At 7:12 the next morning, Adrian Foster received a phone call that changed everything.
He was sitting in the private dining room of the Foster estate.
Across from him, Isabella Grant was pouring coffee.
His mother, Eleanor Foster, was already discussing which specialists should be hired for the quadruplets.
Then Adrian’s phone rang.
He answered impatiently.
“What?”
The voice on the other end trembled.
“Mr. Foster… the babies are missing.”
Adrian stopped breathing.
“What did you say?”
“The four newborns. They’re gone.”
The coffee cup slipped from Isabella’s fingers.
It shattered against the marble floor.
Eleanor stood so quickly that her chair fell backward.
“Gone?”
Within forty minutes, the Foster family occupied nearly an entire floor of the hospital.
Security guards blocked every exit.
Doctors were questioned.
Nurses were crying.
The hospital director looked as if he might collapse.
Adrian stood inside the empty newborn room.
Four incubators.
Four folded blankets.
Four identification cards.
No babies.
His face was terrifyingly calm.
“Find Maya.”
Nobody answered.
He turned.
“I said find my wife.”
His assistant lowered his eyes.
“Sir… Miss Lin checked out during the night.”
Something flickered across Adrian’s expression.
“She had surgery yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“She could barely walk.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re telling me nobody saw her leave?”
Silence.
Adrian grabbed the security report.
Most footage showed nothing unusual.
Then they found one recording.
At 2:16 a.m., a masked cleaner pushed a service cart into a restricted corridor.
Twenty-three minutes later, the same figure left.
Adrian stared at the screen.
He knew that walk.
Even beneath loose clothes.
Even while she was clearly in pain.
“Maya.”
His mother turned pale.
“You think she took them?”
Adrian said nothing.
Eleanor suddenly became furious.
“She kidnapped Foster heirs!”
Adrian slowly looked at her.
“They’re her children.”
The words came automatically.
Everyone froze.
Even Adrian seemed surprised that he had said them.
Eleanor’s face hardened.
“They belong to this family.”
That sentence disturbed him more than it should have.
Because yesterday, he would probably have said exactly the same thing.
His phone rang again.
This time it was the bank.
The five-hundred-million-yuan check had been deposited.
Adrian almost laughed.
So that was her plan.
Take his money.
Take the children.
Disappear.
He immediately ordered every Foster family connection activated.
Airports.
Private terminals.
Hotels.
Highways.
Hospitals.
But by noon, they had found nothing.
Maya Lin had vanished.
So had Sophie.
And so had the four children.
It was as though the earth had swallowed five people.
Then Adrian remembered something.
The divorce agreement.
He rushed back to the hospital room.
Everything remained exactly as Maya had left it.
Flowers.
Water.
Medication.
Bloodstained sheets.
On the bedside table sat a small envelope.
His name was written across it.
ADRIAN.
He opened it.
There was only one sentence.
“You bought my disappearance. Don’t complain about the price.”
His fingers tightened around the paper.
For the first time since childhood, Adrian Foster felt completely powerless.
Behind him, Isabella entered quietly.
“Adrian.”
He didn’t turn.
She touched his arm.
“Maybe this is for the best.”
His head moved slightly.
“What?”
Isabella swallowed.
“I mean… Maya clearly planned this. A woman capable of stealing four newborn babies probably shouldn’t raise them.”
Adrian stared at her.
“They’re hers.”
“They’re Foster heirs.”
“You just called them babies yesterday.”
Isabella froze.
Adrian’s gaze sharpened.
Something had changed.
Yesterday he had wanted freedom.
Today the empty incubators had turned that freedom into something strangely unbearable.
Not because of inheritance.
Not entirely.
He remembered Maya trying to sit up.
Her face had been white from pain.
He had watched without helping her.
He remembered throwing the check.
Remembered telling her it was more than she deserved.
And suddenly he wondered what she had thought while signing.
Had she already known she was leaving?
Had that been why she hadn’t cried?
His assistant entered.
“Mr. Foster.”
“We found something.”
Adrian immediately turned.
“A private medical aircraft departed at 4:05 this morning.”
“Destination?”
“Switzerland.”
Eleanor nearly shouted.
“Then send people!”
The assistant hesitated.
“The passenger manifest lists only two medical specialists.”
Adrian narrowed his eyes.
“And?”
“The aircraft belongs to Lin Biomedical Holdings.”
Silence descended.
Adrian had never heard that name.
His assistant placed a tablet on the table.
“Lin Biomedical is privately held. It owns neonatal technology laboratories, medical logistics companies and several specialized clinics across Europe.”
Adrian scanned the page.
Then his eyes stopped on the ownership section.
Controlling shareholder:
Maya Lin.
Adrian stared at the name.
Once.
Twice.
Impossible.
The woman he had married had supposedly come from an ordinary family.
No powerful relatives.
No significant assets.
No corporate background.
For three years, everyone in the Foster household had treated her as someone fortunate enough to marry upward.
