I didn't turn around. I couldn't. If I turned, he might see the slight tremor in my fingers—the only part of me that still remembered how it felt to be his.
"The clock is dead, Asher," I said, my back to him. "And so is the woman you're looking for."
"Is his name Leo?"
The sound of my son's name coming from his lips felt like a violation. It was too intimate, too paternal. I squeezed the legal papers in my hand until the edges crinkled.
"His name is none of your business," I hissed.
"He has my mother's eyes, doesn't he?" Asher's footsteps were silent on the plush carpet, but I could feel the heat of him moving closer. He stopped just inches away—close enough for me to smell the familiar, expensive scent of sandalwood and rain. "I saw him in the lobby of the pediatric wing yesterday. A little boy with a shock of dark hair and a laugh that sounded like... music I haven't heard in years."
I spun around then, my professional mask slipping for a fraction of a second. "You followed us? After I warned you?"
"I didn't have to," Asher replied softly. His voice lacked its usual iron; it was hollow, almost haunted. "I've spent five years seeing your face in every crowd, Chloe. Do you think I wouldn't recognize my own blood? He was holding a toy stethoscope. He told a nurse he was going to be a 'heart fixer' just like his mama."
A lump formed in my throat. Leo—so innocent, so proud of me. He had no idea that the "heart fixer" was currently struggling to keep her own from shattering.
"I saved your brother's life Asher," I said, my voice regaining its icy edge. "Consider that my final gift to the Reed family. The debt is paid. My hands are clean of you."
"I tried to pay the hospital bill," Asher rasped, taking a step toward me. "They told me the surgical suite, the recovery wing, even the staff bonuses—they were already covered. By you."
I offered him a thin, joyless smile. "I don't need your blood money, Asher. I am the Chief of Surgery and a majority shareholder in this facility. I don't work for you. I don't work for anyone."
Asher flinched as if I'd physically struck him. The "timid Chloe" who used to ask for a grocery allowance was gone. In her place was a woman who could buy and sell his secondary businesses without blinking.
"What do you want then, Chloe? If not money, if not status... Why save him?"
"Because I am a doctor," I whispered, leaning in so close I could see the desperation in his dark pupils. "And because I wanted you to know, every time you look at your brother, that he is only breathing because the woman you discarded was 'genius' enough to fix what you broke."
The silence that followed was deafening. Asher reached out, his hand hovering near my cheek, but he didn't touch me. He knew I would destroy him if he did.
"One chance," he pleaded. It was the first time I had ever heard a Reed beg. It was intoxicating. "Not for the Mafia. Not for the 'Family.' Just for me. Let me see him once. If he's afraid of me, I'll sign the waiver and disappear. I'll walk into the sea if that's what it takes to make you believe I've changed."
I looked at him—the man who had been my nightmare and my only love.
"One dinner," I finally said, the words feeling like a betrayal to my own soul. "No lawyers. No talk of the past. If you can convince me in two hours that you won't poison his life... I'll consider a supervised visit. But if you step out of line, Asher, I will use my influence to bury you deeper than you buried me."
Asher bowed his head. "One dinner. I'll be waiting."
I turned and walked out, the click of my heels echoing like a countdown. I had won the battle, but as I reached the elevator, my phone vibrated in my pocket.
It was a message from Leo's nanny. My heart dropped into my stomach.
[7:42 PM]: "Dr. C, Leo found an old photo in your nightstand while looking for his crayons. He's asking why the man in the picture looks like the King on the news."
The blood drained from my face. The secret wasn't just at risk. It was already out. And Leo, with the stubbornness he inherited from the man downstairs, wasn't going to let it go.
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