Chapter 4 - The Bride's Dilemma
Clara gathered the heavy skirts of her couture gown and descended the stairs, her diamond earrings catching the light. She looked between the weeping maid, the shattered medical box, and the pale, gasping child huddled on the bottom step.
""Julian, what is happening?"" Clara asked, her breath catching as she knelt next to Ellie. ""Why is she struggling like this? The guests are seated... the music is starting.""
""The wedding doesn't matter,"" Julian said flatly, his voice hard with resolve. ""I suffered a severe allergic attack. Ellie used her last injector to save my life. Now she’s relapsing into shock, and her replacement medicine arrived completely destroyed.""
Clara stared at the broken glass in the box, then looked at Julian. ""She... she saved you?""
""She traded her life for mine, Clara,"" Julian said, his eyes burning. ""The ambulances can't cross the washed-out bridge, and the helicopters are grounded. We have less than twenty minutes before her airways close completely.""
Clara’s face paled. She reached out and brushed Ellie's damp forehead. Ellie murmured weakly, her tiny hand reaching out to touch the floral embroidery on Clara’s gown.
""You look like a fairy tale princess,"" Ellie whispered, her voice barely a thread in the air.
Tears welled in Clara’s eyes. She stood abruptly, turning to Julian with fierce determination that matched his own. ""My father's personal physician has a summer residence on the ridge, three miles north through the old logging pass. He keeps a fully stocked surgical and emergency pharmacy in his home. But the ridge road is unpaved, steep, and treacherous in this mud.""
""I have the heavy-duty four-wheel-drive SUV in the secondary garage,"" Julian replied instantly, stripping off his wet tuxedo jacket.
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""You can't drive up the ridge in this storm alone, Julian,"" Clara warned, holding his arm. ""The mudslides have already started. If the vehicle rolls, you both die.""
""Then you hold her in the back,"" Julian said. ""Because I will not live this day knowing a child died so I could breathe.""
