Chapter 39: Would you like to visit her again?

Lilith sat with her mother in silence for a long time. Just holding her hand. Just being in the same room. Just existing as a daughter who hadn’t completely fallen apart yet.

The afternoon light shifted through the window. Outside, Shadowmere pack territory carried on without them. Warriors trained. pack members worked. Life moved forward for everyone except the two women in this hospital room.

A knock came at the door.

Dr. Reeves entered, older woman, kind eyes, the hospital’s chief medical officer. She’d been kind the last time Lilith saw her, back when everything was falling apart.

She was still kind.

"Lilith," She said, nodding to her. "I’m glad you got to come. How are you holding up?"

She didn’t answer directly. Instead, she asked: "How is she really? Not the version you tell other visitors. The truth."

Dr. Reeves sat down. The fact that she sat down, that she took time, meant something.

"Stable," he said. "Her body is strong. Stronger than I expected, honestly. The first week, I wasn’t sure she’d make it. But Cassandra is a fighter. She’s holding on."

"But she’s not waking up."

"No." She was quiet for a moment. "Mate bond rupture is... it’s a particular kind of trauma. The body survives but the mind sometimes needs more time to catch up. The psychological component is significant."

Lilith understood. Her mother’s mate bond had been shattered when her father died.

"Will she wake up?" Lilith asked.

"I believe she will," Dr. Reeves said. And she could hear the certainty in her voice. "Her vitals are improving. Week by week, she’s getting stronger. She’s stabilizing. I don’t have a timeline, but I believe your mother will wake up."

She paused.

"The care here has been comprehensive," she added carefully. "The Blackwoods’ arrangements are... generous. I won’t pretend that doesn’t matter. The facilities, the attention, the technology....Cassandra is receiving care that most packs couldn’t provide."

Lilith understood what she was saying underneath the words. The Blackwoods had paid for excellent care. The Blackwoods were keeping their agreement. And now Lilith owed them for that. Now she understood exactly how much she owed them.

"Thank you," she said. "For taking care of her."

"Of course." She stood. "You should have more time. The visit is scheduled until five o’clock. I’ll be here if you need me."

She left her alone with her mother again.

***

Hours later, Lilith was still holding her mother’s hand.

Sometimes she talked. Sometimes she was silent. She traced the veins on her mother’s wrist. She looked at her face, so peaceful in unconsciousness, so broken by loss.

"Wake up, Mom," she whispered as the light began to change. "Not right now if you’re not ready. But soon. Because I have things to tell you and most of them I can’t say to anyone else. And I’m running out of room to hold them all by myself."

At 4:55 PM, the driver came to collect her.

Lilith kissed her mother’s forehead, squeezed her hand one last time, and walked out of Room 304 carrying the weight of everything she hadn’t said.

The drive back took four hours.

But this time, Lilith didn’t look out the window at the landmarks. This time, she stared straight ahead and rebuilt herself completely.

By the time the Blackwood estate came into view, she was composed. Professional. Ready.

The driver escorted her inside, and she found all three brothers in the main sitting room. Nicholas by the windows, Sebastian in one of the leather chairs, Lucian leaning against the far wall. They turned to look at her as she entered, and she could see the hunger in their eyes.

Hunger to know. Hunger to hear. Hunger to understand what she’d learned today.

"Sit," Nicholas commanded.

She sat down on the chair facing all of them.

"Tell us about Cassandra," he said. "Everything. What you saw . What the doctors said. What she looked like. I want all of it."

So Lilith told them. She reported facts with precision. Her mother was stable. Her vitals were improving. Dr. Reeves believed she would wake up, though there was no timeline. The care at the hospital was excellent. The Blackwoods’ arrangements were being honored.

She delivered it all like a report. Clinical. Controlled.

Nicholas listened without expression. Sebastian watched her face. Lucian’s golden eyes tracked every movement she made.

When she finished, there was a long silence.

Then Nicholas moved from the window toward her. He stopped directly in front of where she sat.

"Would you like to visit her again?" he asked quietly.

The question landed like a trap snapping shut.

She understood immediately. This was never a gift. This was bait. They’d shown her that her mother was alive, that her mother was being cared for, that her mother had a chance to wake up. And now Lilith would do anything to see her again.

"Yes," Lilith whispered. "Please. I will do anything."

Sebastian smiled. It was a smile of complete satisfaction. Complete understanding.

"Of course you will," he said. His voice was soft but it carried the weight of inevitability. "Of course you’ll do everything we ask. Everything we want. Everything we demand. You don’t exactly have a choice anymore, do you?"

He was right.

She didn’t.

***

Back in her room, Lilith leaned against the closed door and felt the full weight of understanding crash over her.

They had what they needed now. Not her body, they’d had that from day one. They’d had that the moment she signed the contract.

They had her mother.

And that was infinitely more dangerous.

Lilith could survive degradation. Could survive pain. Could survive being used.

But she could not survive the thought of her mother suffering. Could not survive losing her mother. Could not survive a world where her mother woke up only to find her daughter destroyed.

She was completely theirs. Not because of a contract or a debt or the thirty-day agreement.

She was completely theirs because she loved her mother more than she loved herself.

And the Blackwoods knew it.

She went to the wall where her marks were. Looked at the eight lines counting down from the first week.

She didn’t draw a ninth line.

The rules had changed. The countdown had become meaningless. Time wasn’t measured in days until freedom anymore. Time was measured in visits to her mother. In negotiations. In what she was willing to give up to keep her mother alive.

The brothers had just shown her the cruelest truth of all.

There was no end date to her servitude.

There was only the slowly tightening noose of her own love.