**Chapter 9**
Before I could even process it, the next second, they dragged me to the hospital.
Damien stood in the hallway, his face grim. “Seraphina needs a blood transfusion. Only your blood type matches.”
My heart trembled slightly. I remained silent.
“As long as you donate blood, any amount of money is fine.” He said coldly, then directly scribbled a check and flung it
at me.
I didn’t move.
He wrote another, for an even larger amount, and flung it at my face. “Is that enough?”
I still didn’t speak.
He impatiently continued to raise the stakes, checks raining down on me like snowflakes.
“I don’t want money.” I finally spoke, my voice so soft it was almost inaudible. “I only want you to grant me one request.”
He frowned. “What?”
“I want to leave the Sterling family.” I looked up, meeting his eyes directly. “After I leave, I hope you… never come looking
for me.”
He looked as if he’d heard something ridiculous. “You can leave whenever you want. Why would I look for you?”
“You’re just a maid. The Sterling household has plenty of those.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Alright, I’ll donate.”
“Master Damien, a promise made is a promise kept. Remember what you said today.”
When the nurse examined me, her frown deepened. “Miss Elara is too weak, and she has many injuries on her body. We
don’t recommend blood donation.”
“If we force it, there’s a thirty percent risk of shock.”
Damien stood to the side, his eyes cold. “No matter the risk, I just need Seraphina to be safe.”
He said, and seemingly assuming I would back down, directly ordered the bodyguards, “Hold her down. Don’t let her
run.”
I lay on the hospital bed, watching my bright red blood slowly drain from my body.
1000cc.
It was the maximum limit a human body could endure.
After the blood draw, my vision swam in waves, and I didn’t even have the strength to stand up.
But Damien, from start to finish, never once looked at me.
He stood guard outside the emergency room, his eyes filled with nothing but worry for Seraphina.
I leaned against the wall, painstakingly making my way out.
As I passed him, I stopped, taking one last look.
“Damien, goodbye.”
He didn’t look at me, didn’t even turn his head. It was as if I were air, dust, an insignificant passerby.
His entire heart was tied to Seraphina in the operating room.
I smiled, a bitter, painful curve of my lips, then turned and left.
This time, I didn’t even bother with my luggage. I went straight to the airport.
I was finally free.
The moment the plane took off, I slowly closed my eyes, suddenly remembering a long time ago, when he held me in his arms, biting my earlobe and saying:
“Elara, you can’t escape.”
“This life, next life, you’re mine.”
Back then, his palm was scalding, as if it truly could trap me for a lifetime.
And now-
I had escaped.
And I was no longer his.
