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His words keep echoing in my skull, louder than the machines that beep and hum around us, louder than the footsteps of nurses and doctors as they move past us in the waiting area.

“I’ll take her because she’s mine.”

The bastard didn’t even flinch when he said it. He just looked me dead in the eye and delivered that line like a death sentence.

I should’ve slapped him.

Instead, I froze. For a beat too long, I froze. Not because he scared me, but because deep down, I know what kind of damage a man like Julian can cause.

He doesn’t make threats for the fun of it. No, Julian plays the long game. He manipulates, twists, poisons, until there’s nothing left of you but the version he created.

And I’m not sure I want that kind of evil to be Lina’s father. I would rather die than think about it, let alone allow him to be close to my girl.

I glance at Alaric, who’s standing in front of me like a wall, his body a shield against Julian. But even with him here, even with all his silent promises that Lina will be okay and I’m safe, all I see is the man who once tore me apart and now wants to do the same to my daughter. I’d rather die than see Julian accomplish that.

I snap.

“She’s not yours!” My voice rips through the hallway like a gunshot. “You don’t get to come here and act like I’m some villain when you weren’t even in her life.”

A few patients turn and murmur at my commotion, and yet their faces are all blurry because I don’t care what I look like at the moment.

“You don’t get to blame me for being a bad mother when I was the one raising her. I fed her. I clothed her. I held her through every fever, every nightmare, every scraped knee. She’s mine, Julian. Not yours. Mine. And I will never let you come near her.”

My hands are trembling. My chest heaves.

But I won't stop.

Because if I stop now, I’ll break. I’ll crumble. And I can’t afford that, not when Lina needs me whole.

Julian narrows his eyes, mouth curling into that same cruel smirk he used to wear when he wanted to make me doubt myself. “You’re not denying she’s mine.”

I flinch.

Because I can’t.

Not completely.

“I don’t owe you anything,” I spit. “No answers. No explanations. Not even the time of day.”

He tilts his head. “That’s enough reason to fight for my girl.”

My girl.

The audacity of him to call Lina that makes my blood boil.

The sheer gall it takes to look me in the face and call her that when he hasn’t lifted a single finger for her in years makes me want to rip him apart.

It’s a miracle I haven’t thrown him through the nearest wall.

I know what he wants. He couldn’t get me through his sick methods, so he’s using my daughter instead to hurt me.

I look at him and think back to all the things I loved about him, and come up with nothing.

The Julian I knew might have been a tad too much, but hurting me? Drugging me? Using my baby as a buffer for his punches toward me?

That’s stooping too low even for him.

I’m already thinking of something to say. I’ll probably insult him and let Alaric kick him out of here with a couple of punches.