Chapter 226
“Let me have this, Ash,” Cailin said, her speech slightly slurred. “Just one night. I lost my sanctuary. I lost my anonymity. I almost lost my mind.”
“The pain meds are making you talk nonsense,” Ashley said softly.
“I deserve to talk nonsense!” Cailin laughed, though tears spilled down her face at the same moment. “Do you know what today is? It’s the anniversary.”
“Cailin…”
“Five years ago today,” Cailin whispered, tracing the rim of her glass with one finger. “I was on that table. In the clinic.”
In the booth directly behind them, separated only by a high velvet partition, Hilliard went completely still.
He had received a text from Vance an hour ago: Kegan’s got her stashed in the Obsidian Suite. His network is tough, but not for me. Booth 4. Don’t go in guns blazing. Just listen. He had bribed a waiter, slipped in through the service entrance with his heart hammering, and settled into the adjacent booth. Now he sat with his back to hers, holding his breath, straining to hear their hushed voices beneath the low thrum of music.
“I called him,” Cailin said, her voice breaking. “Ten times, Ash. I was bleeding. I was so scared. The doctor said I might not make it. He said the babies were in distress.”
Hilliard closed his eyes.
He remembered that day. He had been in a board meeting. His phone had been on silent. When he checked it afterward, he saw the missed calls. He had tried calling back, but she hadn’t answered. He assumed she was still angry about the argument they’d had that morning.
He hadn’t known she was dying.
“Charla answered on the eleventh call,” Cailin continued. “She said he was busy. She said they were celebrating.”
Hilliard’s fist tightened on the table. He hadn’t been celebrating. He had been working. Charla had answered his phone.
“I lay there,” Cailin sobbed quietly, “and I thought — if I die, he won’t even care. He’ll just marry her. And she’ll raise my babies. She’ll hurt them.”
“She tried,” Ashley said darkly.
“I saved them,” Cailin whispered. “Three of them. Tiny little things. Aron was so small — he fit in my hand. Davy didn’t cry for a whole minute. I thought he was gone.”
Hilliard’s heart shattered quietly in his chest.
He listened to the account of their birth. The trauma. The fear. The loneliness. He had missed every second of it — sitting in an office making money while his wife fought for the lives of his children entirely alone.
“And now he wants them,” Cailin said, her voice turning bitter. “He sees Elia’s mark and he thinks he owns her. He doesn’t know about the nights I stayed up watching them breathe. He doesn’t know about the fevers. The nightmares.”
“He doesn’t deserve them,” Ashley agreed.
“He thinks he can just walk in,” Cailin said. “Because he has money. Because he has a name. He thinks that makes him a father.” She set her glass down hard on the table. “He’s not a father. He’s a donor. A sperm donor who broke my heart.”