“We don’t even know the full story,” he said. “And even if mistakes were made back then, dragging them into public view could collapse everything your father built.”
That was the moment Adrien understood.
Gregory was not afraid of the truth.
He was afraid of exposure.
Adrien took one step closer to the table.
“How much do you know?”
Gregory’s silence answered first.
Then his jaw shifted.
“Enough.”
Before Adrien could push further, his phone began vibrating in his pocket.
He ignored it.
It rang again.
And again.
Irritation flashed across his face as he pulled it out, ready to silence it—until he saw the hospital number.
He answered immediately.
“What is it?”
The nurse on the other end sounded breathless.
“Mr. Cole, it’s Mara. She’s having severe pain and early contractions. The doctors need to move quickly.”
For one second, the boardroom vanished.
All Adrien saw was Mara in that rain-soaked alley, collapsing because the world had already taken too much from her.
“I’m on my way.”
He ended the call and looked up.
Gregory started to speak.
“Adrien, this meeting isn’t finished.”
“It is for you,” Adrien said coldly.
Then, in front of the entire board, he picked up the folder and added, “Lock every archive room. Freeze Gregory Shaw’s access. And if one file disappears before I return, I’ll make sure the police are the next people asking questions.”
No one moved.
No one argued.
Adrien turned and walked out.
By the time he reached the hospital, the storm inside him had become something else entirely.
Not rage.
Resolve.
Because while Mara fought to keep her child alive, the truth was finally forcing its way into the light.
And this time, Adrien was no longer deciding whether to protect the family name.
He was deciding how much of it deserved to survive.
By the time Adrien reached the maternity floor, the hospital hallway was already thick with tension.
Nurses moved quickly past him. A doctor was speaking urgently near the nurses’ station. Somewhere behind the closed doors ahead, Mara was crying out in pain, and each sound hit Adrien harder than he expected.
He stopped outside the delivery room, his chest tight.
For a man who had spent years controlling outcomes, solving crises, and commanding entire rooms with a single sentence, this moment was unbearable.
There was nothing to negotiate.
Nothing to threaten.
Nothing to buy that could guarantee the life of the woman inside—or the child she had fought so hard to protect.
A doctor approached him with a grave expression.
“She went into labor too early. Her body is exhausted, and the stress has made things worse. We’re doing everything we can.”
Adrien looked toward the door.
“Will they survive?”
The doctor hesitated.
And that hesitation said more than words.
“We’re trying,” she said.
Trying.
That word again.
Adrien ran a hand over his face and stepped back against the wall.
