Chapter 46: HE WAS NO LONGER IN CONTROL
Chapter 47
Lumi
He stood there perfectly still, his back resting against the heavy door as if he was personally making sure the outside world couldn’t force its way back into the room.
The harsh, bright light from the hallway was gone, leaving only the soft glow of the bedside lamp reflecting in his dark eyes.
"You need to sit down, Lumi," he said, his voice dropping into a low, quiet rumble that felt incredibly grounding in the silent room. "You’re shaking."
I hadn’t even realized it, but he was right. My knees felt like water against the cold floor tiles, and my hands were trembling so badly I could barely keep my grip on Theo’s small fingers.
I slowly pulled myself up from the floor and collapsed into the plastic armchair beside the mattress, never letting go of my son.
"Why are you here, Ren?" I whispered, my voice cracking as I looked up at him. "New York... you were supposed to stay in New York. You didn’t have to do any of this."
He walked over slowly, his heavy steps making absolutely no sound against the floor.
He stopped right at the foot of the bed, looking down at Theo for a long moment before his eyes shifted back to me.
The anger that had been on his face downstairs was gone, replaced by a deep, unshakeable seriousness.
"You think I was going to let you get on a plane alone after everything that happened?" he asked softly. "You think I was going to let that man break you?" I stared at him, my heart swelling at his words.
"Thank you. But...the calls downstairs... the doctor," I stammered, shaking my head as the weight of what he and Neve’s boyfriend had done started to hit me.
"How...did you....you forced the head of the entire hospital to come down here and slide those doors open for me. Callum might have spent days or hours setting up those legal blocks."
"Callum is a small man who thinks a piece of paper makes him powerful," Ren said, a tiny, cold smirk touching the edge of his lips before it faded.
"He doesn’t know what real leverage looks like. I told you before we left the last time, Lumi...nobody keeps you from your boy. Not while I’m breathing."
The absolute certainty in his voice made my chest tighten with a completely different kind of emotion.
I wanted to look away, wanted to find some way to pretend that the night before hadn’t happened, but looking at him standing by my son’s hospital bed, completely destroying every obstacle in my path, made it impossible to keep my walls up.
Before I could find the words to thank him, the door behind Ren slid open again with a soft click.
The head doctor from earlier stepped back into the room, holding a digital tablet tightly against his chest.
The panicked, sweating look from the lobby was gone, replaced by a deep, heavy frown that instantly made my stomach drop into a cold pit.
"Ms. Lumi," the doctor said, his voice quiet as he glanced between me and Ren. "I have the results from Theo’s blood tests and the scans we ran this morning."
I sat up straight in the chair, my heart beating against my ribs. "What is it? Is it an infection? Why won’t his fever come down?"
The doctor hesitated, looking down at his tablet and then back up at us, his expression grim.
"That’s the problem. From a standard medical standpoint, his vitals are moving in a way that doesn’t make sense for any normal childhood illness.
His blood counts are regular, there is no trace of flu or common viruses in his system, yet his internal temperature is burning at a rate that should be causing severe organ stress...but it isn’t."
He paused, choosing his words very carefully as he looked directly at Ren.
"It’s almost as if his body is undergoing a massive, rapid physical growth spurt all at once. Like a hidden genetic trait is suddenly forcing his system to work at ten times its normal speed, and his body is exhausting itself trying to keep up.
If we don’t find a way to cool his system down and stabilize this spike within the next forty-eight hours, his body is going to completely collapse from pure exhaustion."
The room went completely freezing cold. I looked down at Theo’s pale, unmoving face, my mind racing as the doctor’s words echoed in my head.
A hidden genetic trait. Working at ten times its normal speed.
Beside the bed, I saw Ren’s entire posture go rigid, his jaw clenching so hard a sharp line formed along his cheek.
He didn’t look surprised by the doctor’s words at all. In fact, looking at the dark, knowing expression on his face, it felt like he knew exactly what was happening to my son...and he wasn’t telling me.
I looked from the doctor’s grim expression back to Ren. The moment the medical team stepped out of the room to monitor the charts from the desk, the silence returned, heavier than before.
