Pregnant and Spoiled by the Billionaire — Episode 26
Amelia reached the hospital still wearing Matilda’s birthday gown beneath Leo’s coat. The night had shifted from celebration to terror so quickly that the jewels at her throat felt obscene. Through the window of a guarded room, she saw her younger sister lying motionless beneath white sheets—and Sam sitting beside the bed as if he were a grieving father.
Leo kept one hand at Amelia’s back while Derek spoke with the officers. The preliminary report said Claire Gates had swallowed a dangerous quantity of prescription sedatives. A neighbor found her unconscious after hearing Sam shout for help, but no one could explain why he remained free despite the warrant connected to his extortion attempt.
“That’s my daughter in there,” Sam told the police when Amelia approached. His eyes were red, though she could not tell whether grief or alcohol caused it. “She tried to kill herself because Amelia abandoned us for a billionaire.”
The accusation struck exactly where he intended. Amelia pictured Claire begging her to solve their father’s debts and remembered ending the call when her sister called her heartless. Guilt moved faster than reason. “Did she leave a note?” she asked.
Sam said Claire had written that she could not survive without her family. He produced a folded page covered in uneven handwriting. Amelia recognized several phrases from childhood arguments, but the signature looked wrong—too slow and carefully copied.
Leo asked to see the paper. Sam pulled it away and accused him of destroying the Gates family by turning Amelia against her blood. He demanded privacy, insisting only relatives belonged beside Claire. Leo did not argue about belonging; he asked the officers to treat the note as evidence.
The attending physician allowed Amelia into the room after warning that Claire remained sedated but stable. Her stomach had been treated in time, and tests would identify the medication. Faint bruises marked Claire’s wrist, and dried tears clung to her lashes. Amelia sat beside the bed, holding a cold hand that had pushed hers away so often, unable to reconcile the cruel sister from their phone calls with the frightened girl beneath the blankets.
“I’m sorry,” Amelia whispered. “I should have found another way to protect you from him.” Saying it aloud exposed the habit Sam had built into both daughters: every consequence of his choices somehow became Amelia’s failure.
Leo remained at the doorway until she invited him closer. He checked the monitors without pretending to understand them and promised that Claire would receive whatever care she needed. Amelia heard no transaction in the offer. He was supporting someone she loved because he loved her.
Sam watched their joined hands with resentment. “You have enough money to fix this,” he said. “Two hundred thousand would clear everything. Claire wouldn’t have done this if those lenders weren’t threatening us.”
Amelia looked at him in disbelief. Her sister was unconscious, yet he was negotiating before the medication had left her blood. “You brought me here for money.” Sam claimed he was asking for the family, not himself, and reminded her that the lenders would return.
Leo refused to pay criminals through Sam. He offered to cooperate with police, secure Claire’s housing, and fund legitimate treatment under independent supervision. He would also provide attorneys to separate both sisters from every fraudulent obligation carrying Sam’s signature. Every solution protected the daughters while denying their father cash. Sam rejected all of them, revealing that safety had never been the outcome he wanted.
His anger confirmed what Amelia already suspected. “Where did the pills come from?” she asked. Sam said he found the bottle beside Claire, but Derek quietly pointed out that the prescription label had been peeled away. The toxicology screen later identified a sedative commonly dispensed to Sam after an old injury.
An officer stepped toward him. Sam insisted Claire stole the pills and accused Leo of manufacturing evidence. Before police could question him further, a nurse announced that Claire was waking. Her eyelids fluttered, and Amelia leaned close.
Claire struggled to focus. She recognized Amelia and began to cry. “You came,” she breathed. Amelia assured her that she was safe and that no debt mattered more than her life.
Sam moved to the opposite side of the bed. “Tell them what you did,” he ordered. The command made Claire recoil so violently that the heart monitor accelerated. Leo immediately placed himself between Sam and the patient.
The physician ordered everyone except Amelia out. Sam refused, claiming parental authority, until the doctor reminded him that Claire was nineteen and could choose her own visitors. With security approaching, he finally stepped into the corridor.
Alone with her sister, Amelia asked whether she had intended to die. Claire shook her head. Her lips trembled as she tried to form the truth, but terror kept pulling her gaze toward the door.
“He said the pills would make me sleep,” she whispered. “He said you’d come if you thought I was dying.” Amelia’s blood turned cold. Claire gripped her wrist and added that Sam had promised the hospital crisis would force Leo to pay the gambling debt.
Before Amelia could call the police back inside, the lights went out. Emergency power restored the monitors, but the electronic door lock released with a sharp click. Sam stepped from the darkness holding a syringe, seized Amelia around the throat, and pressed the needle against her abdomen. “Tell your billionaire to pay,” he snarled, “or this baby won’t survive the night.”
