Santa's Velvet Sin.

Chapter 04: Dear Death: Pause.

Lila Mendes.

“Send help! Send help! There’s an emergency!”

Jethro’s voice split the silence of the hallway like a blade. His footsteps thundered ahead of me, Scarlett’s limp body folded in his arms.

I chased after him, breathless, knees weak, my vision blurring around the edges. Everything inside me felt hollow...numb...frozen in a way that wasn’t cold but terrifying.

Staff rushed from every corner, abandoning their workstations as the commotion erupted.

Phones dropped.

Papers scattered.

Chairs toppled.

Yet I couldn’t speak.

Couldn’t shout.

Couldn’t even ask if she was still breathing.

Not because I didn’t care.

Not because I was in shock.

But because I knew, if Scarlett died, something inside me would die with her. Something I would never get back.

She couldn’t die.

She wouldn’t die.

She wasn’t allowed to.

That was the only line my mind could cling to as panic spun around me like a storm.

My heart hammered violently, the guilt crushing me with every beat. This was my fault, my biggest, most unforgivable mistake. She was hurting. Hurt because of me. She had trusted me with her softness, her calmness, her innocence. And I had handled it with the carelessness of someone who never deserved her in the first place.

And now she lay unconscious… maybe dying.

No. She wasn’t dead.

I refused to believe what that psycho man had said.

I refused to believe any prophecy of her death.

I gulped hard, trying to steady my breathing when I heard Jasmine’s panicked voice behind me.

“What happened?! What happened?!” she cried, running toward Jethro.

He panted heavily. “She… she was arguing with ma’am....then she walked out, then suddenly staggered and just… collapsed.”

“Just like that?” Jasmine gasped.

“No,” Jethro whispered, shaking his head, “she said something about the past. Something she shouldn’t remember. And ma’am asked her how she remembered and… and then...”

“Wait.” Jasmine’s eyes widened. “She forgot what memory? She lost memory of what part?”

My head snapped toward them. “Can you two shut up and stop gossiping while I’m right here?”

Jasmine flinched hard, trembling. “N-no, ma’am… I’m not gossiping. It’s just… this feels familiar.”

I stared her down, cold and sharp. “Familiar how?”

She hesitated, lowering her head as though afraid of her own words. “My mom… she had a similar episode. She and my dad were arguing. She said something he thought she’d forgotten. And immediately, she grabbed her head… and fell the same way.”

My heartbeat stopped.

“And your mother?” I whispered. “What did the doctors say? The treatment? The diagnosis?”

Jasmine’s face crumpled slightly. “My mom died on the spot. There wasn’t much awareness then. The doctors said they didn’t even have a name for it… no treatment, no cure.”

Cold, suffocating fear swallowed me whole.

This was catastrophic.

This was beyond catastrophic.

What had I done?

The ambulance doors slammed as they lifted Scarlett in. I followed them until a nurse stepped in front of me, blocking my path.

“Ma’am,” she said gently, “you’re extremely tense. Your presence might disrupt the procedure. We advise you let someone else accompany her. Once things are stable, they’ll come for you.”

“What do you mean I can’t go?” My voice broke. “That’s my woman in there! That’s my world lying helpless in that damn van! I’m not leaving her!”

But before I could push past, two policemen approached, hands raised in calmness yet firm in intention.

“Ma’am, please,” one said, placing a hand on my arm, “let them work. We’ve been instructed to bring you inside for questioning regarding the incident.”

They gently...yet insistently pulled me back into the company. I struggled, kicked, clawed, my voice cracking as Jasmine volunteered to go with the ambulance.

“Let me go!” I screamed. “I need to be with her! Please, don’t do this! Where are they taking her?!”

A policeman tried to steady me as I dropped to my knees, sobbing into my palms.

No one understood.

No one knew what she meant to me.

No one saw the weight of my guilt.

No one felt the love tearing me apart.

I crouched on the floor, trembling violently as everything inside me sank into dread. My mind spiraled, searching desperately for something, anything to anchor myself to.

Then a name surfaced.

Mr. Roger.

My breath hitched.

This wasn’t the time for pride.

