Chapter 3 - The Threat in the Public Ward
Facebook Hook: 😡 UNBELIEVABLE AUDACITY! The billionaire storms the public hospital to demand custody of the babies he rejected, but his ex-wife puts him in his place with a single sentence that leaves him trembling! 🤫💥 #Motherhood #Revenge #BillionaireKarma
The luxury SUV tore through the heavy rain, its tires splashing violently against the potholes of the city’s industrial district. Merrick didn't care about the speed limits. He didn't care that Tinsley was locked in the master bedroom of the mansion, screaming at his lawyers, or that his mother was currently sedated in a private clinic.
All he could see were those four tiny footprints.
Four sons and daughters. The very legacy he had begged for, the legacy he had humiliated Lennox to obtain, had been born in a rundown public hospital without his name on the birth certificates.
He slammed his fist against the steering wheel. "Why didn't she tell me?" he growled into the empty car. "She knew! She did this to ruin me!"
When Merrick stormed into the maternity ward of St. Jude's, he looked completely out of place. His expensive tuxedo jacket was gone, his white shirt was wrinkled and unbuttoned at the collar, and his eyes were wild.
"Where is Lennox Hargrove?" he demanded at the nurse's station, slamming his hand onto the counter.
The young nurse looked up, startled. "Sir, only immediate family is allowed in the recovery rooms—"
"I am her husband!" Merrick roared.
"Ex-husband," a cold, sharp voice corrected from down the hallway.
Merrick turned to see Catherine Evans standing there, her arms crossed over her white lab coat. Her face was completely devoid of the warmth she usually showed patients.
"Merrick," Catherine said, her voice dropping to a dangerous, quiet register. "You have a lot of nerve showing your face here after the circus you pulled tonight."
"Where are my children, Catherine?" Merrick stepped toward her, his stature intimidating, but Catherine didn't flinch an inch. "I know the truth. She hid them from me. She committed fraud during the divorce settlement!"
"She hid nothing," Catherine spat back. "You never asked. You were too busy buying diamonds for your mistress and telling the press that Lennox was broken. You wanted a divorce, Merrick. You signed the papers. You waived all rights to her medical history the second you kicked her out of your house."
"Take me to her. Now. Or I will buy this entire hospital by morning and fire every person on this floor," Merrick threatened, his teeth clenched.
Catherine smiled, a bitter, humorless expression. "Try it. The press is already outside the front doors, Merrick. Do you really want a video of you harassing a woman who just gave birth to quadruplets three hours ago to be the top story on the morning news?"
Before Merrick could answer, a door at the end of the corridor pushed open. Lennox stood there.
Merrick gasped. She looked pale, her dark hair damp with sweat, wearing a standard, faded hospital gown. She looked fragile, but as she walked toward him, leaning heavily on an IV pole, her eyes were like twin chips of flint. There was no fear in her. The soft, submissive woman he had divorced had vanished in the fire of childbirth.
"Let him through, Catherine," Lennox said softly.
Merrick pushed past Catherine and stopped a few feet from Lennox. For a moment, the silence between them was heavier than the storm outside.
"Lennox..." Merrick's voice cracked, a sudden, desperate emotion rising in his throat. "Four? You had four babies? Why didn't you tell me? If I had known, the divorce... Tinsley... none of that would have happened."
Lennox looked at him, and for the first time, she felt absolutely nothing. No anger, no sorrow. Just profound disgust.
"If you had known, you wouldn't have divorced me," Lennox stated flatly. "That means you don't want me, Merrick. You never did. You wanted a breeding machine. You wanted trophies to line up for your mother's approval."
"They are my blood, Lennox! They are Thornwells!" Merrick stepped closer, his voice rising again. "They belong in the mansion. They belong in private schools, with the best doctors, with my name! Do you think you can raise four infants in a cottage on a freelance designer's income? You will drown!"
"I would rather drown in poverty than let my children spend a single second breathing the toxic air of your house," Lennox replied, her voice steady and razor-sharp.
"I'm taking them," Merrick whispered, the billionaire's arrogance returning to mask his panic. "My lawyers will file for full custody by 8:00 AM. I will prove you hid this pregnancy maliciously. I will prove you are financially unfit to care for four children at once. You don't have the money to fight me, Lennox."
Lennox looked at him, a slow, terrifying smile spreading across her lips.
"Go ahead and file, Merrick," she whispered, leaning forward so only he could hear. "But before you do, you should ask your new wife about the medical files she intercepted six months ago. The ones from the elite clinic. You think I hid the pregnancy? Tinsley found out I was pregnant before the divorce was even finalized. She paid the clinic director to delete the records so you would go through with the wedding."
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Merrick froze, his heart stopping. "What?"
"Your new marriage is a crime scene, Merrick," Lennox whispered, her eyes glowing with absolute triumph. "And I’m about to let the whole world watch it burn."
