Chapter 7
June
I opened my eyes to a splitting headache. Not just pain—pressure. Heavy and pulsing, like something was clawing its way out of my skull.
For a moment, I didn’t move. Then I realized I was lying in a bed. A hospital bed. White sheets. Sterile walls. Soft lighting.
The smell hit me next.
Bennet Hospital Group’s signature blend, designed by me to make patients feel safe the moment they walked through the doors.
A cold chill ran down my spine. I knew exactly where I was. New York.
But I didn’t remember getting here. What happened after we got on the plane? The memory stopped there, like someone had erased everything after.
I pushed myself up too quickly. The room tilted, and my headache intensified. I ignored it.
“Easy, honey.” The voice was soft and familiar.
Wendy. She was sitting by the window, a book resting in her hands.
“Where is Dannie?”
The question left my mouth before I realized Wendy probably wouldn’t give me a straight answer.
“Hello to you too.” She leaned forward and set the book aside before getting to her feet.
“I’m sorry.” I pressed my fingers against my temple. “Can you just tell me where Dannie is?”
“Relax. Dannie is fine,” she said calmly.
Fine? The word didn’t reassure me. Not even close.
“Can I see him?” I stepped forward, grabbing her sweatshirt.
Wendy gripped my arms and gave me a small shake. “Hey. Look at me. You need to calm down. Take a breath.”
“Please,” I said, my voice breaking. “I need to know.”
The door swung open, and my brother Lincoln walked in.
“Lincoln,” I said immediately.
He stepped inside, Chloe right behind him.
“It’s okay,” Lincoln told Wendy. “You can let go of her.”
Wendy released me. Only then did I realize how tightly she’d been holding me. My arms ached, but I barely noticed.
“Tell me everything.”
This was his plan. I remembered that much. The restaurant. The chaos. The escape. Then nothing.
“I had you drugged,” Lincoln said.
My head snapped up. “You what?” Confusion cut through the fog. “How?”
Chloe moved closer, steadying me as my knees threatened to give out, then guided me back onto the bed.
“I wasn’t there, of course,” Lincoln added. “I asked Kai.”
Heat flared through me. “Of course.”
“I had my crew prepare the drink. All he did was give it to you.”
The memory surfaced slowly.
The bottle. The water. He handed it to me the second I got on the plane. The seal had looked intact, but the plastic around the cap had been damp. Not condensation. It was wet and uneven, but I hadn’t questioned it.
My hands curled into fists. “Why would you do that?”
“It was actually my idea.” Chloe rested a hand on my shoulder, her thumb moving gently back and forth.
“Why?”
“You were under a lot of stress,” she said softly.
“And you were too close to Dannie,” Lincoln added. “We needed the medical team to do what was necessary without interference.”
I let out a quiet breath. I understood. They were afraid I would lose control.
“June,” Chloe continued gently, “I know you’re a good doctor. One of the best.” She paused. “But you also know no doctor should treat someone they love.”
I nodded reluctantly.
“Where is he now?”
“In another room,” Lincoln said. “Kai’s with him.”
My jaw tightened. “What’s the diagnosis?”
Lincoln gave me a look. “You expected me to believe you don’t already know?” He barely held back the eye roll. “You should’ve told us,” he added.
“It wasn’t my secret to share.” I gave a small sigh. “Though… I don’t think Liam should’ve told you either.”
“No,” Lincoln said, shaking his head. “It wasn’t Liam. It was Dannie.”
My breath caught. “He’s awake?”
“For a little while. He was asking about you.”
A sharp ache hit my chest.
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I didn’t think you were in the right state to take care of someone.”
“I’m fine.” The answer came too quickly, and Lincoln sighed.
Wendy stepped in. “Of course you are. But you don’t just need to be fine. You need to be better.”
Chloe joined in without missing a beat. “And right now, you’re home. So maybe, just this once, let us take care of you.”
I narrowed my eyes at them. Somehow, I had a feeling this conversation had been planned long before I woke up.
“I’m sorry,” Lincoln said suddenly. “I’m sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t come to me. All I ever wanted was to protect you. I know it can be… a bit much.”
“Link…” I didn’t know what to say. This version of Lincoln felt unfamiliar.
“I thought I was doing the right thing. But I see now I made things harder for you.”
If he wasn’t stubborn and controlling, would he still be Lincoln? I wondered.
“Lily is just like you,” Chloe said gently. A faint smile touched her lips. “And it took him long enough to realize being strict and overprotective isn’t the only way to love someone.”
Lincoln huffed. “I didn’t want to ruin my relationship with my only sister.”
“He’s still learning,” Chloe said. “You just have to remind him when he slips back into big-brother mode.”
“There’s something else,” Lincoln said.
My shoulders tensed. “Oh no.”
