His greatest love.

Chapter 12.

The room had fallen into a weighted silence, everyone caught in the echo of Dr. Pierce's words. Surgery. The single word had cracked through the calm, and now eyes darted between one another, trying to wrap themselves around the weight of it.

Dr. Diana Pierce leaned forward slightly, the tablet in her hand. Her expression was unreadable — poised, but with an edge of irritation beneath the calm surface. Her voice, however, remained composed, cool and crystal clear.

"The condition i suspect specifically is Ventricular Tachycardia," she said, her eyes flicking to Clarissa, then back to Lorenzo, who had unconsciously straightened in his seat. "It's a serious and potentially life-threatening heart rhythm originating in the lower chambers of the heart. That explains the frequent fainting spells, the sharp chest pains, the palpitations — all of it."

"But I've been on medication for months..." Clarissa whispered.

Diana nodded once, sharply. "Yes. And that's part of the problem."

She paused, closing the tablet and setting it aside on the marble coffee table that sat like an altar between them.

"Antiarrhythmic medication is often the first line of defense," she continued, tone clipped. "But it only controls symptoms temporarily. It does not solve the electrical dysfunction at the root. And in your case, based on what I'm seeing here, the underlying cause is likely scar tissue from your heart attack. That tissue disrupts the heart's normal electrical signals, triggering these dangerous rhythms."

"Why didn't the other doctors find anything?"

"It was most likely misdiagnosed because the VT episodes didn't happen while you were under hospital observation. Resting ECGs, even stress tests, can miss this. You'd need something more precise — an Electrophysiology Study — to actually map and identify the rogue electrical circuits. Am disappointed with their ability not to identify the issue at hand."

Her irritation was quiet but palpable — not unprofessional, but the kind that came from seeing a lazy pattern repeated too often in her field. A no-nonsense specialist who had built her reputation on precision and results.

Gio watched her with silent admiration. She wasn't just brilliant — she was unapologetically bold in a room full of power, money, and influence. She held court not by demanding attention, but by earning it with the sharpness of her mind and the clarity of her facts.

"So," she said at last, "you have two options. You can continue masking the symptoms until they no longer respond to medication... or you can let me fix this."

Clarissa looked up at her, wide-eyed. "You mean surgery?"

"Yes. A catheter ablation procedure to destroy the scarred tissue triggering the rhythm. And most likely, the implantation of a small device — an ICD — to monitor and correct the heart rhythm if it goes into another episode in the future."

Then, seeing the confusion flash across the faces around her, Diana softened just enough to translate.

"Think of the heart like a house with faulty wiring," she said. "The lights flicker, power cuts out. Medications are like plugging in a surge protector. But what I'm suggesting is hiring an electrician — going inside the walls, removing the damaged wires, and putting in a backup generator in case something goes wrong again."

"Isn't that risky?" Greta said nervously as everyone looked at her concerned.

She leaned back, folding her arms gently across her belly. "The surgery is delicate, yes. But it's not optional anymore. If you don't treat the root of this soon, the next time you collapse might be your last."