Chapter 474

Chapter 474:

“Ma’am? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Victoria lied. She wasn’t fine. Her heart was racing, her hands were shaking, and every breath felt like a struggle.

The conference call lasted forty-five minutes. Forty-five minutes of polite accusations and barely concealed threats. Victoria used every ounce of her remaining strength to project confidence, to reassure Henderson’s board that Kane Industries was stable and secure.

By the time she hung up, she was soaked in sweat.

“We saved the Henderson account,” Webb said with relief. “But there are six more calls scheduled for this afternoon.”

Victoria tried to respond, but the words wouldn’t come. The boardroom was spinning now, and the tight pain in her chest was spreading down her left arm.

“Ma’am?”

Victoria reached for her water glass, but her hand wouldn’t cooperate. The glass fell, shattering against the floor in a spray of crystal and water.

“Call an ambulance,” Webb shouted to someone.

Victoria felt herself falling, the expensive Persian rug rushing up to meet her. The last thing she remembered was the sound of her phone ringing and someone saying Camille’s name.

Camille burst through the hospital doors like a hurricane, her face white with panic. She’d been in Victoria’s garden when Webb called, trying to make sense of her marriage falling apart, when the news hit her like a truck.

Victoria had collapsed. Victoria was in the ICU. Victoria might be dying.

“Where is she?” Camille demanded at the nurse’s station.

“Room 314, but visiting hours…”

Camille was already running down the hall, her heels clicking against the polished floor. She pushed through the ICU doors without slowing down. Victoria lay in the hospital bed, looking smaller than Camille had ever seen her. Tubes and wires connected her to machines that beeped and hummed with mechanical life. Her skin was pale gray, her breathing shallow and assisted by a ventilator.

“Victoria?” Camille whispered, taking her hand. The skin felt paper-thin and cold. Victoria didn’t respond. Her eyes remained closed, her face peaceful but frighteningly still.

“She’s been sedated,” said Dr. Martinez, appearing beside the bed. “The stress caused severe complications with her cancer recovery. Her blood pressure spiked dangerously high, and we had to put her into a medically induced state to allow her body to stabilize.”

Camille felt tears burning in her eyes. “Is she going to be okay?”

“We’re doing everything we can. But the next twenty-four hours are critical. Her body has been through tremendous strain, and the cancer markers are elevated again.”

“Can she hear me?”

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