After Sloane left for the NICU, Adalynn's gaze kept returning to the picture of Carlene on her phone.

To the bracelet.

The memory was so vivid it felt like it was happening now.

A year ago, Julian's company had been on the verge of a hostile takeover, and he had been a wreck, consumed by anxiety.

She'd spent two days praying for him, for his peace of mind, for the protection of his legacy.

She had crafted the bracelet herself as a lucky charm, hoping to bring him fortune.

When she gave it to him, he'd been moved to tears.

He'd kissed her and promised he would never take it off, that it would be a symbol of their unbreakable bond.

Now that symbol was on another woman's wrist, a trophy of his betrayal.

The memory, once a source of comfort, now felt like a shard of glass in her heart.

But she didn't flinch.

She let it cut.

Let it bleed.

Every scar from this moment forward would be a reminder of what she was fighting for.

Meanwhile, on the fifth floor of the very same hospital, Julian was trying to charm Mr. Knight, a key investor whose health was failing.

Carlene was by his side, playing the part of the concerned, attentive associate.

They had ridden the elevator up, completely unaware that Julian's wife was lying in a hospital bed two floors below, recovering from major surgery.

After the visit, they stopped by the nurses' station to inquire about scheduling a follow-up.

As they approached, they could hear two nurses, Patty Hicks and Olivia Price, talking in low voices.

"That poor woman in 302, Mrs. Craig," Patty said, shaking her head. "So beautiful, and she had to go through that emergency C-section all alone. The husband hasn't shown his face once."

Olivia sighed, refilling a cup with water. "I know. And the baby, a little girl, so premature she's still in an isolette. What kind of man misses a moment like that?"

Julian froze.

The name "Mrs. Craig."

The room number "302."

The word "C-section."

A cold feeling traced down his spine.

He turned to the nurses, his voice sharper than he intended. "What did you say the patient's name was?"

Patty looked up, startled. "Mrs. Craig. Adalynn Craig. She came in last night. Emergency C-section. Almost didn't make it. Why—do you know her?"

For one breath, for one heartbeat, the truth hung in the air between them.

Julian opened his mouth.

His mind raced, a frantic scramble of denial and a terrifying flicker of recognition.

Adalynn.

No.

It couldn't be.

And Carlene's hand clamped down on his arm.

"Julian," she said, her voice tight, her grip bruisingly insistent. "We're going to be late for your meeting."

He hesitated.

He looked at the nurses.

He thought of Adalynn—his wife, his pregnant wife, who was supposed to be at Sloane's, safe and angry at him, not bleeding out on an operating table.

But Carlene's grip was insistent, her nails digging into his sleeve.

And the truth was too big, too terrifying.

If he acknowledged it, everything would change.

He didn't want anything to change.

He wanted his comfortable lies.

So he didn't.

"No," he said, his voice flat. "I don't know her."

He turned away from the nurses' station and walked toward the elevator, Carlene's hand still on his arm.

He didn't look back.

But the words echoed in his head with every step: emergency C-section.

Almost didn't make it.

Husband hadn't shown his face once.

He knew.

Some part of him knew.

But he had already chosen not to care.

Just as they turned the corner, Sloane Hayes walked directly into their path, coming from the direction of the NICU.

Sloane stopped dead in her tracks.

A slow, dangerous smile spread across her face.

"Well, well. If it isn't Mr. Hawthorne," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Fancy meeting you here. Of all the hospitals in all the world."

Julian's face darkened. "Sloane. What are you doing here?"

Her eyes flicked dismissively over to Carlene, then back to him.

"I'm visiting a friend," she said, her voice sharp as a blade. "A friend whose husband was too busy wining and dining his mistress to answer his phone while she was bleeding out on the side of the road. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Julian?"

The blood drained from Julian's face.

For a split second, he looked like a man who had just been punched in the gut.

Carlene's grip on his arm tightened convulsively.

His carefully constructed facade of indifference was cracking.

"Watch your tone, Sloane," he managed, but his voice had lost its commanding edge.

It sounded weak.

Defensive.

Guilty.

Sloane just laughed, a cold, humorless sound.

She didn't give away a single detail about Adalynn's current condition.

She didn't need to.

"You'd better hope you haven't done anything you'll regret, Julian," she said, her smile vanishing. "Because I've seen what happens to men who cross the Hayes family. Spoiler alert—they don't recover. And you?" She looked him up and down with utter contempt. "You crossed the wrong woman. And you don't even know it yet."

Carlene, sensing the conversation was about to escalate into a full-blown scene, pulled Julian's arm again, more insistently this time. "Let's just go, Julian. She's not worth it."

Julian shot Sloane one last glare before letting Carlene lead him away.

The encounter left him feeling irritated and vaguely uneasy, but more than that—he felt exposed.

Sloane knew something.

Something about Adalynn.

Something he should know but was too afraid to ask.

Sloane watched them go, her fists clenched.

She took a deep, calming breath before turning back towards Adalynn's room.

She decided not to mention the run-in.

Adalynn didn't need the extra stress.

When she entered the room, her expression was bright.

"She's beautiful, Addy," she gushed, pulling out her phone to show Adalynn a picture she'd snapped through the glass of the isolette. "She's tiny, but she has your nose. And she's a fighter. I can already tell."

Adalynn stared at the image of her daughter, a tiny, perfect creature connected to a web of wires and tubes.

A fierce, primal wave of love washed over her, so powerful it momentarily eclipsed everything else.

This tiny person was all that mattered now.

The last lingering shred of attachment she might have felt for Julian, the man who co-created this life, severed completely.

He was nothing.

A stranger.

An obstacle.

But this encounter had planted a seed of doubt in Julian's mind, a seed that would soon blossom into a thorny realization.