The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 566

Chapter 566: Race to the Hospital

Even if this child carried an illness, even if it arrived before she felt ready to embrace motherhood, none of that mattered anymore.

The moment the baby chose her as its mother, she accepted the responsibility to protect it at all costs, even with her own life.

She imagined Julius—usually so stoic and formidable—softening whenever he spoke about the little one he longed to meet.

The twin forces of blood loss and pain began to cloud her mind, edges of her awareness fading into a dull gray haze.

Without hesitation, the bodyguard carefully laid Quinn across the back seat. With his free hand, he quickly dialed Julius, urgency shaking his voice as he reported the emergency and the hospital they were rushing toward.

For the first time, the guard noticed a tremor in the voice of the man everyone else called Master Whitethorn.

The drive, which normally took twenty minutes, was swallowed up in less than half that time.

Outside the emergency entrance, a team of medics stood ready beside a waiting gurney, their eyes scanning the horizon for the speeding sedan.

As soon as the car screeched to a stop, they swiftly lifted Quinn onto the gurney and hurried toward the bright red doors of the trauma bay.

Laura followed closely, but the swinging doors soon barred her way.

Her vision blurred as the orderlies wheeled her dearest friend through those stark white doors of the emergency ward. Tears streamed down Laura’s cheeks uncontrollably, as if every drop had been waiting for this exact moment to escape.

*Quinn is lying in that bed because of me.* The thought struck Laura like a hammer, reverberating painfully inside her skull until everything else around her felt distant and hollow.

She was powerless, left only to hover outside those sterile white doors, stunned and trembling, arms wrapped tightly around herself as if her own heartbeat had become unfamiliar.

Time lost all meaning—minutes, hours, lifetimes—until the sound of hurried footsteps echoed sharply down the sterile corridor. Laura lifted her head, dazed, to see Julius and Gavin sprinting toward her, their breaths ragged and faces etched with alarm.

“Mr. Whitethorn!” a breathless bodyguard called out, stepping forward. “Mrs. Whitethorn has already been taken inside, and treatment has begun.”

Julius’s handsome features had drained of color, his voice hoarse as he asked, “When you brought her in, did the doctors say anything?”

The guard’s shoulders heaved with exhaustion as he answered, “Only that the situation is critical. They didn’t offer any more details.”

“And Quinn? Did she say anything at all?” Julius pressed, desperation piercing the cold edge of his voice.

Before the guard could respond, Laura, still rooted beside the wall, spoke softly, “She… she told me not to worry. She said she and the baby would be alright.”

Those had been Quinn’s final words before the doors swallowed her—soft, barely louder than a sigh, yet spoken as if she had poured every ounce of strength into them.

The air vanished. Laura’s lungs screamed for breath. Spots of light exploded behind her eyes.

But she refused to let herself die—not now.

It wasn’t death she feared.

If giving her life would guarantee Quinn and the baby’s safety, she would have surrendered it without hesitation.

Yet to die here, at Julius’s hands, would only plunge him and Quinn into a deeper darkness than they already faced.

She clawed desperately at his wrist, but his fingers felt like iron bars, welded shut—unbreakable.

Just as her vision began to dim, Gavin lunged forward, wrenching at Julius’s arm. “Have you lost your mind? Are you seriously going to strangle her?”

Julius’s eyes blazed crimson. “And if I am? She’s the reason Quinn and the baby got hurt. If not for her—”

“Look at it from another perspective!” Gavin shouted. “Quinn risked everything to keep this woman safe. If Laura dies by your hand, what do you think that will do to her? Do you want Quinn to hate you forever?”

Gavin’s words finally pulled Julius back from the edge. He squeezed his eyes shut, a violent shudder rippling through him. Then, with agonizing slowness, he unclenched his fingers one by one.