Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT HOPE DISAPPEARED
Daniel survived.
But his injuries made immediate donation impossible.
Samuel delivered the news gently.
Emily’s treatment schedule did not care about gentleness.
Her condition deteriorated.
Clara stopped sleeping.
Ethan stopped pretending he could solve everything.
That was harder.
Money had always been his weapon against helplessness.
Now he could purchase the best doctors in the world and still could not manufacture a compatible human being.
Three more potential donors were tested.
None matched closely enough.
Then Richard Cole did something nobody expected.
He arrived at the hospital carrying a small black notebook.
Ethan blocked the doorway.
“What do you want?”
“To help.”
“You don’t know how.”
Richard looked older.
“I know.”
That answer unsettled Ethan.
Richard handed him the notebook.
It belonged to Ethan’s mother.
Ethan recognized her handwriting immediately.
His fingers trembled.
“Where did you get this?”
“I kept it.”
“For twenty-five years?”
Richard nodded.
“Why?”
“Because it was the only place she wrote honestly about me.”
Ethan opened it.
Near the end were entries from the hospital.
She wrote about Samuel.
About Ethan.
About being afraid.
One sentence destroyed him.
Tell Ethan I am not leaving because I want to. Tell him I would stay forever if love were enough.
Ethan closed the notebook.
“You let me believe she didn’t want me there.”
Richard’s eyes filled.
“I couldn’t handle her dying.”
“So you made us handle it alone.”
“Yes.”
The admission was almost inaudible.
“I thought if you boys stayed away from the hospital, you would remember her healthy.”
Richard looked through the glass at Emily.
“I understand now that I stole your goodbye.”
Ethan said nothing.
Some wounds did not close because the person who caused them finally apologized.
But sometimes an apology opened a door.
Richard continued.
“I registered.”
“For what?”
“The donor drive.”
“You’re seventy-two.”
“I know I’m unlikely to qualify for this child. But your campaign has registered more than eighty thousand people.”
Ethan stared.
Richard looked embarrassed.
“I shared it with every retired executive I know.”
It was such an absurdly Richard Cole form of affection that Ethan almost laughed.
Instead, he hugged his father.
Richard froze.
Like Ethan had frozen when Emily first hugged him.
Then slowly, awkwardly, he hugged his son back.
Across the hallway, Samuel watched.
He wiped his eyes and pretended he had allergies.
That evening, Ethan returned to Emily’s bedside.
She was awake.
“Did Grandpa make you cry?”
Ethan stared.
“Who told you to call him Grandpa?”
“He did.”
“Of course he did.”
Emily smiled.
Then her expression became serious.
“Ethan?”
He noticed she used his name only when she was frightened.
“What?”
“If I don’t make it…”
“No.”
“You said no lying.”
He looked down.
Emily continued.
“Will you stay with Mom?”
His chest tightened.
“Yes.”
“Even if she gets annoying?”
“Especially then.”
Clara stood outside the doorway.
She heard everything.
Emily nodded.
“Okay.”
Then she slept.
At 2:37 a.m., her monitors changed.
Nurses rushed in.
Clara woke instantly.
Ethan was pushed into the hallway.
Samuel appeared minutes later.
Infection.
Dangerously low immunity.
Her body was failing.
For two hours, Ethan and Clara stood outside while doctors fought for her.
Clara eventually slid down the wall.
“I can’t lose her.”
Ethan sat beside her on the floor.
“You love people and they leave.”
He looked at her.
Clara continued.
“My father died when I was fourteen. My mother disappeared into addiction. Daniel lied to me. Everyone leaves.”
Ethan understood the language.
“I built my whole life around that belief.”
“Did it work?”
“No.”
He took her hand.
“It just meant I was alone before anybody had the chance to leave.”
Clara rested her head against his shoulder.
“What do we do?”
“We stay.”
So they stayed.
At dawn, Samuel emerged.
Emily had stabilized.
Barely.
But there was another development.
A donor had been identified from the new registration campaign.
Twenty-nine-year-old woman.
Pennsylvania.
Excellent match.
She had already agreed.
Clara covered her mouth.
Ethan closed his eyes.
Samuel smiled for the first time in days.
“We may have our chance.”
The transplant was scheduled.
But forty-eight hours before it could happen, Victor Lang made his final move.
He leaked Emily’s identity.
Her medical history.
Clara’s address.
And the story of Daniel’s paternity.
By sunrise, reporters surrounded the hospital.
And one headline turned Emily’s fight for survival into a national spectacle.
Clara looked at Ethan.
“This came from inside your company.”
Ethan’s expression became ice.
“Yes.”
May you like
For the first time since meeting Emily, the billionaire returned.
And somebody was about to learn why powerful men feared Ethan Cole.
