Chapter 0002

•GISELLE•

“Adrian is sleeping, and we’ve stopped the bleeding. He has received a blood transfusion, and his fever should go down.”

“How is Aurora? Is she okay?”

“Aurora is having a hard time accepting the blood transfusion today. The nurses are still trying to stabilize her. We are trying everything we can, Miss Sullivan.”

“I want both my babies to be fine, Dr. Randall. Please tell me if there’s something I can do for my daughter.” I was panicking and unable to do anything without ensuring that my babies would be fine.

Aurora and Adrian had been in and out of hospitals all their lives because of their rare blood diseases.

They both had aplastic anemia, which was life-threatening and caused them many infections and countless trips to the hospital.

“We are still trying to find the twins’ HLA profile match for a stem cell transplant. As soon as there’s someone available for donation with the same HLA profile as the twins, it might save them years of treatment.”

“Do you mean to tell me there’s no one in this enormous country with the same HLA profile as them? If I must pay someone with their match to donate their stem cells, then tell me, and I’ll do it because I can’t bear seeing my kids in the hospital anymore. How am I supposed to feel as their mother when I can’t take their pain away when they cry for me?”

“That’s not in the hospital’s policies, Miss Sullivan. Our donors are private people, and they don’t expect to be paid. The twins are on the top list for stem cell donation and will receive it as soon as we find their match.”

Dr. Randall excused himself, and I took my cell phone from my pocket and called Connor.

He had been trying for over a year to find a permanent medical solution for my children.

“Elle, I was about to call you. How are you and the twins?”

I sniffed before I answered him and sat in the chair in the waiting room. “The twins are in the hospital for a blood transfusion. They were complaining all night about a headache and were feverish. I don’t know what to do anymore, Connor.”

“I know you won’t like the sound of this, but Noah might be the only stem cell donor. I am still doing my research and waiting for his DNA sample. Once I receive it from his doctor, I’ll tell you.”

For over five years, I had been raising the twins on my own after Noah had tried to force me to abort them because he wanted to be with Octavia.

It felt like a slap in the face to be expected to run back to him to save my kids from the pain they went through daily when they got hurt or contracted an infection.

I struggled with them during the first year after their birth. I had nothing and lived on what Connor gave me because I didn’t want to be a nuisance.

I struggled to make a living after Octavia’s parents had milked me dry of all the money my parents had left me.

When I started dating Noah, he made me invest in his company, promising to give me returns and make me his major shareholder. I did that because I trusted and believed him when he told me I would rule the Blackwood empire beside him.

Little did I know, I would wake up one day with five hundred dollars to my name, and nothing to make a living from when he left me for my foster sister.

“Noah can’t know about my kids. If I must pay millions of dollars for someone to donate their stem cells for my kids, I’ll do that without Noah’s help.”

“I promised to help the twins, Giselle, and I’ll help them in any way I can, even if that means we must arrange for you to come to California. Then you must.”

I hung up the call and leaned back in the chair, feeling my heart break all over again when I remembered everything that Noah had done to me when he forced me to abort my kids.

I waited for hours, standing, pacing, and asking every doctor I saw if I could see my kids.

Chloe came rushing to my side, showing me an email from Connor, and when I saw it, my heart shattered.

There was a solution for my kids to be well, but at the cost of meeting Noah again and asking for his help.

I knew I couldn’t do that, so I told Chloe to arrange a strategic plan for me to return to California.

When she told me Noah’s company had been struggling over the years after allegations of missing money in their senior accountant’s account, I saw it as an excellent opportunity to invest.

“Now that it’s done, what will you do when you arrive in California, ma’am?” Chloe asked after she had booked a first-class flight for me and the twins.

I stood up from the chair and went to see my kids. I didn’t want to answer her when I didn’t even know how to ask Noah to save my kids.

Things seemed better when he didn’t know they existed. So, the thought of telling him about them made me hate him a little more.

How could he save the kids he had wanted me to abort?

***

When I arrived in California with the kids, Connor took me to a private villa in Beverly Hills and left to get us food.

I watched over the kids, trying to ensure they were okay after the long flight from New York to California.

It was so cute seeing the twins sleep, holding hands and looking in different directions.

When I once tried to separate them, they cried throughout the night until I reunited them.

When I saw how cute they were, I took a video and anonymously sent it to Noah’s cell phone number.