A few hours later, the atmosphere inside the mansion grew thick with a new, dangerous tension. Dorrent had been forced to leave the estate temporarily to rush down to his business headquarters to handle some urgent business matters that needed his personal signature. Since Doctor Damian hadn’t returned from his hospital emergency yet, Dorrent had left Jannah under the strict, watchful care of Shadron,with clear orders that nobody was to disturb her rest.

But the moment Dorrent’s black car pulled back into the driveway of the estate, his blood turned to ice.

He threw the door open, stepping out onto the concrete just as the main entrance of the house burst wide open. His eyes widened in fury. Walking down the steps was his mother, Himelda, her face a mask of determination. She was carrying Jannah’s weak, fragile body in her arms, holding her tightly against her designer coat as she marched aggressively toward her parked vehicle.

Shadron was rushing right behind her, his face pale with panic as he desperately tried to block her path without putting his hands on her

"Madam! Please, you must stop this right now!" Shadron pleaded frantically, his hands gesturing in the air as he tried to explain the situation. "Mr. Grefo hired this girl! She is here on a highly confidential assignment to treat Dorrent’s condition! You cannot just remove her from the premises!"

"Get out of my way, Shadron!" Himelda snapped back, her voice like a cracking whip as she ignored his warnings, her high heels clicking loudly against the steps. "I do not care what my foolish husband promised this girl! This creature should not breathe the same air as my son! She shouldn’t be in this house for another second, and I am purging her from our property right now!"

Jannah lay completely helpless in Himelda’s tight grip. Her body was still weak from the poison and the exhausting events of the morning. Her fractured right hand hung limply over Himelda’s shoulder, her pale lips trembling as she lacked even the basic physical energy to fight back or speak a single word. She was entirely at the mercy of the furious older woman, letting herself be carried out like a piece of unwanted baggage.

Before Himelda could reach the open door of her car, a towering shadow blocked the sun.

Dorrent lunged forward, his face completely distorted with a murderous rage as he planted his frame in front of his mother, stopping her dead in her tracks. His silver eyes were burning with a terrifying fire, his chest heaving up and down as his presence exploded across the driveway.

Himelda stopped, her jaw clenching as she glared up at her towering son. "What do you think you are doing, Dorrent? Get away from my path right now and let me go! Move!"

"Where the hell do you think you are taking my herbalist, Mother?!" Dorrent roared, his deep voice booming across the entire estate. He stepped closer, his knuckles turning white as he clenched his fists, his eyes locking onto Jannah’s pale face. "What have you done to her body?! Why are you touching what belongs to me?!"

"I will explain everything to you later, Dorrent!" Himelda shouted back, her voice shaking with panic as she held Jannah tighter against her chest. "But right now, you need to trust me. First and foremost, I have to take this dangerous girl away from here! She cannot stay under your roof!"

"She is not going anywhere with you!" Dorrent hissed through his teeth, his voice dropping into register that shook with an unbending authority. "Put her down right now, Mother! Jannah is sick! She is weak, her rib is broken, and she has no one else on this earth to take care of her since her old grandfather is currently sitting in a charity hospital bed suffering from severe amnesia! She stays here, with me!"

"I don’t care about her grandfather, and I don’t care about her health!" Himelda screamed, her eyes flashing with a desperate terror as she thought about Jannah’s bloodline. "If she needs medical attention, I will find someone else to take care of her in a remote district! I will pay for a private clinic anywhere else, but she is leaving this sector today! Get away from the car, Dorrent!"

Dorrent took one massive step forward, his chest practically brushing against his mother’s shoulder as he loomed over her like a vengeful god. The intensity of his gaze was enough to make the seasoned security guards back away in horror.

"You will have to kill me first, Mother," Dorrent delivered with a terrifying calmness. "You will have to end my life before you get that girl into the back of that car and drive her away from my sight. Try it."

Himelda’s face turned a furious crimson, her breathing turning frantic as she stared at her son’s unhinged obsession. "Are you completely insane, Dorrent?! What has this girl from the gutters done to your head?! Look at yourself! You are threatening your own mother over a penniless nobody! You need to snap out of this madness right now, forget about her, and let me throw her back into the dirt where she belongs! She is nothing but a common slum born!"

Dorrent let out a bitter laugh, his silver eyes swamped with a sudden pride. He was tired of playing games, tired of wearing a polite family mask, and tired of hiding the truth from his parents. He leaned down, his face just inches from his mother’s as he delivered the final, mind-shattering truth that Himelda in shock

"Because it is only this girl from the gutters that can make me feel like a real man, Mother!" Dorrent roared out, his final words hanging in the quiet morning air like a blade. "My body functions like a man only because of her presence! Her touch is the only thing that cures my dead manhood, and I am never going to let you or anyone else on this earth take her away from me!"