Chapter 1 - THE GIRL IN THE PINK COATEthan Parker had built his empire by learning one simple rule:
Never let emotion make the decision.
That rule had made him rich.
It had also made him cruel.
Now, standing inside Central Hospital, watching a five-year-old girl beg a doctor to save her mother, Ethan felt something he had not experienced in years.
Fear.
Not fear for himself.
Fear of recognition.
“Hannah Whitmore,” the receptionist had said.
The name still echoed inside his head.
Ethan turned toward the child.
The little girl was sitting against the hospital wall, clutching a soaked pink coat around her tiny body.
“Mommy always gets better,” she whispered.
Ethan swallowed.
Five years earlier, Hannah had stood in his office.
She had been twenty-seven, exhausted, underpaid, and raising a newborn daughter alone.
She had discovered irregularities in one of Parker Holdings' largest accounts.
She had brought Ethan the documents.
“I think someone is stealing from the company,” she had told him.
Ethan hadn't even looked at the evidence.
His board had already decided Hannah was becoming a problem.
So he had destroyed her.
“You're fired.”
She had stared at him.
“Mr. Parker, please. I need this job.”
“You should have thought about that before accusing senior executives.”
“I wasn't accusing anyone. I was showing you the numbers.”
Ethan had pushed the documents back across the desk.
“Security will escort you out.”
Hannah had cried.
Not loudly.
That had somehow made it worse.
She had stood in the doorway and said:
“One day you'll realize I was telling the truth.”
Ethan had never seen her again.
Until today.
“Mr. Parker?”
He looked up.
The chief surgeon was standing beside him.
“We need to talk.”
Ethan's stomach tightened.
“How bad?”
The surgeon hesitated.
“Your donation is being processed, but unfortunately money can't solve everything.”
“What happened to Hannah?”
“She has a severe intracranial hemorrhage. We're operating now.”
Ethan looked at Lily.
“Is she her daughter?”
“Yes.”
The little girl suddenly noticed Ethan.
She stood.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
“Are you a doctor?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
Ethan couldn't answer.
Lily looked toward the operating-room doors.
“Please.”
Her tiny voice cracked.
“Please don't let my mommy die.”
Ethan crouched in front of her.
He had negotiated billion-dollar acquisitions without blinking.
But now his hands were shaking.
“I'll do everything I can.”
Lily studied him.
Then she asked the question that destroyed the last wall around his heart.
“Are you my daddy?”
May you like
Ethan froze.
The entire lobby seemed to disappear.
