The guards quickly moved toward Hazel, but she broke free and threw herself in front of him, tears streaming down her face. “Dominic, please! I’m begging you, for my mother’s sake. She raised you when you had no one. Please save her! If she dies, I won’t live either.”
Something flickered briefly in Dominic’s eyes, but his tone remained emotionless. He tilted his chin toward the swimming pool nearby. “See that pool?”
Hazel blinked, confused.
“Jump in,” he said flatly. “Hold your breath for ten minutes, and I’ll save your mother.”
Her face went pale. For a second, she couldn’t even breathe.
He knew she was terrified of water.
When she was eight, she’d been kidnapped by one of her father’s business rivals and thrown into a well. She’d nearly drowned that night. If her father hadn’t found her in time, she wouldn’t have survived.
Since then, she could barely handle being near water. Baths were the only exception. Even so, the memory of seaweed wrapping around her ankles, dragging her down while she struggled for air, still haunted her to this day.
She swallowed hard, voice trembling. “You know I’m terrified of water, Dominic. If I stay under, I’ll die.”