For several seconds, I thought I had misheard him.

Serena.

The woman Adrian had chosen over me.

The woman whose name had ended my marriage.

The woman I had not seen in six years.

And somehow, she had been on the same flight as my children.

My fingers tightened around Mia’s hand.

“No.”

Adrian’s expression hardened.

“Elena—”

“No.” I stepped backward, pulling both children closer. “Serena doesn’t know my children. She doesn’t know where I live. She doesn’t even know I came back.”

Marcus’s face told me otherwise.

Adrian glanced toward him.

“Tell her.”

Marcus hesitated.

“Three months ago, after Miss Mia’s genetic information entered the donor network, someone accessed the file illegally.”

My stomach turned.

“Who?”

“We traced the access through several intermediaries. The original request came from a medical foundation.”

Adrian’s voice became ice.

“Owned by Serena Blake.”

I stared at him.

That was impossible.

Or perhaps I simply needed it to be impossible.

Behind us, security officers moved rapidly through the terminal. Passengers were being redirected away from one corridor, confused voices rising beneath the announcement system.

Noah tugged my sleeve.

“Mom?”

I looked down.

He was trying to appear brave for his sister.

Exactly the way I used to pretend I was brave for myself.

I crouched in front of them.

“Stay beside me. No matter what happens.”

Mia nodded.

Noah looked past me toward Adrian.

“Is he really our dad?”

Silence.

Adrian froze.

It was the first time either child had said the word in front of him.

I had imagined this moment before, usually during sleepless nights when Noah asked why other children had fathers waiting outside school.

In my imagination, Adrian was distant.

Unimportant.

A stranger whose absence no longer hurt.

But now he was standing five feet away, looking at Noah as though one small question had dismantled every wall inside him.

“Yes,” Adrian said quietly.

Noah studied him.

“Then why weren’t you there before?”

Adrian Cole, the man who could silence boardrooms with one look, had no answer for a six-year-old boy.

His jaw moved once.

“I didn’t know about you.”

Noah turned toward me.

“Mom knew.”

The accusation wasn’t there.

That made it worse.

“I’ll explain everything later,” I whispered.

Before Adrian could speak again, Marcus pressed a hand to his earpiece.

His expression changed.

“We have her.”

Adrian immediately straightened.

“Where?”

“Private lounge C. Security found Serena attempting to leave through the service entrance.”

“Did she have anything with her?”

Marcus looked at me.

That hesitation made my pulse jump.

“A folder containing Mia’s medical records.”

I felt cold all over.

Adrian’s face became terrifyingly still.

“Take the children to the car.”

“No.”

He turned toward me.

“Elena.”

“I’m coming.”

“Absolutely not.”

I almost laughed.

Six years apart, and he still thought he could give orders.

“You blocked an airport, surrounded my children with security, told me someone has been harming my daughter, and now you expect me to sit quietly in your car?”

“This may be dangerous.”

“She is my daughter.”

His eyes flashed.

“And mine.”

The words struck between us.

I stepped closer.

“Then start acting like her father and stop trying to control her mother.”

Something unreadable passed across his face.

Before he could reply, Mia coughed softly.

Adrian’s attention snapped toward her.

She looked pale.

Too pale.

“Mia?”

“I’m okay,” she whispered.

I touched her forehead.

Cold.

My medical instincts overpowered everything else.

“We need to get her somewhere warm.”

Adrian immediately removed his coat.

I almost refused it.

Then Mia shivered.

Pride became irrelevant.

I wrapped it around her shoulders.

The coat nearly swallowed her.

She looked down at it, then unexpectedly smiled.

“It smells nice.”

Adrian turned his face away.

But not before I saw his eyes redden.

Marcus arranged for two female security officers to remain with Noah and Mia inside a nearby private suite.

I resisted until Noah touched my arm.

“Mom, go find out who hurt Mia.”

His voice was frighteningly calm.

“I’ll protect her.”

My heart broke a little.

I kissed both of them.

“Do not leave this room.”

Then Adrian and I walked toward Lounge C.

Neither of us spoke.

Six years ago, I had followed him through a storm, begging him not to leave me for Serena.

Now he walked beside me toward the same woman, and there was no love in his face.

Only fury.

Security opened the lounge door.

Serena Blake sat inside.

For one surreal moment, she looked almost exactly as I remembered her.

Elegant.

Delicate.

Immaculate.

She wore a cream-colored dress beneath a camel coat, her dark hair falling neatly around her shoulders.

Then she saw me.

Her smile disappeared.

“Elena.”

My hands curled into fists.

“Why do you have my daughter’s records?”

Serena glanced at Adrian.

“Is that what they told you?”

Adrian placed the folder on the table.

“Explain.”

She gave a small, bitter laugh.

“You close an airport and have me dragged into a room like a criminal, and you want an explanation?”

“I want the truth.”

“The truth?”

Her eyes moved toward me.

Something cruel awakened inside them.

“The truth is Elena has been lying to you for six years.”

“That has nothing to do with Mia.”

“Oh, Adrian.” Serena shook her head. “It has everything to do with Mia.”

I stepped toward her.

“If you went near my daughter—”

“I never touched your daughter.”

“Then how did you get her records?”

Serena’s expression changed.

Not fear.

Satisfaction.

“You still don’t understand.”

She opened her handbag slowly.

Security moved forward, but she raised both hands.

“I’m taking out paper.”

She removed a sealed envelope.

Then she slid it across the table toward Adrian.

He didn’t touch it.

“What is that?”

“The reason I came back.”

Adrian stared at her.

Serena smiled faintly.

“Six years ago, Elena wasn’t the only woman hiding something from you.”

My skin prickled.

“Stop playing games.”

Serena ignored me.

“Do you remember the night you divorced her?”

Adrian’s face hardened.

“Of course.”

“You rushed to the hospital because everyone told you I was dying.”

My heartbeat slowed.

Something about her wording felt wrong.

Everyone told you.

Not because I was dying.

Serena leaned back.

“I wasn’t having a heart attack.”

Adrian went motionless.

I stared at her.

“What?”

“It was staged.”

The room seemed to tilt.

Serena’s eyes stayed on Adrian.

“Your grandfather wanted Elena gone. He believed she was making you weak, and he needed you completely dependent on the Cole family before the succession vote.”

Adrian’s voice dropped dangerously.

“My grandfather died four years ago.”

“Yes.”

“Are you saying he fabricated your medical emergency?”

Serena smiled without humor.

“I’m saying your divorce was arranged before Elena ever saw those papers.”

I couldn’t breathe.

Three years of wondering why I had not been enough.

Six years rebuilding myself from the humiliation.

And now she was telling me—

Adrian grabbed the envelope.

Inside was an old hospital report.

Then another document.

Then a photograph.

His face drained of color.

“What is this?”

Serena’s confidence finally cracked.

“Proof.”

Adrian looked at me.

Then back at the photograph.

I stepped forward.

“Let me see.”

He didn’t move.

“Adrian.”

Still nothing.

I tore the photograph from his hand.

It showed a hospital room.

Serena lay in the bed.

Beside her stood Adrian’s grandfather.

And beside him—

was my mother.

I stopped breathing.

My mother had died when I was nineteen.

Or at least, that was what I had believed.

On the back of the photograph was a handwritten date.

It had been taken two days before Adrian divorced me.

“That’s impossible,” I whispered.

Serena watched me carefully.

“No, Elena.”

Then she said the words that made every sound in the airport disappear.

“Your mother is alive.”

I stared at her.

Serena’s next sentence was barely above a whisper.

“And she is the person who asked me to find Mia.”