“Addison, are you really gonna give this heart surgery slot away? Mr. Hamilton spent five years and fifty million dollars to make this happen. If you miss it, you’ve got maybe a month left. After that… there’s nothing anyone can do.”
I just nodded. “I’m not taking it.”
The look on his face was complicated, like he didn’t know whether to be angry or pity me. He pushed the papers toward me and I signed my name slowly, careful not to let my hand shake.
“Don’t tell anyone. I’ll talk to Lewis myself.”
When I walked out of his office, my legs felt like lead, but I forced myself up to the fourth floor of the hospital. That whole floor had been Lewis’s for years. Every corridor patrolled by his men, every door watched. Hundreds of experts came and went, but still… They couldn’t keep my grandpa alive. The doctors said today might be his last.
I sat at his bedside, holding his thin, wrinkled hand, “Grandpa… will you hate me for this?”
I wanted to say sorry, but the word stuck in my chest. If it wasn’t for me, maybe the Coleman family wouldn’t have ended up ruined.
Five years ago, my parents were framed for fraud. Hundreds of billions are gone. The only person who could prove their innocence was Cherry Herault. The little intern my mother foolishly taken under her wing who vanished the day of the trial.
Lewis had promised me we’d find her. We searched everywhere, but she disappeared like smoke. Without her testimony, my parents were sentenced. Weeks later, they couldn’t take the pressure anymore. They killed themselves with blades. Sliced their wrist.
I still remember the day I got the call. Grandpa collapsed when he heard and never woke up again. And me… I had no one. Except Lewis.
That night, he held me so tight I thought my ribs would break. “Addy, you’ve still got me. I’ll find Cherry, I’ll make her pay for everything, and I’ll clear your parents’ names.”
And I believed him. He was the only thing I had left.
But yesterday… Yesterday everything shattered.
I was going over some properties for him while he was out of town. That’s when I saw it. One of the villas, the one no one ever talked about, was under Cherry’s name. The transfer date? The exact day she disappeared five years ago.
My blood ran cold. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. For five years, I chased shadows, and every lead slipped away like someone was protecting her. Now I finally knew who.
The man I slept beside every night. The man who swore revenge for me. Lewis. He wasn’t hunting Cherry. He was hiding her from me.
Tears spilled onto Grandpa’s blanket. My chest felt like it was splitting open. If only I stopped my mother from sponsoring Cherry, given her a place in our company, none of this would’ve happened. My parents would still be alive, and Grandpa wouldn’t be lying here dying.
The steady beep of the machine beside me suddenly went flat.
"Grandpa!”
“Beep… beep… beep…” then nothing.
My whole body shook. I slammed the emergency button as doctors rushed in, but I couldn’t move, like my feet were nailed to the floor. They pushed me out of the room. I stumbled into the hallway and pulled out my phone.
Lewis was the emergency contact. He always was. I called.
He declined.
I called again. His phone switched off.
I dropped right there on the cold hospital floor, choking on my own sobs until I couldn’t breathe. Then my phone buzzed in my hand.
“Mr. Hamilton, congratulations on reserving our luxury suite at the postpartum center! We look forward to serving you and Miss Cherry as you welcome your little one into the world.”
My chest tightened. The words stabbed me over and over, like tiny knives.
The door to the ward creaked open. The doctor stepped in with that look… “I’m sorry for your loss, Addison.”
I gripped my phone so hard my nails cut into my palm. My last relative was gone. My grandfather, who raised me, who was all I had left. And Lewis… my husband… wasn’t by my side. He was with Cherry, waiting to welcome his new baby.
**
The pain in my body was nothing compared to what ripped through my chest.
I staggered inside the room and took Grandpa’s hand one last time. “G-grandpa… please wait for me. You and Mom and Dad… don’t go too far without me. I’ll come find you soon. Then we’ll all be together again.”
I dropped to my knees and sobbed until I thought I’d choke. But somehow, I pulled myself together enough to arrange his funeral. By the time it was done, I was walking out of the funeral home carrying his urn alone, my arms trembling from the weight.
Part of me wanted to go straight to the postpartum center. I wanted to see it with my own eyes.
So I did.
I hid in the corner of the lobby, my face hidden under a scarf. And when I saw them, my whole body froze.
