew stared out the window.

This fierce man was now hunched over, his lips moving rapidly.

He was praying.

As long as his Elizabeth could survive, he'd give his own life.

"Elizabeth... wait for me... please, wait for me."

A tear slid from the corner of his eye and hit the back of his hand.

At Serena's Haven, in the sterile operating room.

The surgical lights were blindingly white. The sound of instruments clanging made your scalp tingle.

"I'll take the lead!" Roy was drenched in sweat, nurses constantly wiping it away.

Elizabeth's abdomen had been cut open, blood flowing down the sterile drapes.

"Blood pressure still dropping! Systolic sixty, diastolic forty!" The anesthesiologist stared at the screen, his voice changed. "Mother's heart is fibrillating!"

"Push epi! Get blood ready! One liter, pressure infuse!"

Roy's hands worked inside the abdominal cavity, his eyes fixed on the cut uterus.

"Placental separation area is too large, the baby's stuck. Get me the forceps!"

Cold metal forceps went in. Everyone held their breath.

The fetal heartbeat on the monitor was already very weak.

"One, two, three—out!"

With Roy's shout, a baby covered in purple bruises was pulled out.

No sound.

The baby was limp, completely unresponsive.