Elena's POV
The pen snapped between my fingers.
Black ink bled across the quarterly reports on my desk, ruining three months of perfect numbers. I watched the stain spread like I was watching it happen to someone else.
"Elena?" Maya's voice cut through the fog. "Did you hear what I just said?"
I looked up at my best friend and assistant. Her dark eyes were worried, and I realized my hands were shaking.
"Say it again," I whispered.
Maya sat down across from me, which meant this was serious. "Blackwell Industries requested a meeting. Tomorrow at two. They need our approval for the Sterling merger."
There it was. The name that still made my heart stop after five years.
Blackwell.
Adrian Blackwell.
My ex-husband.
"They don't know E.L. Hart is you, right?" Maya asked carefully.
I shook my head. I'd built this company in secret, hidden behind initials and lawyers. Elena Hart had disappeared five years ago—broke, pregnant, and thrown away like garbage. E.L. Hart had risen from those ashes, powerful enough to make billionaires beg.
The irony was delicious. Adrian needed my signature to save his precious merger, and he had no idea the woman holding his fate was the wife he'd tossed aside.
"I'll go to the meeting," I said, my voice steadier now. "It's just business."
"Elena—"
"I'm fine, Maya."
But I wasn't fine. My mind was dragging me back five years, to the worst night of my life.
"Mr. Blackwell requests you vacate the premises by morning."
Divorce papers on our anniversary.
A check for fifty thousand dollars, like I was a servant being fired.
His lawyer's cold eyes as he told me Adrian had chosen Sophia Carrington—his first love, his dying first love—over me.
I'd signed those papers with shaking hands, taken nothing but my clothes, and disappeared into the night. What Adrian never knew—what he'd never know if I had my way—was that I was eight weeks pregnant with his son.
"Earth to Elena." Maya waved her hand in front of my face. "You went somewhere dark."
"Just remembering why I built this company." I smiled, and it felt like ice. "Tomorrow, Adrian Blackwell is going to walk into that meeting room and find out exactly what he threw away."
Maya grinned. "I'll prepare the conference room. This is going to be—"
My phone rang.
The special ringtone I'd set for Ethan's preschool made my blood run cold. They never called unless something was wrong.
I grabbed the phone so fast I nearly dropped it. "Hello?"
"Ms. Hart?" The director's voice was shaking. "You need to come to the school right now. It's Ethan."
The room tilted. "What happened?"
"He collapsed during playtime. We called 911, but he's not waking up. The ambulance is taking him to Mount Sinai Hospital."
The phone fell from my hand.
Maya was already moving, grabbing my purse, pulling me toward the door. "I'll drive. Come on."
The elevator ride down felt like it took a hundred years. My baby. My four-year-old son who'd kissed me goodbye this morning with sticky fingers and a huge smile. The boy who was my whole world, who'd kept me alive when I wanted to give up.
Ethan had Adrian's dark curly hair and stubborn chin. He had his father's eyes—eyes that would never know where they came from, because I'd sworn Adrian Blackwell would never hurt another person I loved.
"He's going to be okay," Maya said as we ran to her car. "Kids collapse all the time. Low blood sugar, dehydration—"
But I knew. The way a mother knows when something is truly wrong.
We broke every traffic law getting to the hospital. Maya was still parking when I jumped out and ran for the emergency entrance.
"Ethan Hart," I gasped at the reception desk. "Four years old. Came in by ambulance."
The nurse checked her computer. "Room 3. Down the hall, second door on your left."
I ran.
Ethan was so small on that hospital bed. Monitors beeped around him, and a doctor I didn't recognize was checking his vital signs. My baby's face was pale, his breathing shallow.
"I'm his mother," I said, rushing to his side. I grabbed his little hand—still warm, thank God—and kissed his forehead. "Ethan, baby, Mama's here."
He didn't wake up.
"Ms. Hart?" The doctor turned to me. "I'm Dr. Chen. Your son collapsed at school, and he hasn't regained consciousness. We're running tests now, but I need to ask—has he had any symptoms lately? Fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain?"
My mind raced back over the past few weeks. Ethan getting tired faster at the playground. Complaining his chest felt funny. Me thinking it was just a cold, nothing serious.
"Some tiredness," I admitted. "I thought he was coming down with something."
Dr. Chen's face was carefully neutral, which scared me more than anything. "We're going to do an echocardiogram and some blood work. I've called in a specialist."
"A specialist for what?"
"Let's wait for the test results before we jump to conclusions."
But the way he said it, the careful way he wasn't meeting my eyes—I knew.
This was bad.
Maya appeared in the doorway with coffee I wouldn't drink and a presence I desperately needed. She squeezed my shoulder as we waited.
Tests took forever. Doctors came and went, their faces growing more serious each time. Ethan remained unconscious, his small chest rising and falling in a rhythm that seemed too slow.
Finally, Dr. Chen returned with another doctor—a woman in her fifties with kind eyes and a serious expression.
"Ms. Hart, this is Dr. Sarah Winters. She's a pediatric cardiac specialist."
My heart stopped.
Cardiac.
Heart.
"Your son has a rare congenital heart condition," Dr. Winters said gently. "His heart isn't pumping blood efficiently. That's why he collapsed."
"Can you fix it?" My voice sounded like it was coming from underwater.
"Yes, but he needs surgery. Soon." Dr. Winters paused. "I only operate at one hospital—Mount Sinai. And there's a waiting list unless we can get special authorization."
"I'll pay anything—"
"It's not about money. It's about access to the surgical wing. The main donor for the cardiac center controls most of the authorization."
My mouth went dry. "Who's the main donor?"
Dr. Winters checked her tablet. "The Blackwell Foundation."
The room spun.
Adrian Blackwell's foundation. Adrian's hospital. Adrian's power.
To save my son's life, I'd have to ask help from the man who destroyed mine.
And he'd finally discover the secret I'd kept for five years.