Shattered Vows: Call Me Auntie Now novel Chapter 25

Quinn stared at Dante's ghastly pale, furious face.

This was an acute gastric attack. With him in this much agony, if he didn't get to a hospital soon, it was only going to get worse.

His mother was an absolute nightmare to deal with, and their divorce was finalized in just three days. Quinn didn't want to drag the older woman into this mess right at the finish line and cause more headaches.

Pulling out her phone, she dialed 911 immediately, giving the dispatcher the villa's address and detailing his symptoms.

Next, she scrolled through her contacts and called Dante's assistant.

The assistant picked up quickly, his voice thick with sleep. Quinn cut right to the chase.

"Get to Belvedere Gardens immediately. Mr. Hayes is having a severe stomach attack, and it doesn't look good. The ambulance is on its way."

The assistant snapped fully awake in an instant, quickly agreeing before rushing to his car.

Barely ten minutes later, the wail of sirens pierced the quiet night, and paramedics rushed into the study with a stretcher.

After a rapid assessment, they prepared to lift him onto the stretcher.

The prolonged, agonizing pain had completely drained Dante's strength, and his consciousness was starting to blur.

Yet, the moment they lifted him up and carried him past Quinn.

His unfocused eyes suddenly snapped into absolute clarity. He reached out blindly, his hand locking onto her wrist in a vice grip.

His grip was brutally tight, radiating a frantic, almost unhinged mix of dominance and terrifying vulnerability.

It was a look Quinn had never seen on him before.

Dante, before the age of eighteen.

Back then, he had shielded her from the world, blocking out all the darkness and torment the Yates family had tried to crush her with.

The teenage boy had been fiercely protective and warm, keeping her safe at all costs.

But during those two years, from eighteen to twenty, everything had catastrophically collapsed.

Vivienne had wormed her way into his heart, and from that point on, the way he looked at Quinn was strictly guarded and hollow.

But the last three years of their frozen, desolate marriage—his endless nights away from home, Vivienne's aggressive provocations, his absolute apathy toward her pain, and his total absence in their son's life...

All those icy memories crashed over her like an avalanche, brutally extinguishing whatever fleeting flicker of sympathy had just surfaced in her heart.

She violently yanked her hand back. "It's late. Leo is asleep and needs someone here. I won't be going with you to the hospital."

She simply turned to the assistant. "Stay with Mr. Hayes. Call me if anything major happens."

Realizing that someone would need to be at his bedside to play nursemaid, she knew exactly who would be far better suited for the job than his assistant.

She fired off a text message to Vivienne.

[Dante's having an acute stomach attack. The ambulance is taking him to Lorne International Medical Center. You should go take care of him.]

As the silence finally settled back over the villa, Quinn looked at Raymond. "It's only 3 AM. You can still get a few hours of sleep. Go back down."

With that, she turned around and went back to her bedroom.

Raymond turned and headed downstairs, returning to his own room for the night.