Even Adrian had believed it.
His assistant continued carefully.
“There’s more.”
He opened another document.
“Yesterday, shortly after the divorce became legally effective, ownership of several trusts was activated.”
“How much?”
The assistant looked uncomfortable.
“Preliminary valuation exceeds thirty billion dollars.”
Eleanor sat down.
Isabella’s face lost its color.
Adrian didn’t move.
Five hundred million.
Yesterday, he had thrown five hundred million at Maya as though it were enough to purchase her gratitude.
To her, it might have been pocket change.
But that wasn’t what disturbed him most.
“Why did she hide this?”
Nobody answered.
Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away, Maya opened her eyes inside a private clinic overlooking Lake Geneva.
The first thing she heard was crying.
Her heart jumped.
She tried to sit up.
A nurse immediately stopped her.
“Ms. Lin, please don’t move.”
“My babies.”
“They’re safe.”
The door opened.
Sophie entered carrying one of the quadruplets.
Behind her came three nurses, each holding another.
Maya’s eyes filled with tears.
For the first time since the operation, she allowed herself to cry.
Not from pain.
From relief.
Sophie placed the smallest baby against her chest.
“You did it.”
Maya kissed his forehead.
“No.”
She looked at all four children.
“We did.”
Sophie smiled.
“Your grandfather has been informed.”
Maya’s expression changed.
“Already?”
“He found out before we landed.”
Maya closed her eyes.
That was bad.
Very bad.
Because Adrian Foster believed the Foster family was powerful.
He had never met the man Maya had spent years hiding from everyone.
Lin Zhenghai.
Her grandfather.
The man who controlled one of Asia’s largest private medical and technology networks.
The man who had opposed her marriage from the beginning.
Three years earlier, when Maya insisted she loved Adrian, her grandfather had given her one condition.
If she chose Adrian, she would live without the Lin name.
No money.
No protection.
No interference.
Maya had agreed.
She wanted Adrian to love Maya.
Not the Lin heiress.
Now she understood how foolish that dream had been.
The door suddenly opened again.
An elderly man entered.
Silver hair.
Black cane.
Expression colder than winter.
Everyone immediately stepped aside.
Maya looked at him.
“Grandfather.”
Lin Zhenghai stopped beside her bed.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he looked at the four babies.
His expression softened.
Only slightly.
“You nearly died for that man.”
Maya lowered her eyes.
“I know.”
“You gave him four sons.”
“I gave myself four sons.”
That answer made the old man pause.
Then he nodded.
“Good.”
He turned toward Sophie.
“Prepare the announcement.”
Maya frowned.
“What announcement?”
Her grandfather looked at her.
“The world has spent three years believing my granddaughter disappeared.”
His eyes became sharp.
“It’s time they learned where you went.”
Back in the Foster estate, Adrian was still studying Maya’s corporate records when every phone in the room began vibrating simultaneously.
News alerts.
Business channels.
Social media.
Financial networks.
One headline appeared everywhere.
LIN BIOMEDICAL CONFIRMS RETURN OF LONG-MISSING HEIRESS MAYA LIN.
Underneath was a photograph.
Maya.
Not wearing hospital clothes.
Not standing behind Adrian.
Not introduced as Mrs. Foster.
It was an old corporate portrait.
Elegant.
Confident.
Untouchable.
Beside her name were the words:
Sole successor to the Lin family.
Eleanor whispered:
“Oh my God.”
But Adrian barely heard her.
Because another notification appeared.
Lin Biomedical had announced the creation of four inheritance trusts.
Four beneficiaries.
Four newborn boys.
Their surnames were listed publicly.
Lin.
Not Foster.
Adrian’s face hardened.
Then his assistant’s phone rang.
He answered.
After several seconds, his expression became strange.
“Mr. Foster…”
“What?”
“There’s someone at the gate.”
“Who?”
Before the assistant could answer, the doors of the dining room opened.
A lawyer entered accompanied by six men in black suits.
He placed a thick envelope in front of Adrian.
“Mr. Foster, I represent Miss Maya Lin.”
Adrian stared at him.
“What does she want?”
The lawyer smiled professionally.
“Nothing.”
He slid the document forward.
“She has already received everything she wanted.”
Adrian opened it.
His expression changed.
It wasn’t a custody petition.
It wasn’t a financial demand.
It was a legal notice.
Maya was challenging the Foster family’s claim over the children.
And attached to the final page was something else.
A sealed laboratory report.
Adrian’s hand stopped.
Four DNA results.
Four names.
Four percentages.
He looked up sharply.
“What is this?”
The lawyer’s smile disappeared.
“Miss Lin asked me to tell you something before you open those reports.”
Adrian’s heart began pounding.
The lawyer leaned forward.
“She said you should be absolutely certain you want to know who the father of those four children is.”
And for the first time since the babies disappeared, Adrian realized Maya might have been hiding something far bigger than her fortune.
