Chapter 5

“Move.” The voice was so cold that the entire hallway went silent.

Then another voice came from behind it, tense and urgent. “Did you find our sister?”

Elena frowned in confusion. Sister?

The word barely settled in her mind before the hospital room door opened.

Five men entered first. All tall. All dangerous. All dressed in black suits that screamed power and old money.

Then the sixth man entered. The entire room changed the moment he stepped inside.

The nurses near the doorway straightened nervously. Even Doctor Miz seemed caught off guard.

The man was devastatingly handsome in a cold, dangerous way. Sharp jaw. Gray eyes. Dark coat fitted perfectly against his tall frame.

Everything about him screamed control. Power. The kind of man who looked born to command rooms without raising his voice.

His eyes moved across the room once before stopping on her. And then he went completely still.

Her heart beat strangely because the way he looked at her…It didn’t feel like curiosity. It felt deeper than that.

Like someone staring at something they thought they had lost forever.

Nobody spoke for several long seconds.

Behind him, Julian suddenly inhaled shakily. “Oh my God…”

Elena’s confusion deepened. Why were they looking at her like that?

Then the gray-eyed man’s gaze slowly dropped to the silver crescent moon necklace resting against her collarbone.

The moment he saw it, something inside him visibly cracked.

“Elena,” he said softly.

Her name sounded strangely personal coming from him.

Too familiar.

Too emotional.

Elena frowned uneasily. “Do… do I know you?”

Silence filled the room again.

The kind that made her heartbeat louder.

Finally, the man spoke.

“My name is Alexander Whitmore.”

Doctor Miz’s face changed immediately. The nurses near the door exchanged stunned looks.

Everyone knew that name.

Alexander Whitmore. Head of the Whitmore Consortium. One of the most powerful men in the world.

But Elena only stared at him blankly. “I think you have the wrong person.”

For a second, something painful flickered across Alexander’s face but it disappeared just as quickly.

“No,” he said quietly. “We finally found the right one.”

The words sent unease crawling down her spine.

Before Elena could reply, another man stepped forward. He looked younger than the others, but anger burned in his eyes.

Noah.

His eyes moved quickly across Elena’s pale face, the exhaustion beneath her eyes, the hospital bracelet around her wrist.

Then his expression darkened. “He hurt you?”

Elena blinked at him in surprise. “What?”

Noah looked ready to kill someone.

Behind him, a taller man with a scar near his jaw—Matteo—stared at her with open heartbreak in his eyes.

Dominic Whitmore finally spoke for the first time while tapping rapidly across a tablet.

“Five year marriage,” he said coldly. “Repeated public humiliation. Divorce finalized less than twenty-four hours ago.”

His eyes lifted toward Elena. “He’s lucky I didn’t meet him first.”

“Elena’s stomach twisted. Why were strangers reacting more angrily to her pain than Damian ever had?

“Elena.” Alexander’s quieter voice pulled her attention back to him.

His eyes hadn’t left her once. “Can you show me your necklace?”

Instinctively, Elena’s fingers closed around it. The necklace had always been precious to her. It was the only thing she had left from her mother.

“Why?” she asked carefully.

Alexander’s expression softened slightly.

“Please.”

She hesitated, then slowly lifted the necklace from under her shirt. “My mother gave it to me before she died.”

Alexander stiffened.

Julian covered his mouth sharply.

Raphael looked away for a moment like he was trying not to cry.

The emotions in the room suddenly felt too intense.

Elena looked at them nervously. “What’s going on? Who are you people?”

Alexander stepped closer. For the first time since entering the room, the perfect control on his face cracked.

“She wasn’t your mother.”

The words hit Elena so hard her brain refused to process them. For a second, she honestly thought she heard wrong.

“What?” Her voice came out weak.

Alexander reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an old photograph.

The edges were bent and worn from years of being touched and carried around.

He handed it to her carefully.

Elena looked down—And the world stopped moving.

A little girl sat smiling brightly in a garden beside six boys. They looked younger, happier.

And around the little girl’s neck was the exact same silver crescent moon necklace.

Elena stopped breathing. Her fingers trembled so badly the photograph nearly slipped from her hands.

No, that wasn’t possible.

Her mother had given her this necklace before dying. She remembered holding her hand in that tiny apartment. She remembered her mother pressing the necklace into her hands while lying weakly in bed.

So how could another little girl have it years earlier?

“That’s…” Her throat tightened painfully. “That’s my necklace.”

Alexander’s eyes turned red despite how hard he tried to stay composed. “You disappeared twenty years ago,” he said quietly.

Elena stared at him confused.

Nothing around her felt real anymore. The hospital room suddenly felt too hot.

“You were kidnapped during a charity event in Italy,” Alexander continued softly. “We searched for you for years.”

Elena shook her head weakly. “No…”

Because if this was true then who was she?

Everything she knew about herself suddenly felt unstable.

“I-I’m an orphan,” she whispered.

“No,” Noah said softly.

His eyes filled with emotion as he looked at her. “You’re our sister.”

Elena stared at all of them in disbelief. Things like this happened in movies.

Not real life.

Not to her.

Alexander looked at her carefully, like he was afraid she might break apart completely. “We know this is overwhelming,” he said quietly. “But you’re not alone anymore.”

Somehow those words hurt the most because Elena had been alone for so long. Especially during her marriage.

She remembered crying herself to sleep beside a man who never noticed. Remembered sitting alone at dinner tables.

Remembered begging quietly for love that never came.

A tear slipped down her cheek before she could stop it.

Noah looked devastated by it.

Raphael immediately grabbed tissues, his voice rough with anger. “Who made you cry this much?”

Dominic answered flatly without lifting his eyes from the tablet. “Her ex-husband.”

The atmosphere in the room instantly darkened.

Doctor Miz finally cleared her throat awkwardly. “Mr. Whitmore, Miss Elena is under serious emotional stress. I really don’t think this is the best time for—”

“I know exactly what condition she’s in, Doctor.” Alexander’s interruption was calm but absolute.

Then suddenly, the room tilted.

Elena swayed slightly. A sharp wave of dizziness crashed through her body. Her vision blurred.

The voices around her started sounding distant.

“Elena?” Julian moved first.

The ultrasound papers slipped from Elena’s trembling fingers just as her knees gave out. Strong arms caught her before she hit the floor.

At the same time, Julian bent quickly and grabbed the fallen papers. His eyes scanned the documents once then his entire expression changed.

He lifted his head toward Alexander. Shock filled the room again. “…She’s pregnant.”

Dominic took the papers immediately and scanned the report. “Stress complications,” he read coldly.

Raphael looked horrified, pacing back and forth, his eyes full of rage. “She came here alone like this?”

Alexander stood completely still beside Elena’s unconscious body. The silence around him no longer felt controlled. It felt dangerous.

His gaze shifted toward the ultrasound papers in Dominic’s hand.

Then he turned to Matteo, “Find out everything about Damian Lancaster.”