My younger brother put someone in the hospital, and the victim's family demanded $20,000 to drop the charges. To raise the money, my parents tried to force me into an arranged marriage to collect a dowry. I refused. I went to my boyfriend and begged him to lend me the $20,000. Not only did he refuse, but he verbally humiliated me in front of all his friends. Without the money, my parents dragged me back home by force. In my desperate attempt to escape, I almost died. After I survived, terrified that my parents would track me down again, I legally changed my name, moved across the country, and cut ties with every single person I knew. In this new city, I started over. I got married, had a daughter, and built a life. Just when I thought I would live happily ever after, my husband’s tech startup was suddenly and maliciously targeted, pushing us to the brink of bankruptcy. My daughter, Lily, was crying, demanding to FaceTime her dad. I tried calling Arthur at least half a dozen times, but it kept going straight to voicemail. By the time I finally managed to coax Lily to sleep, it was past 10 PM. I stepped out of her bedroom and tried Arthur’s number again. Still voicemail. I texted him. No reply. I remembered him mentioning a high-stakes dinner meeting tonight, so I decided to wait a bit longer. But an hour later, there was still no text back. After another unanswered call, I dialed his executive assistant, Ben. Ben picked up almost immediately. "Hey, Anna. Calling pretty late, is everything okay?" "I can't get ahold of Arthur. Did something happen to him?" "No, no, nothing like that. Arthur just... he had a bit too much to drink at the dinner, so he's already passed out in his hotel room." Ben’s voice sounded incredibly strained. Suspicious, I pressed him. "Let's FaceTime. I just want to see him to make sure he's okay." Ben panicked. "No! We can't!" "Why not?" "Um... well... I'm already in my own room, in bed. It's been an insanely long day, and we have back-to-back meetings tomorrow. Please, Anna, have a heart, don't make me get dressed and walk all the way down the hall." "Ben, tell me the truth right now. Or I am booking the next flight out there to see for myself." Knowing he couldn't hide it anymore, Ben caved. "Arthur had a severe gastric hemorrhage. He's at the hospital." "Are you kidding me?! Why would you hide something this serious from me?!" "Arthur ordered me not to tell you!" "Text me the address of the hospital. I'm on my way." After hanging up, Ben put his hands together in a prayer motion, looking at the unconscious Arthur on the hospital bed. "Boss, Anna is just too sharp. You can't blame me for this when you wake up." There were no flights out that late, so I booked the earliest Amtrak Acela ticket I could find. I threw a few changes of clothes into an overnight bag and rushed out the door. On the way to the station, I texted my mother-in-law, asking her to come over and watch Lily for a few days. When I finally arrived at the hospital, it was just past 6 AM. I grabbed some coffee and breakfast from the cafeteria downstairs before heading up. Arthur was in a private room. Ben was asleep on the uncomfortable vinyl chair bed next to him. Trying not to wake them, I quietly walked over to Arthur's bed. His lips were cracked and peeling from dehydration. I slipped out of the room, found a vending machine, and bought a pack of cotton swabs. When I got back, Ben was awake. Seeing me, he whispered, "Anna, when did you get here?" "Just a few minutes ago. I brought breakfast. Eat up." "Thanks, Anna." I dipped a cotton swab in a cup of water and gently moistened Arthur's lips. Then, I sat down and waited for Ben to finish his food. Once he was done, I asked, "I thought you guys flew out there to sign a contract? How does a contract negotiation end with a bleeding stomach in the ER?" Seeing him hesitate, I narrowed my eyes. "Arthur told you to keep your mouth shut about this too?" He nodded. "Ben, tell me exactly what he told you to hide. I'm here now. He won't dare give you any crap for it." That was exactly what Ben was waiting to hear. He spilled everything. "At the beginning of this month, three of our primary component suppliers abruptly terminated their contracts without cause. They just stopped shipping to us. "Without those components, our manufacturing grinds to a halt. We have massive fulfillment deadlines coming up. "Arthur tried meeting with them multiple times, but they stonewalled him. He spent the last two weeks desperately trying to find alternative suppliers, but every single firm in the industry suddenly refused to do business with us. It's a total blacklist. "Finally, a few days ago, one supplier agreed to a sit-down. That was the dinner last night. "We had all the terms hammered out. But right at the end, the supplier brought out a bottle of hard liquor. He told Arthur that if he could drink him under the table, he'd sign the contract on the spot. "Arthur was so desperate to save the company, he agreed to the drinking contest. He drank until his stomach lining gave out." "Someone is obviously coordinating this blacklist to destroy him. Do you have any idea who?" Ben shook his head. "No. Arthur said the only priority right now is keeping the company afloat. We can worry about who's behind it later." When Arthur finally woke up, the first thing he did was glare at Ben. "I told you to keep your mouth shut! Why did you..." I cut him off. "Don't you dare yell at him! The company is falling apart and you hid it from me. You end up in the hospital and you hide it from me. You hide everything from me! Am I just some outsider to you?!" Arthur grabbed my hand, offering a weak, apologetic smile. "No, of course not. I just didn't want you to stress out. I thought I could handle it." "Handle it by drinking until your stomach bleeds?! How many times have I told you that no business deal is worth your health?! If something happens to you, what are Lily, your mom, and I supposed to do?!" My