Chapter 35 I BREAK THE RULES

Chapter 35 I BREAK THE RULES
I BREAK THE RULES
---------------------
I don’t scream.
I don’t cry.
I move.
The sound of the flatline is still slicing through the room when my body reacts before my mind can catch up. I shove the heir back with both hands, hard enough that he stumbles into the wall. The tablet slips from his fingers and skids across the floor.
“Get him away from her,” Elijah roars.
Security floods the room, weapons raised. The heir laughs as they grab him, a low calm sound that makes my skin crawl.
“Save him,” I shout at no one and everyone. “Do something.”
Doctors are already on Liam. Hands everywhere. Chest compressions. Defibrillator pads slapped into place. Someone calls out numbers. Someone else calls out drugs.
Clear.
The shock snaps his body off the bed.
I grip the railing so hard my knuckles go white. My vision tunnels. Everything narrows down to his face. His stillness.
“Again,” a doctor orders.
Clear.
Another shock.
Nothing.
My heart feels like it is being crushed slowly, deliberately. I force air into my lungs. I will not pass out. I will not miss this.
“Kenzie,” Elijah says behind me. His voice is strained. “Look at me.”
I don’t.
“Please,” he says.
Clear.
The third shock hits.
Liam’s body jerks. The machine whines.
Then—
A sound.
Not the steady rhythm yet. Just a stutter. A fragile attempt.
“Hold,” the doctor snaps.
Everyone freezes.
The line jumps again.
Once. Twice.
A rhythm starts to form.
It’s weak. Uneven. But it’s there.
“He’s back,” someone breathes.
My knees buckle.
I slide down the side of the bed and press my forehead to the mattress, shaking silently. Relief hurts almost as much as fear did.
I don’t realize I’m crying until warm drops hit my hands.
“He’s unstable,” the doctor says. “We need to move him. Now.”
“Go,” I say hoarsely. “I’ll follow.”
They rush him out again. The room empties fast, leaving only echoes and the smell of fear behind.
Except for one thing.
The heir.
He is still here. Restrained now. Calm. Watching me like this is all unfolding exactly as he planned.
I stand slowly.
Every part of me feels sharp. Wired. Awake in a way that scares me.
I walk toward him.
Elijah steps in front of me instantly. “Don’t.”
“Move,” I say.
“Kenzie—”
“I said move.”
Something in my voice makes him hesitate.
He steps aside.
I stop inches from the heir. He is taller up close. Colder. His eyes flick over my face, cataloging every crack.
“You lied,” I say.
He smiles faintly. “I adapted.”
My hand moves before I decide to do it.
The slap echoes.
His head snaps to the side. Blood beads at the corner of his mouth.
No one stops me.
“I trusted you,” I whisper. “I believed for half a second that you would keep your word.”
He slowly turns back to me, eyes bright with interest. “That was your mistake.”
I lean in. “You made one too.”
“Oh,” he says softly. “Did I.”
“Yes.”
I step back and nod at the guards. “Take him.”
Elijah stiffens. “Where.”
“Somewhere quiet,” I say. “Somewhere he can think.”
The heir laughs again. “You think this ends here.”
“I know it doesn’t,” I reply. “But it changes.”
They drag him out. His gaze stays locked on me until the door closes.
Only then do my legs start to shake.
Elijah grips my shoulders. “What were you thinking.”
“That I’m done playing by their rules,” I say. “All of them.”
He searches my face. “You almost went with him.”
“I almost lost Liam,” I correct. “That’s not the same thing.”
Silence stretches between us.
“He’s going to come back,” Elijah says. “Stronger. Smarter.”
“I know.”
“And Evelyn is still out there.”
“I know.”
“And you are still the key to whatever they’re building.”
I meet his eyes. “Then we stop running.”
He exhales slowly. “You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
He studies me for a long moment. Then he nods. “Then we prepare.”
I don’t answer. I’m already moving.
Liam’s new room is deeper in the facility. Fewer windows. More guards. Machines hum steadily as I slip inside.
He looks worse than before. Paler. Smaller. Tubes everywhere.
But he’s alive.
I sit beside him and take his hand again. This time I don’t let go.
“I stayed,” I whisper. “They didn’t take me. I chose you.”
His fingers twitch faintly.
I lean closer. “You have to keep fighting. I can’t do this alone.”
A tear slips down my cheek. I don’t wipe it away.
“I broke a lot of rules today,” I murmur. “And I’ll break more if I have to. For you.”
The door opens quietly behind me.
I don’t turn.
“Elijah,” I say.
“It’s not Elijah,” a woman replies.
My body goes cold.
I look up slowly.
The nurse from earlier stands in the doorway. Same uniform. Same gentle face.
But her eyes are wrong.
Empty.
She smiles.
“You should not have touched him,” she says.
My grip tightens on Liam’s hand.
“What are you,” I ask.
Her smile widens.
“A correction,” she says. “Sent to finish what the heir started.”
The lights flicker.
The machines stutter.
And I realize—
They never needed to take me.
They just needed to get close enough to him.