Chapter 4

Patricia’s POV

I thought the worst day of my life had already happened.

I was wrong.

I dragged my single black suitcase down the long, quiet driveway of the Anderson mansion, the heavy iron gates shutting behind me with a loud metal click. I didn't look back at the massive house once, even though the cold night rain was already soaking through my coat and plastering my hair to my face.

Everything I had known for the last five years was gone in less than an hour. My marriage, my home, and the entire future I had spent years imagining in my head had completely vanished into thin air.

I was walking down the long access road toward the main street to call a cab, my body numb, when a sudden, violent wave of dizziness hit me right in the head.

The wet pavement seemed to tilt sideways under my boots. My chest felt tight, a sharp wave of hot nausea washing over my throat so fast I couldn't breathe.

My legs completely gave out, and I collapsed onto the cold asphalt, my knees hitting the ground hard as I clutched my stomach, gasping for air.

A car pulled over to the side of the road with a sharp screech of tires, its bright headlights blinding me in the dark. A middle-aged woman jumped out of the driver's side, running over to me with a look of pure panic on her face.

"Oh my goodness, honey! Are you alright?" she yelled, grabbing my arms to help me sit up against the wet curb.

She quickly reached into her car and brought back a small bottle of water, twisting off the cap and handing it to me with a trembling hand. "Here, take a few sips of this. You are pale as a ghost. Let me take you to the emergency room right now."

"No, I... I am okay," I choked out, taking a small sip of the cold water to clear my throat. "It is just stress. I just need a minute."

"You are definitely not okay, dear," the woman insisted, looking at my soaked clothes and my single suitcase sitting on the curb. "Please, at least let me drive you to the nearest clinic. I can stay with you until your family comes."

"I don't have a family," I said quietly, wiping the rain and tears off my face. "Thank you for the water, but I can manage from here. Truly."

She hesitated for a long time, looking at me with worried eyes, but eventually let me stand up on my own feet.

I managed to order a ride on my phone and had the driver take me straight to a 24-hour private hospital on the other side of town. I just assumed the crazy amount of emotional stress, rain, and lack of sleep had made my body break down.

When I sat in the examination room, the nurses quickly took my vitals, ran some routine blood work, and wheeled in a small ultrasound machine to check my abdomen.

The doctor, a kind-looking woman with graying hair, moved the cold gel wand across my stomach while staring closely at the black-and-white screen beside the bed.

Suddenly, her polite smile completely vanished. Her eyes widened, and her whole expression changed into one of utter disbelief as she leaned closer to the monitor, tapping her fingers against the edge of the screen.

"Doctor?" I asked, my heart doing a strange, frantic leap in my chest. "Is something wrong? Do I have an ulcer or something?"

"Patricia," the doctor said, her voice dropping into a breathless whisper as she turned the screen directly toward me. "I need you to look right here."

She turned up the audio on the machine, and a strange, fast sound suddenly filled the quiet room. It sounded like tiny, rapid drumbeats playing all together in a wild rhythm.

Patricia hears the tiny heartbeats.

One...

Two...

Three...

Four.

"You aren't sick, Patricia," the doctor said, looking at me with total awe in her eyes. "You are pregnant. You are carrying quadruplets."

"Quadruplets?" I repeated, the word completely freezing in my throat. "Four... four babies?"

"Yes, four healthy, distinct sacs," she smiled, pointing her finger at four little dark shapes on the blurry screen. "It is extremely rare, but all four heartbeats are strong and beating steadily."

I sat on the paper-covered table, staring at the screen while my emotions spiraled out of control in a matter of seconds.

First came pure, overwhelming shock that made my head spin, followed by a sudden wave of terrifying fear. Four babies. I was completely alone, unemployed, and had just been thrown out of my husband's house with a single suitcase to my name.

How was I supposed to protect four tiny lives all by myself?

Then, right in the middle of that panic, a fierce, burning protectiveness flared up inside my chest like a fire I had never felt before in my life.

My mind instantly went to Maverick and the Anderson family. Old Mr. Anderson was obsessed with legacy, heirs, and corporate control.

If Maverick or his ruthless family ever found out I was carrying four Anderson heirs, they would use their endless money and powerful lawyers to tear those babies away from my arms before I could even hold them.

They would turn my children into cold, heartless corporate tools, raising them in the same icy, loveless environment that had just destroyed five years of my life.

Darbie would probably play stepmother, parading my kids around to look good for the media while Maverick ignored them just like he ignored me.

I realized the Anderson family can never find out.

I made a silent vow right there on the hospital bed, resting both of my trembling hands over my lower stomach, over those four tiny, brave heartbeats.

I decided I won't raise her children where love is conditional.

I would disappear from Chicago so completely that even Maverick's vast security network would never find a trace of us. I would work every day, sacrifice everything I had, and give these four babies a home filled with real warmth, love, and protection, even if it meant living a simple, quiet life forever.

I paid the clinic fees in cash, walked out of the bright hospital doors into the cool night air, and took a deep breath of the fresh wind.

For the first time since signing those papers...

I smiled.

"It'll just be the five of us.”