Chapter 6 - The Ghost of Elena
“Adrian…” Maya looked up from the paper, suddenly terrified by the look on his face. “The paternity test… it says you aren’t her father.”
Maya felt a fresh wave of panic hit her stomach. Would he throw them both out? Would he hire armies of lawyers to take Nora away out of spite? In the billionaire world Maya read about in tabloids, pride was everything.
Adrian walked toward her. He didn't look angry at her. He looked like an emperor preparing for war.
He pulled a chair out and sat directly across from her.
“Maya, listen to me very carefully,” Adrian said, his voice deep, calm, and utterly unwavering. “Two years ago, I believed Nora was my daughter. I have raised her. I have held her while she cried. I have wiped her tears. Blood did not make her my daughter. Love did.”
Maya’s throat tightened. “Adrian…”
“The man who got you pregnant,” Adrian continued, his eyes searching hers. “Where is he?”
“He was an intern at the diner,” Maya whispered bitterly. “When I told him I was pregnant, he took the cash register money and hopped on a bus to California. I haven't seen or heard from him since. He signed away all paternal rights on the hospital intake forms before he fled.”
Adrian nodded slowly. “Then he is irrelevant. Which leaves you, me, and Nora.”
Adrian reached into his pocket and placed a black leather ledger on the counter. It was Elena’s private journal, recovered from her personal safe in the study an hour ago.
“Elena didn't act alone,” Adrian said grimly. “Her sister Victoria and Dr. Catherine Ross—the chief obstetrician at Crestview—ran an illicit black-market baby brokering ring through the hospital’s charity ward. They targeted vulnerable, young, single mothers. Women with no money, no powerful families, and no resources to question a stillbirth certificate.”
Maya felt a shudder of pure, icy rage run down her spine. “They told me she was blue, Adrian. The nurse told me her heart had stopped beating before she was born. I sat in that hospital bed for three days listening to the mothers in the next rooms holding their crying babies, while my arms were empty!”
Maya slammed her fists onto the table, tears of fury blazing in her eyes. “I want them in prison! I want them ruined!”
“Prison is too gentle for what they did to you,” Adrian replied, his voice dangerously soft. “And I promise you, Maya, they will pay for every single tear you shed over an empty crib. But we have to move quickly. In five days, Nora turns two. Elena’s trust fund dictates that Victoria becomes co-trustee of forty million dollars unless Adrian Mercer presents the child and the biological mother for formal authentication.”
“Victoria doesn't know we have the test results yet,” Maya realized, her mind racing.
“Exactly,” Adrian said, a ruthless smile playing on his lips. “She thinks Nora is an untraceable orphan Elena bought off the books. She thinks you are just an inconvenient waitress who can be frightened away with money or threats.”
Adrian leaned across the table and covered Maya’s trembling hand with his own. His touch was warm, protective, and completely reassuring.
“I have a proposal, Maya,” Adrian said. “And it is the only way to protect Nora from the Vance family’s legal army.”
“What is it?”
“Marry me.”
Maya stared at him, completely dumbfounded. “What?”
May you like
“A legal marriage. Immediate, private, and binding,” Adrian stated calmly. “As my wife, you gain access to my legal teams, my security, and my resources. When Victoria tries to contest Nora’s custody or claim that you are unfit because of your financial status, you won't be a poor waitress fighting a dynasty. You will be Mrs. Adrian Mercer. And Nora will legally have both the mother she was stolen from, and the father who will burn the world down to protect her.”
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