Chapter 719

Hayden had faked his death and taken brutal beatings to keep his identity hidden. Deini? She’d sacrificed her entire future, paying a price so unimaginable it made my chest ache. If we called the cops now, all of that could be for nothing.

And let’s be real—if the police could fix this, DracoLux would’ve been shut down ages ago.

This couldn’t go unchecked, though. Especially not for Lena. She’d always been fierce about protecting women, and seeing someone like Demi humiliated and broken like this? It wasn’t something she’d ever tolerate.

“How’s Demi? Has she woken up? Can I see her?” I asked, my voice shaking.

Without a word, Lena led me to Demi’s room. Seeing her hooked up to all those machines, tubes everywhere, an oxygen mask covering her bruised face… It broke me. Lena’s earlier description of her injuries echoed in my head, every detail slicing me open.

“I’m… fine,” Demi whispered weakly, as if she could sense my heartbreak and wanted to comfort me.

Tears spilled down my face as I held her hand. “Demi, I swear, I’ll make them pay for this. I will. I promise.”

She gave me the faintest smile, but it was like a knife in my chest. Demi used to smile all the time, her laugh lighting up everything around her. Now, her smile was hollow—a shadow of who she used to be.

“You need to report this,” Lena said, her voice sharp, cutting through my pain.

Demi’s smile wavered. “No… I… won’t,” she said softly.

“This is insane,” Lena snapped, her frustration palpable.

“I know,” Demi murmured, her voice steady. “But I don’t regret it.”

No tears, no visible pain—just emptiness. Yet I could feel the weight of what she’d been through.

“I have to… take them all down,” she said, her gaze distant and hollow.

Lena didn’t argue. Instead, her voice softened. “I’ll do everything I can to treat your injuries. I’ll make sure there’s no lasting damage.”

Demi closed her eyes, finally succumbing to exhaustion.

Lena and I stepped out into the hallway. She handed me a tissue as I wiped my face, my voice barely steady. “Demi’s injuries… they’re so severe. Are you sure she’ll recover?”

Lena hesitated. “I repaired the uterine rupture and stopped the bleeding. But I can’t guarantee she’ll be able to have children.”

Children. After all she’d endured—betrayal, trauma, her entire life shattered—would she ever even want to love someone again? Could she trust anyone after this?

The helplessness hit me like a wave. I couldn’t say anything, just stared at the bloodstains on Lena’s gown. “Go change,” I muttered. “I’ll stay with her.”

As Lena turned to leave, she stopped. “She doesn’t want to report this because she’s planning to go back and gather evidence, doesn’t she?”

I nodded.

Lena sighed. “That’s reckless.”

She wasn’t wrong. Diving back into that hellhole was reckless, but it was also the only option. Even Hayden had done it. That’s how deep DracoLux’s darkness ran—it forced people to risk their lives just to get close enough to expose it.

“Demi can’t do this alone,” Lena continued. “But if others worked with her, it’d be easier.”

I got what she meant instantly. But how? I didn’t know how to reach the others—those girls who had suffered just like Demi.

“I’ve treated girls like her before,” Lena said, her voice thoughtful. “If I’m right, their stories are probably the same.”

It clicked. Lena wanted to unite those survivors, to bring them together to testify against DracoLux. And if any of them had evidence, it might save Demi from risking her life again.

Hope flared in my chest. I grabbed Lena’s arm. “Do you know how to find them? Can you contact them?”