Chapter 8 #3
She stirred under the blanket, her brows knitting together as the sharp sound cut through the silence of the dark room.
Groaning softly, she blindly reached toward the table, her fingers fumbling around until they found the vibrating phone.
Without even looking at the screen, she picked up the call and pressed the phone to her ear, her voice thick with sleep.
“Hello…?” she mumbled sleepily.
A tense voice immediately came from the other side.
“Amara, where are you right now?” Elias’s voice rang in her ear, rushed and uneasy.
The moment she heard Elias’s voice, her sleep faded. Her eyes opened, irritation flashing across her face as she pushed herself halfway upright against the headboard.
“What do you think I’d be doing in the middle of the night, Elias?” she muttered, rubbing a hand over her face in frustration. “I was sleeping.”
With an annoyed sigh, she pulled the phone away, ready to hang up, but before she could end the call, Elias’s deep voice came again, sharper this time.
“Don’t hang up. It’s a life and death situation.”
Something in his tone made her pause.
Amara pressed the phone back against her ear, her brows furrowing slightly. “What’s going on?”
“I need you,” Elias said, his tone unusually serious. “Come to the Madison Hotel on West 57th immediately.”
“My family’s hotel?” she asked in confusion.
“Yes. Get here as soon as possible. I’m waiting.”
Before she could say anything else, the line suddenly went dead.
Amara stared at the phone for a second, disbelief flickering across her face.
Then she exhaled sharply and dropped it onto the bedside table.
“Unbelievable…” she muttered under her breath.
Within minutes, she climbed out of bed and rushed out of the house, not even bothering to change out of her sleeveless yellow satin nightgown that fell to her knees.
An hour later, her car pulled up at the entrance of the Madison Hotel.
As soon as she stepped out, the cold night air brushed against her skin. Her heels clicked sharply against the pavement as her gaze lifted toward the entrance.
A familiar cherry red Rolls-Royce was parked a few feet away.
Elias was pacing beside it while speaking on the phone in a tense, clipped voice, one hand resting on his waist while the other held the phone tightly against his ear.
He was dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit, the sharp lines of it emphasizing his broad shoulders and commanding presence. Over it, a long black overcoat hung open, moving slightly with each controlled step he took, the fabric catching faint traces of the night wind.
But he wasn’t alone.
Bianca stood right beside him in a deep red bodycon dress, the neckline daringly low and the hem cut high on her thigh, designed to draw attention with every small movement she made.
The moment Amara saw her, her face instantly changed from concerned to pissed off.
Her lips pressed into a thin line as she slowed her steps.
“Of course she’s here,” she muttered under her breath as she walked toward them. “It’s like she gets summoned every time he breathes. I’ve seen less clingy magnets.”
With a faint eye roll, she walked straight toward them.
The moment Elias saw her approaching, he immediately ended the call and turned toward her.
“Amara,” he said quickly, relief flickering across his face.
A faint smile even started to form.
But Amara didn’t return it.
She stopped right in front of him, arms loosely folded, eyes sharp.
“Don’t tell me you dragged me all the way here just so I could personally arrange a room for the two of you to spend a very romantic night together in bed,” she said dryly.
Elias’s expression stiffened instantly.
His eyes followed her glance—and landed on Bianca.
Only then did he seem to fully register how it looked.
“What the hell goes through your brain?” he said sharply.
The mere suggestion clearly disgusted him.
“There is nothing between her and me.”
He looked at Amara as though she had completely lost her mind.
Amara merely rolled her eyes and let out a slow breath.
“I’m literally standing here in my nightgown, Elias,” she said tiredly. “Why did you ask me to come here?”
That was when his attention finally dropped to what she was wearing.
The thin yellow satin clung softly to her figure, the sleeveless gown leaving her legs exposed while the low neckline revealed far more than he was comfortable letting anyone else see.
His expression immediately tightened.
The next second, he urgently shrugged off his own coat and stepped toward her.
Before she could even react, he draped it over her shoulders and adjusted it properly around her, making sure she was covered.
His fingers briefly brushed against her arms as he adjusted it around her, his jaw clenching.
“Why did you come out like this?” he said, voice lower now, tense. “It’s freezing outside.”
