CHAPTER 4

SIENNA BLAKE

The fluorescent lights of the billing department at St. Jude’s Central Hospital were giving me a massive headache. It had been three weeks since we moved back to the city, and my life had devolved into a repetitive cycle of numbers, spreadsheets, and endless stacks of medical invoices.

But I wasn't complaining. The job came with excellent health insurance that fully covered Aiden’s pediatric treatments. That alone made the long hours worth it.

"Sienna, can you take these files up to the executive wing on the top floor?" my supervisor, a harried woman named Martha, asked as she dropped a thick stack of folders onto my desk. "The board is reviewing the quarterly charity cases, and they need these records immediately."

"Sure, Martha. I'm on it," I said, stretching my stiff shoulders as I stood up.

I took the staff elevator, watching the floor numbers count up toward the penthouse level. I felt completely safe. I was just a low-level billing clerk, a ghost in a sea of thousands of hospital employees. There was no way a prestigious chief surgeon and billionaire heir like Adrian Cole would ever cross paths with someone delivering paperwork. He probably had his own private elevator anyway.

When the doors chimed open on the top floor, the atmosphere shifted instantly. The linoleum floors were replaced by plush, dark carpets, and the walls were lined with expensive mahogany panels. It looked more like a fortress for royalty than a hospital wing.

I hurried down the quiet corridor, keeping my head down. As I passed a set of heavy double doors labeled Chief of Surgery, the door swung open.

I froze, pulling the folders tightly against my chest.

A tall man stepped out, flanked by three older doctors in white coats and a pair of men in sharp tailored suits. He was broad-shouldered, carrying an air of absolute authority that made everyone else in the hallway seem insignificant. Even from a distance, I could see the sharp, aristocratic slope of his jawline and his dark, perfectly styled hair.

My heart violently misbehaved, hammering against my ribs.

It was him. Adrian Cole.

He was even more striking in person than he was in the news articles. His presence was suffocatingly powerful, radiating a cold, untouchable energy. He was giving instructions to his assistant in a deep, smooth baritone voice—the exact same voice that had growled in the darkness of that VIP suite five years ago.

Panic surged through my veins. I immediately pivoted on my heel, pressing myself against a vending machine in a small alcove just a few feet away. I held my breath, hiding my face behind the thick stack of files.

Please don't look this way. Please just keep walking.

I heard the heavy, rhythmic thud of his expensive leather shoes approaching. He walked right past my hiding spot, close enough that a faint whiff of his familiar cedarwood and high-end cologne drifted through the air. My lungs seized. I closed my eyes, praying to whatever deity was listening to make me invisible.

"We need the surgical theater prepared by two o'clock," Adrian's voice echoing down the hall grew fainter. "And make sure the board members have the updated contracts before the meeting begins."

Only when the sound of his footsteps completely faded did I finally let out the breath I was holding. My hands were shaking so badly that I almost dropped the folders. I hurried toward the administrative office, dumped the files on the desk, and practically ran back to the elevator. I needed to get back to the basement floors where I belonged. This was way too close for comfort.

Meanwhile, across town at the daycare, my three children were busy executing a mission of their own.

"Did you get the file, Aiden?" Asher whispered, leaning over the small plastic table in the daycare's play corner. He kept a sharp eye on the teacher, who was currently distracted by a toddler crying over a dropped crayon.

Aiden didn't look up, his small fingers flying across the screen of his modified tablet. "Bypassing the firewall of Mommy’s workplace was statistically simple. I am inside the employee directory now."

"Show me! Show me!" Ava giggled, hopping up and down in her sparkly sneakers.

Aiden tilted the screen. On it was a high-resolution corporate profile of Adrian Cole, Chief of Surgery and Chief Executive Officer of the Cole Medical Group.

Asher gasped, his jaw dropping as he stared at the picture. "He... he looks exactly like a bigger version of me."

"And he has the same serious eyebrows as you, Ash," Ava pointed out, tapping the screen with her tiny finger. "Look at his eyes. They look just like ours. He's totally our Daddy."

"According to my facial recognition algorithm, there is a ninety-nine point eight percent match in our DNA architecture," Aiden explained calmly, pushing his tiny glasses up his nose. "Mommy has been working very hard. She cries in the kitchen when she thinks we are asleep because the bills are too high. This male possesses an estimated net worth of five billion dollars. He can easily purchase a larger house and a spa package for Mommy."

Asher nodded solemnly, his little face hardening with determination. "Good. Mommy is always tired. It's our job to take care of her now. What's the plan, Aiden?"

"He is currently in his main office on the top floor of St. Jude's," Aiden said, showing a digital map of the hospital building. "The security protocols for the executive elevator can be overridden using a temporary bluetooth exploit I just coded. The afternoon recess is twenty minutes long. If we slip out through the unsecured kitchen door of the daycare, the train station is only a three-minute walk away."

"I'll handle the gatekeeper," Ava said with a mischievous grin, fluffing her pigtails. "If any adult tries to stop us, I'll just cry and say I lost my puppy. They always believe me."

"Alright," Asher commanded, standing up and zipping his little backpack. "Operation: Find Daddy is a go. Let's move out before the teacher looks back."

With Asher leading the way, Aiden navigating the digital maps, and Ava providing the perfect cover story, the three five-year-olds easily slipped past the distracted daycare staff and headed straight toward the heart of the city.