chapter 172

chapter 172
Sebastian's POV:
Mia's scream shattered the tense silence.
She launched herself at me, her manicured nails aimed at my face. "Let him go! That's my brother! Let him go!"
I caught her wrist without looking, my eyes never leaving John's. The bones ground together under my grip, and she dropped to her knees with a sob.
"Papa, please," she gasped, tears streaming down her face. "Just do what he says. Please!"
John's gaze darted between his children—Ethan's limp form in my grasp, Mia crumpled at my feet. I could see the calculations flickering behind his eyes, the desperate arithmetic of a man realizing he'd overplayed his hand.
"Make your choice, John," I said softly, giving Ethan's throat another measured squeeze. "The lady or your son. You have five seconds."
Rage flooded John's eyes, his knuckles white around the knife handle. "You bastard—"
"Four seconds."
"Papa, stop!" Mia's voice cracked as she struggled to her feet, mascara streaming down her cheeks. "Are you really going to let our family be destroyed for her? For Scarlett?" Her voice rose to a near-shriek. "She's just a replacement! A substitute for Mom!"
John's hand trembled. "Mia, you don't understand—"
"Mom would never forgive you if she saw Ethan hurt because of this!" Mia's words came out in a desperate rush. "She would be horrified to see what you've become, what you're willing to sacrifice for someone who ISN'T EVEN HER!"
The words hit John like physical blows.
I watched his face change, the rage flickering and dying as his daughter's words sank in. His grip on the knife began to loosen, his hand shaking not with fury now but with something else—doubt, perhaps, or the first stirrings of recognition.
"Mom loved us," Mia continued, her voice breaking. "If anything happens to Ethan—if you let him get hurt—Mom would never forgive you. "
John's face had gone pale, his eyes distant as if seeing something beyond this room. His hand went slack. The knife clattered to the floor.
Victoria seized the moment, darting away from John. Within seconds, she was behind me, her breathing rapid but controlled.
From the corner of the room, Scarlett's voice erupted in disbelief. "Mia!" She struggled to sit up in her hospital bed, her face contorting with shock and hurt. "How can you say that? Have I not been your family all these years?"
She stared at Mia with wounded eyes, her voice cracking. "Have I meant nothing to you? Am I not your mother?"
Mia turned her head away, refusing to meet Scarlett's gaze.
Scarlett's attention snapped to John, desperation bleeding into her voice. "John, tell her! Tell her you love me. That this is real, that we're a real family!"
John stood frozen, his shoulders sagging. "I... I don't know anymore." The admission came out hollow, broken. " I can't tell the difference anymore, Scarlett. I don't know what's real."
Scarlett's gaze fell to the knife on the floor, and something in her expression shifted from desperate to utterly hopeless. The light in her eyes dimmed as the full weight of his words crashed over her.
I released Ethan, letting him crumple to the floor, where Mia immediately pulled him against her.
"I gave you a chance," I said, my voice cutting through the heavy silence. "You should have taken it and left when you could. "
John looked at his children—Ethan gasping for breath, bruised and bloodied, Mia holding him protectively—then turned to face me. Something fundamental had shifted in his expression. The obsessive fire was gone, replaced by the hollow look of a man seeing clearly for the first time in decades.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. To me, to Victoria, perhaps even to his children.
Then, louder, with the decisive tone of a man making a final pronouncement: "Scarlett is no longer Mrs. Smith. The Smith family will leave St. Valen immediately."
His gaze swept the room one last time. "We won't be back."
Both Scarlett and the siblings stared in disbelief. Mia's mouth fell open, while Ethan, despite his injuries, looked up at his father with shocked eyes.
"You can't do this to me!" Scarlett's voice rose to a shriek, her carefully maintained composure finally shattering. "John! You can't just leave me here! After everything—"
But John had already turned away, his silence more final than any words. He helped Mia to her feet, then supported Ethan on his other side, the three of them moving toward the door like survivors fleeing a wreckage.
"Do what you want with her," John said without looking back at me. "I won't interfere anymore."
The door closed behind them with a soft click that seemed to echo in the sudden silence.
Victoria stepped out from behind me. "What will you do with her?" she asked quietly, glancing at Scarlett, who sat frozen in her bed, staring at the closed door.
"Nothing." I pocketed my phone, and the hunt called off as suddenly as it had begun. "Let her rot in whatever hell she's made for herself. Without John's money, without his protection..." I shrugged. "Natural selection will take its course."
As if on cue, a young doctor knocked and entered, clutching a clipboard with barely contained excitement.
"Mrs. Smith? Wonderful news! We've found a match through the international registry. The donor is willing and—"
He paused, taking in the scene—the blood on the walls, Victoria's injured neck, my cold expression. "Is... is everything alright?"
"Found one..." Scarlett murmured in a daze, as if not quite believing it.
The doctor nodded eagerly. "Yes! The tissue compatibility is excellent. As for the cost, including the procedure and post-operative care, we're looking at approximately two million dollars. If you're ready to proceed, we can schedule the surgery as soon as—"
Scarlett suddenly burst into laughter—harsh, bitter sounds that made the doctor step back in alarm.
The irony of it all seemed to crash over her at once. If this news had come just a few hours earlier, everything would have been different. But now? Now Smith had abandoned her, and she didn't have two cents to rub together, let alone two million dollars.
Her wild eyes found mine. "Are you satisfied now?" she asked, her laughter dying into something raw and broken. "Is this what you wanted?"
I met her gaze with cold indifference. "Everything that's happening to you is of your own making, Scarlett. You have no one to blame but yourself."
With that, I turned and guided Victoria out of the room, leaving Scarlett alone with her perfectly timed miracle and no way to grasp it.