Amara looked up at him incredulously.
“You said it was a life-and-death situation,” she shot back. “What did you expect? That I’d take my sweet time getting dressed?”
Elias still didn’t look satisfied, but he let out a frustrated breath and ran a hand through his hair before looking at her seriously again.
“Let’s get you back home soon then,” he said, stepping back slightly. His voice dropped into something more controlled, more businesslike. “This hotel… it belongs to your family, right?”
Amara gave the massive five-star property a brief glance, her eyes traveling up the towering glass building before she slowly turned back toward Elias.
The cold wind brushed against her hair, making a few strands fall across her face as she folded her arms tighter over his coat wrapped around her shoulders.
“Yes,” she said simply. “Why do you ask? You want a discount?”
A look of exasperation crossed Elias’s face.
He let out a sharp breath and took a step closer to her, lowering his voice slightly as if trying to force himself to stay calm despite the urgency written all over his face. His brows were tightly drawn together, and the tension in his jaw was obvious even under the hotel lights.
“I need you to approve an emergency helicopter landing on the hotel helipad for a patient,” he said.
Amara blinked at him, confusion immediately appearing in her eyes.
“Emergency landing?”
Elias nodded quickly. One hand pushed back through his hair while the other rested on his waist impatiently. He looked exhausted and restless, as though he had been dealing with this situation for hours.
“There’s a patient in critical condition,” he explained. “We need to transfer them to a hospital immediately, but the hospital doesn’t have a helipad, and getting permission to land anywhere else is taking too long.”
As he spoke, he glanced briefly toward his phone before looking back at her again, his expression growing even more tense.
“This is the closest location to the hospital with a helipad.”
He extended a paper toward her.
Amara’s eyes dropped to it. The paper fluttered slightly in the night breeze before she took it from his hand. Her fingers adjusted the sheet as she scanned the header—patient details, hospital transfer authorization, and helipad landing approval.
Her gaze moved quickly across the lines, not lingering long enough to absorb every detail. The urgency in the situation was already clear.
Without hesitation, she flipped to the signature line, bent slightly at the waist, and signed with a quick, controlled stroke of her pen. Then she straightened, exhaling softly, and handed it back to him.
Elias took it immediately.
His fingers tightened around the paper as he pulled out his phone with the other hand. In one swift motion, he snapped a photo of the signed document, his thumb moving quickly across the screen as he sent it off.
“Here!” he called sharply toward the hotel entrance.
A staff member who had been standing near the doors jolted into motion. He rushed forward, shoulders slightly hunched in urgency, and took the document from Elias with both hands.
“Got it, sir,” the man said quickly before turning and hurrying back inside.
For a second, there was only the distant hum of the city.
Then—
A deep, rising roar cut through the night.
The sound of helicopter blades spinning grew louder and sharper, slicing through the air above them.
Amara lifted her head immediately.
Within seconds, the sound deepened into a loud, spinning thrum. A helicopter came into view, cutting through the night sky before descending toward the hotel’s helipad. The downdraft whipped her hair back from her face, and she instinctively raised a hand to shield her eyes while watching it land.
She turned her head toward Elias, confusion forming in her expression.
“Who is the patient?” she asked.
Elias didn’t answer right away.
He was looking down at his phone again, fingers moving quickly across the screen, typing something urgently. His jaw was tight, his attention split between the landing helicopter and whatever message he was sending.
At her question, he paused for a fraction of a second—just long enough for his thumb to hover—before he lifted his eyes to her.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, then looked away again.
Something about him dismissing her question like that made her chest feel uneasy, though she didn’t know why. Her gaze stayed fixed on the hotel entrance as the helicopter blades continued to slice through the air above.
Moments later, the hotel doors opened.
Medical staff in white coats and hospital uniforms moved quickly, wheeling out a stretcher.
The patient was secured, motionless, surrounded by urgent, practiced efficiency.
The wheels rattled against the floor as they moved fast. The patient’s body was covered, only the outline visible beneath the sheets.
Amara’s expression shifted.
Her eyes followed the stretcher as it was rushed across the driveway toward the waiting ambulance a few feet away.
Then she stepped forward.
“Amara,” Elias’s voice cut sharply behind her.