This wasn’t the time to cling to ego.

I pulled out my phone, my hands shaking so badly I almost dropped it. I forced myself to dial his number.

He picked up on the fourth ring.

“I hope I’m safe,” he said flatly.

“You are,” I whispered, voice breaking, “but she isn’t.”

Silence. A thick, heavy silence.

“What happened?” he asked at last.

I tried to explain, but when I opened my mouth, my voice collapsed. All that came out were helpless sobs.

He sighed. “I thought you told me you could handle everything.”

“I could,” I whispered. “I should have. But I made a mistake. I forgot how fragile she is. Please… please help me. She can’t die. Please.."

My tears streamed uncontrollably, blurring my

vision.

He cleared his throat. “It’s a good thing Christmas is near. You’ll have to bring her back here."

“No.” My voice sharpened instantly. “Never. She’s not going back to that place. She won’t see him. She won’t remember anything from that life. I won’t allow her to.”

“You don’t understand, Mendes.”

“Then explain,” I snapped.

He inhaled deeply. “Scarlett has three more years before her projected death.”

My stomach dropped.

“I know,” I whispered, even though speaking the truth felt like bleeding.

He continued, “The drugs I can send will only keep her alive for one month. After that, the damage in her brain will intensify. She’ll collapse again..worse.”

“So we have to come there for you to heal her?” I asked.

“No.”

His answer was immediate.

My heart skipped.

“I can’t heal her,” he said. “Not completely.”

My world tilted sideways.

“The only thing that keeps her alive,” he continued, “is her memory. The more she remembers, the more her lifespan increases. If she remembers enough, she lives long enough to reach those three years. If she doesn’t… she dies sooner.”

I froze.

“So you’re saying,” I whispered slowly, “if she regains her memory, she can live longer? Past one month?”

“Yes.”

My throat tightened painfully.

But if she remembered everything…

If all those pieces fell into place…

Then I would lose her.

She would be pulled back into a world that existed before me. A world where I was nothing but a shadow. She might not even look at me again.

I swallowed my fear. “Fine. We’ll come for Christmas. She gets a little memory back… and we leave immediately.”

“Why immediately?” he asked. “If you want her in your life, she needs her full memory.”

“No.”

My voice was firm.

Cold.

Breaking as I continued. “She’s fine with a little memory.”

“And after that?” His voice softened with disappointment.

“She can… she can die if she wants.”

He inhaled sharply, about to respond, but I cut him off and hung up.

I walked toward Jethro with fading clarity.

“Take me home,” I said.

He blinked. “Is everything okay, ma’am?”

I hissed. “Do you think I caused her death?”

He hesitated. “I… I don’t know what to think.”

I looked away. “I never wanted this. I never wanted any of it.”

“But you did hurt her feelings,” he said quietly.

My head snapped toward him. “She took off the ring before even listening to me.”

He shrugged. “If I saw my wife with someone else, I’d do the same.”

I laughed dryly. “Thanks, saint.”

He bowed his head. “I’m sorry. I’m not judging.”

“We have an order,” I said. “I need to get her treatment."

He nodded and drove us to my house.

The moment I stepped in, hope flickered inside me...maybe the medication had arrived early.

Maybe fate was being kind.

But the moment we reached the hospital, everything went wrong again.

I stepped out, adjusting my coat, just as an ambulance rolled past us slowly. A nurse pushed a covered body on a stretcher.

My blood iced.

No. No, it wasn’t her. It couldn’t be.

I sprinted inside, breath wild.

“Hello?? where is Miss Scarlett?” I demanded.

The nurse looked up. “Yes, I remember you."

“Good for you,” I snapped. “Where is she?”

She hesitated.

My voice rose. “Where. Is. She?”

Her eyes trembled. “Her… her body was taken from the hospital a few minutes ago.”

My bag slipped from my hand, crashing to the floor.

Everything around me went silent...dead silent.

The body I had seen…

The covered form…

The ambulance…

I stared at the nurse in horror, unable to breathe.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head violently. “No, no, no...tell me she isn’t...tell me that wasn’t her...”

But the nurse’s eyes said it all.

And the world around me shattered into darkness.