I helped prepare the documents.
I am ashamed that I obeyed.
Copies of the original files and payment records are stored with attorney Nadia Flores.”
Evelyn reached for the device.
Ethan stepped back.
“Did you alter the recording?”
“You are emotional,” she replied.
“That woman planned this carefully.”
“Did you alter it?”
“Everything I did was to protect the company you inherited.”
“I did not ask what you believed.”
His voice lowered.
“I asked whether you forged my words.”
Evelyn glanced at the security officers.
“Escort him to a private room until he calms down.”
Neither man moved.
Ethan looked at them.
“Who signs your employment authorizations?”
“You do, sir,” one answered.
“Then take Mrs.
Brooks downstairs.
Revoke her building access and notify corporate counsel that no files may be deleted, transferred, or altered.”
Evelyn stared at her son as if he had become a stranger.
“You would humiliate your own mother for a woman who abandoned you?”
“She did not abandon me.”
His eyes dropped to the phone.
“You removed her.”
Before Evelyn could respond, a doctor hurried through the double doors.
“Mr.
Brooks?”
Ethan crossed the corridor immediately.
“Your wife is in premature labor.
The baby’s heart rate is unstable, and we believe the umbilical cord may be compressed.
We need to perform an emergency cesarean delivery.”
All the fury left his face.
“Is Claire safe?”
“We are doing everything we can.
She is asking for you.”
Ethan followed the doctor without looking back.
I was already inside the operating room when he entered wearing blue scrubs and a mask.
Bright lights glowed above me.
Machines pulsed in steady rhythms, and a nurse held my hand while the anesthesiologist explained what would happen.
When I saw Ethan, the fear I had been containing broke loose.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He came to my side.
“Not now.”
“You deserved to know.”
“And you deserved to know the truth.”
He pressed his forehead against mine.
“We can be angry later.
Right now, you stay with me.”
The surgery began.
Ethan kept one hand around mine and told me to breathe whenever panic tightened my chest.
He did not look toward the doctors.
He watched my face as though keeping his eyes on me could hold both the baby and me in the world.