“It’s not what you think.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“Kai and Dannie took a DNA test.” The words landed heavily.
“And?”
“The results aren’t back yet. But I didn’t want you finding out later and being blindsided.”
Unease settled in my chest. I exhaled slowly.
“Can you believe it?” Wendy said, shaking her head. “The two men you were involved with might be brothers.”
“Wendy,” Chloe warned.
The room fell quiet.
Chloe was the one who finally broke the silence. Her voice was soft, but there was no hesitation in it.
“He could die from this. Are you prepared for that?”
“Dannie…” I whispered his name, and Hong Kong came rushing back—the restaurant, his collapse, the way he had been putting things in order. Not for business. For after. “He’s planning his own funeral.”
Chloe and Wendy exchanged a look.
“There’s still hope,” Chloe said gently. “Liam said his cancer is treatable.”
“He’s not out of options, June,” Wendy added.
“I know. But he doesn’t want treatment.”
That was the problem. Not the diagnosis. Him.
“Give him some time,” Lincoln said.
I shook my head. “He doesn’t have time.”
Lincoln frowned. “Then let him do what he needs to do. He’s dealing with this the only way he knows how.”
“He needs treatment,” I snapped. “He needs rest. He needs to stop running around handling triad business like nothing’s wrong. He shouldn’t be handing his assets to me. He shouldn’t be pushing me away. He shouldn’t be acting like he’s already dead.”
The last words came out quieter than I wanted. Lincoln pulled me into a hug. I stiffened, then let him.
“I never liked him,” he muttered.
“Fuck, Lincoln.”
“That was before,” he said quickly. “But now I get it.”
I stared at him. “Get what?”
“Why you chose him,” he said simply.
Something twisted in my chest. Before I could ask what he meant, there was a knock and everyone turned.
“Come in,” Lincoln said.
The door opened, and Kai stepped in with Liam behind him. The room suddenly felt too crowded. The doctor in me wanted half of them out. Ever since Covid, I hated seeing so many people packed into a hospital room. I straightened automatically, sitting up the way patients did when the doctor came in.
“How’s Dannie?”
“He’s stable,” Liam said.
My fingers tightened around the bedsheet. “What was wrong with him?”
Liam gave me a look. “Nothing you didn’t already know.”
My stomach sank. “Is he getting worse?”
He hesitated. “Yes… and no.”
“Liam, stop talking in riddles.”
“He went hypo, June. How did you not catch that?”
The words hit hard. I replayed the collapse in my mind—his breathing, the chaos, the crowd. Hypoglycemia. Of course. The signs had been there, and I missed them.
“Good thing the medical team caught it,” Liam added. “You were too close to him to see it.”
“Liam’s right,” Lincoln added. “That’s why we did what we did.”
“Drug me?”
“Yes.”
I had failed. Not just as a partner, but as a doctor. I couldn’t separate the two. I hadn’t trusted anyone else to care for him. I questioned everything, double-checked everything, until I was no longer thinking like a doctor.
“I’m putting Dannie on the transplant list,” Liam said.
My head lifted. “You are?”
“Yes.” He exhaled slowly. “But Dannie is a foreigner. Assuming money isn’t an issue—”
“It’s not,” Kai cut in.
“Then it comes down to availability and timing.”
Timing. That was the problem. Time was the one thing Dannie didn’t have. I would give him my liver without hesitation if I could, but we weren’t compatible. Wrong blood type. Wrong match. Wrong everything.
“Maybe you could give him your liver,” Wendy said suddenly, pointing at Kai. “If you’re related.”
Kai said nothing. I didn’t look at him, but the question hung between us. Would he do it? Would he give part of himself to save Dannie? For some reason, not knowing bothered me more than I expected.
“Can I see him?” I asked.
My voice was steady, but I needed to escape the conversation—the decisions, the what-ifs. Talking about Dannie’s condition as though his fate were already decided felt too close to giving up, and I wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.
Dannie was sitting up in bed when I walked in. The TV played quietly in the background, but he wasn’t watching. He was scrolling through his phone, one leg bent beneath the blanket, looking more like he was in a hotel than a hospital. A voice message played softly from the speaker.
“Hey,” he said absently, still listening.
My chest tightened at the sound of his voice. Alive. Talking. Moving.
“How are you?”
I crossed the room in two steps and stopped beside his bed. I could feel eyes behind me—Kai, Liam, maybe Lincoln too—but I didn’t care. Not now.
Dannie finally looked up, and his expression softened the moment he saw me. “I’m okay, sweetie,” he said, his voice warm, wearing the gentle smile he always used when he knew I was about to worry.
“I was worried sick about you.” I reached for his arm, needing to feel that he was real.
“Of course you were.” His thumb brushed over my fingers. “Are you looking after yourself?”
“Don’t worry about me.”