The Price of One Night

ADELINE'S POV

ONE YEAR LATER

I stood outside the Grandview Hotel at exactly eight PM, holding my son against my chest.

My hands were shaking.

Oliver was one year old today. He was healthy and handsome, he had dark hair like his father and grey eyes that looked up at me with complete trust.

He had no idea I was about to hand him over to a man who'd called him a problem.

"I can't do this," I whispered, pressing my face against Oliver's soft hair but I had no choice.

I'd spent the last year working every job I could find, barely surviving on one meal a day so Oliver could eat.

Last week, my landlord evicted me.

I had three days to find housing and forty-seven dollars to my name.

Oliver deserved better than sleeping in a motel.

Damien Hartley had offered half a million dollars.

All I had to do was hand over my baby.

I walked through the hotel doors and there he was.

Sitting in the same spot, wearing a suit that cost more than I'd make in five years, looking even more devastating than I remembered.

He looked up, his grey eyes locking on Oliver immediately.

"You came." His voice was rough.

"You said to meet you here. May tenth. Eight PM."

Damien stood slowly. "How old?"

"One year today."

"Let me see him."

"No." I stepped back. "Not yet."

"You came here to give him to me. Let me see my son."

"Our son." My voice cracked. "He's ours."

"Biology doesn't make you a mother. Can you feed him? Clothe him? Give him a future?" His grey eyes were merciless. "Or are you here because you finally realized I was right?"

Tears burned my eyes. "I'm here because I don't have a choice."

"There's always a choice." He pulled out a checkbook. "Half a million as promised."

He started writing.

"Wait." My voice shook. "I need something first."

"What?"

"One more hour with him. Just one hour to say goodbye."

Damien's jaw clenched. "No."

The word hit like a physical blow.

"Please after tonight, I'll never see him again. Just give me one more hour."

"You had a year, Adeline. Three hundred and sixty-five days." Damien stepped closer. "One more hour won't change anything except making this harder."

"I don't care if it's harder! He's my son!"

"Then keep him." Damien put away his checkbook. "Walk out right now and raise him in whatever car or shelter you're living in. Watch him go hungry. Watch him get sick because you can't afford a doctor."

His words were knives.

"That's not fair—"

"Life isn't fair. I'm offering you a way out. Take it or leave it. But I'm not giving you an hour to torture yourself."

"You're a monster."

"I'm practical." He held out his hands. "Give me my son."

"No." I backed away. "I changed my mind. I'll figure something out—"

"You'll what? Continue living in a motel with a one-year-old?" Damien stepped closer. "I had you investigated and I know you were evicted.”

Horror washed over me. "You've been watching me?"

"I needed to make sure he was safe until I could take him."

"He's not your son when you told me to abort him!"

"And yet here we are. You kept him." His eyes were cold. "Now give him to me before I call child services and have him removed for neglect."

"I'm not neglecting him!"

"You're homeless. That's textbook neglect." He pulled out his phone. "Give me my son or I'll take him anyway and you won't get a dime."

Oliver started crying, sensing my panic.

"Please," I begged. "Please don't do this. He's all I have."

"Then you should've thought of that before you kept a baby you couldn't afford."

"I thought I could make it work!"

"You thought wrong." He started dialing. "My lawyer will have child services here in twenty minutes or you can hand Oliver over voluntarily and walk away with money to start over."

"Wait!" The word tore from my throat. "Don't call them."

"Then give me my son."

I looked down at Oliver at his grey eyes looking up at me with complete trust and his tiny hands gripping my shirt.

At the baby I'd loved more than anything in the world.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered to him. "Please forgive me."

I kissed his forehead one last time then I held him out to Damien with shaking hands.

Damien took him.

Oliver immediately started screaming, reaching for me, crying and screaming….

"He's scared!" I moved toward them. "Let me calm him down—"

"No." Damien stepped back. "You'll make it worse."

Oliver sobbed, his tiny hands reaching for me.

"Baby, I'm so sorry—"

"Leave, Adeline." Damien set a check on the bar. "Take the money and go."

Half a million dollars.

Blood money for my son.

"I hate you," I whispered. "I will hate you forever."

"I can live with that." Damien adjusted Oliver in his arms. "Can you live while walking away?"

Oliver was still crying, still reaching for me.

"Please," I begged one more time. "Let me hold him once more. Just to say goodbye. I'm begging you."

"No." His voice was hard. "You're jobless, homeless, unstable. You have nothing to offer except poverty. I can give him everything. Be grateful I'm paying you at all."

"Grateful?" Rage burned through tears. "You're stealing my baby!"

"I'm not stealing him. You're selling him." He gestured to the check. "That's the difference. I'm honest about what this is."

The words hit like a slap.

He was right.

I was selling my baby to survive.

"Take the money and leave. Start over somewhere far from here. Forget this happened."

"I'll never forget." My voice broke. "Never."

"Then remember it while you're spending my money." Damien walked toward the elevator with Oliver still crying. "Goodbye, Adeline. Don't contact me again."

The elevator doors started closing.

"WAIT!" I ran after them. "Please!"

The doors closed.

Oliver's cries faded away.

I stood in that hotel lobby, my arms empty, my chest torn open, my world destroyed.

I grabbed the check with shaking hands.

Stared at all those zeros.

Then I stumbled out of the hotel into the night, tears ran down my cheeks as I wept so I didn't see the car towards me or even heard the horn.

I only saw headlights and felt the impact.

My body flying through the air, .y head hitting the pavement and pain exploding through my skull then I blacked out.