Ren walked closer to the bedside, his eyes scanning Theo’s pale face before he looked down at me. "Lumi, what the doctor is describing... it isn’t a normal human illness."
I swallowed hard, my heart skipping a beat. "What do you mean, Ren? You look like you know exactly what he’s talking about."
"I have an idea, but I need to be completely sure," he said, his voice dropping into a low, serious whisper.
"There are traits...genetic markers in certain lineages...that accelerate like this when a child’s true nature begins to show.
If his body is working ten times faster than normal, human medicine won’t do anything but drain him further. He needs specialized stabilization."
He didn’t say the word Alpha, and he didn’t lean into heavy medical jargon, but the look in his eyes told me everything.
"By makers and lineage. Do you mean, Alpha blood?" He nodded.
"But like I said, I’m not hundred percent sure. It’s just a guess because I experienced something similar."
I knew Ren. For him to voice an opinion like this out loud meant he wasn’t just guessing. He was absolutely sure.
I looked down at Theo’s small, weak hand resting in mine, then looked back up at the Ren. Deep down, a wave of certainty washed over me.
"I trust you, Ren," I said, my voice quiet but completely firm. "Whatever you suggest we do, whatever treatment or place you think he needs, I’ll do it. Just save my son."
A soft, intense look passed through Ren’s dark eyes, and he nodded once. "Stay here with Theo. Keep him calm. I’m going to go meet with the head doctor to review the raw scans myself and see how we can handle this without raising alarms."
"Okay," I whispered.
Ren turned and slid the door open, stepping out into the quiet hallway.
But the moment the door glided shut behind him, a heavy hand shoved it back open from the outside.
I stiffened, my grip tightening on Theo’s hand as Callum marched into the room. His face was flushed with anger, his eyes fixed on me with venom.
"What the hell are you still doing here?" Callum barked, not care how much his loud voice echoed in the small room.
"I told you to get out of this hospital, Lumi. You think because you brought backup downstairs that you can just take over my son’s medical care?
I am the primary guardian here. You can’t even carry him out of this room without my permission, and I’m having the authorities drag you out right now."
As if on cue, two uniform transit authorities and a hospital security guard stepped up to the doorway behind him, looking uncomfortable but ready to enforce the initial admission papers Callum had signed.
"Sir, we need the unauthorized party to step away from the patient," one of the officers said, stepping into the room.
Panic flared in my chest, and I instinctively leaned over Theo’s bed, shielding his small body with my own. "No! I’m his mother! You can’t do this!"
"She isn’t going anywhere, Callum." Neve’s sharp, confident voice cut through the tension.
The officers paused, turning around as Neve and her boyfriend walked calmly into the room, bypassing the guards entirely.
Neve didn’t look flustered at all. Instead, she had a smug, satisfied expression on her face as she pulled a neatly folded, official-looking document out of her bag.
She walked right up to the lead officer and slapped the papers directly into his hands.
"Before you drag anyone out, I suggest you read that," Neve said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"That is an emergency custody and medical access court order, signed and stamped by a high court judge less than twenty minutes ago.
It completely overrides the previous admission restrictions and grants Lumi full legal authority over Theo’s medical care and placement." What??? Is she for real? How did they get it done so easily? Ohh my God!
Callum’s face went completely pale. He snatched the document from the officer’s hand, his eyes scanning the official legal seal in utter disbelief.
"What? This is impossible! How did you get a UK court order this fast?"
Neve’s boyfriend stepped forward, his expression completely calm but his eyes carrying a chilling weight.
"We told you, Callum. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. The order is legal, it’s binding, and if you or your security guards try to touch Lumi now, we will have you arrested for interfering with a court directive before you can even leave this hallway." Where or when did they see Callum? I had no idea.
The security guard and the officers immediately took a step back, clear indicators that they were washing their hands of Callum’s personal feud.
"Mr. Reed," the lead officer said, coughing slightly into his hand. "The paperwork is legitimate. We cannot remove the mother. You need to step back."
Callum looked like he was about to explode with humiliated rage. He gripped the edges of the paper so tightly they crumbled in his hands, his eyes darting from Neve to me.
He was no longer in control. He’d lost to us.
