Doctors. Nurses. Forms. Questions.
Ethan handled it all.
Name? He didn’t know.
Insurance? None.
Relation? He paused.
“…Guardian,” he said.
It was the easiest lie he had ever told.
Hours later, they sat in the waiting room.
Leo had fallen asleep against him, still clutching that toy truck.
Ethan stared ahead, his mind unusually quiet.
Until a doctor approached.
“She’s stable,” he said. “You got her here just in time.”
Ethan nodded, exhaling a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.
“Can we see her?”
The hospital room was dim.
Machines beeped softly.
The woman lay still, pale but breathing.
Leo rushed to her side.
“Mom…”
Her eyes fluttered open.
Confused at first.
Then focused.
On Ethan.
And in that instant—
Everything changed.
Her expression shifted.
Shock.
Recognition.
Fear.
“You…” she whispered.
Ethan felt the ground disappear beneath him.
Because he knew her too.
Not from today.
From years ago.
“Clara?” he said, his voice barely audible.
Ten years earlier, Ethan Cole had been a very different man.
Less polished.
Less controlled.
Back then, there had been someone.
Someone who saw him before the money… before the empire.
Clara.
They had been young. Reckless. In love.
Until ambition pulled him away.