Chapter 536
Chapter 535:
Recognizing the iron will of the woman who had brought the Collins empire to its knees, Bella didn’t argue. She pulled out her phone and walked to the corner of the room, her back to Jocelyn as she made the call, her voice low and tense.
A few minutes later, she turned around, her face pale.
“He’s in Geneva,” Bella said, barely above a whisper. “He flew out this morning for an emergency meeting with the Swiss banking consortium. He’s at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues p>
Geneva. An ocean away. The distance felt both impossibly vast and entirely necessary. This was not a conversation to be had over a crackling phone line.
Jocelyn’s heart pounded against her ribs. The timing was too perfect. It was a sign.
𝘍𝗈𝗅l𝗈𝗐 us on.сom
“Jo, what are you going to do?” Bella protested, reading the look in her friend’s eyes. “You can’t fly like this p>
“Watch me,” Jocelyn said.
She swung her legs over the side of the hospital bed, her movements fluid and deliberate. The dizziness was gone, replaced by a surge of adrenaline and purpose. She reached over and carefully peeled the medical tape from the back of her hand. With a firm, steady motion, she slid the IV needle free from her vein, pressing a sterile gauze pad tightly against the tiny bead of dark red blood that welled up on her skin.
“Bella, call the Collins aviation desk,” Jocelyn commanded, her voice quiet but absolute as she stood and reached for her coat. “Tell them to fuel the G650. I need a flight plan for Geneva — wheels up in ninety minutes p>
“Jo, what are you doing?!” Bella shrieked, rushing forward to grab her arm. “You’re pregnant! You need to rest p>
“I’m going to see my husband,” Jocelyn said, her gaze fixed on a distant point — a future only she could see. “The rest can wait p>
The only sound in the VIP suite was the quiet hum of the air conditioning.
Jocelyn was a woman on a mission. The doctor, summoned by a frantic Bella, had reluctantly cleared her for travel, armed with anti-nausea medication and a list of emergency contacts in Geneva. But Jocelyn knew the only cure for what ailed her was on the other side of the Atlantic.
The two-hour wait for the jet felt like an eternity. Jocelyn didn’t pack. She didn’t change. She simply sat in the back of the Maybach on the tarmac at Teterboro, the lab report a talisman in her coat pocket, her mind replaying Chloe’s words.
He is a man who went mad for love.
The phrase no longer sounded like an accusation. It sounded like a diagnosis. A tragedy. And Jocelyn, who had survived her own family’s cruelty, knew how to face tragedy. You didn’t run from it. You walked into its heart and made it your own.
When the call finally came, a black Cadillac Escalade tore across the tarmac of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. A massive Gulfstream G650ER stood waiting, its engines already whining with pre-flight power. The Collins family crest gleamed on the tail.
Jocelyn marched up the airstairs, clutching her cashmere coat tightly around her. Deep in her pocket, her fingers traced the folded edges of the pregnancy lab results.