eyes welled up with tears. Arthur panicked and immediately started apologizing. "I know I messed up, honey. I promise, it will never happen again." "You better remember that. If there's a next time, I'm filing for divorce!" "There won't be a next time. Please don't say things like that." Seeing him so pale and trying so hard to comfort me, my heart instantly softened. "Does your stomach hurt? Do you want me to get the doctor?" "No, I'm okay." "Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" Ben, who had been trying to make himself invisible in the corner, chimed in. "Anna, the doctor said the boss can't have any solid food for twenty-four hours." Arthur added, "Stop worrying about me. You took the red-eye train out here, you must be exhausted. Let Ben take you to the hotel so you can get some sleep." "I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here to take care of you." Arthur knew he couldn't win that argument, so he let me stay. At 9:00 AM, Arthur picked up his phone and called the supplier from the night before. "Mr. Torres, it's Arthur Davis. When would be a good time for you to sign that contract?" Torres's voice came through the speaker, lazy and dismissive. "I don't have any contract to sign with you." "Last night, you explicitly said if I won the drinking contest, you'd sign." "I did say that. But I've decided I don't want to do business with you." Arthur suppressed his anger and kept his tone professional. "Mr. Torres, business is built on trust. Going back on your word like this isn't exactly ethical." "Look, I never had any intention of signing with you. I just wanted to make you realize the reality of your situation. Unless you do exactly what he wants, you have zero options." Torres seemed genuinely baffled as to why Arthur was risking his life when the solution was supposedly simple. Arthur gripped his phone tightly. "Understood. Then perhaps we can collaborate in the future." "As long as that guy doesn't give the green light, your company is dead in the water. Take my advice..." Arthur didn't wait for Torres to finish. He hung up. "He backed out?" I asked. Arthur nodded. Ben was furious. "How can a CEO act like that?! He gave his word!" I was equally angry, but Arthur was surprisingly calm. "If he backs out, he backs out. We'll just find someone else." Arthur stayed in the hospital for two more days before being discharged. As soon as he was cleared, we took the train back to Boston. When we arrived, he dropped me off at the house and immediately headed straight to the office without even coming inside. Late that night, I woke up to feel him pulling me into his arms. Habit took over, and I rolled over, burying my face in his chest to go back to sleep. The next morning, I walked into the kitchen to find Arthur helping his mother make breakfast. Lily, who hadn't seen him in almost a week, was clinging to his leg like a koala bear. He was struggling to walk, but he couldn't bear to make her let go, so he just dragged his leg around the kitchen. When he saw me, he smiled. "You're up. Breakfast is almost ready." After we ate, we dropped Lily off at preschool together. He drove me back to the house before heading to the office, and then he came home surprisingly early that afternoon. It felt incredibly wrong. That night in bed, I finally asked him, "Why do you have so much free time today? Isn't the company in crisis mode?" "I've already found a solution." "What solution?" "I'm going to sell the company." I sat bolt upright in bed. "Sell the company?! Why?!" Arthur sat up too, speaking slowly and deliberately. "I've been thinking about this since the crisis first started. I just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger back then." "Is it really beyond saving?" "I've exhausted every possible option. If I keep dragging this out, the financial hemorrhage is only going to get worse. Selling it now, while it still has some value, is the best move." Arthur wrapped his arms around me. "As long as our family is together, nothing else matters." The negotiations to sell the startup moved incredibly fast. But the night before he was scheduled to sign the acquisition paperwork, Arthur received a text from an unknown number. He was in the shower. His phone was on the nightstand, and the screen lit up with the message. I saw it. It read: Change your mind now, and your company can still be saved. When Arthur walked out of the bathroom, he saw me staring intensely at his phone. "What's wrong?" I held the phone up. "What exactly does this text mean?" Arthur was furious internally. He had blocked the guy's number, yet he kept buying burners to harass him! Like a ghost that wouldn't leave him alone! "Do I really have to say?" If he didn't want to tell me, that meant it involved me. "Yes. If you don't tell me, I'm calling this number right now to ask." "I don't know exactly who he is. I just know he's the one orchestrating the blacklist against my company. He called me a few weeks ago and told me that if I wanted the blacklist lifted, I had to divorce you. I told him to go to hell!" Arthur's tone turned incredibly serious. "I can survive losing my company. I can always find another way to provide. But if I lose you, this family is destroyed." The area code on the text was from New York. But it was a number I didn't recognize. I only had a handful of ties to New York. Who could it be? "Let's find out exactly who this is." I dialed the number and put it on speaker. The person on the other end seemed to have been waiting by the phone. They picked up instantly. "Mr. Davis, have you finally come to your senses?" The second I heard that voice, I knew exactly who it was. But Arthur spoke first. "Who the hell are you? Why are you so obsessed with forcing me to get a divorce?" "You just need to follow the instructions. As for the rest..." "Eric." I said his name coldly. The voice on the other end instantly fell silent. I continued, "Julian Sterling ordered you to do this, didn't he?" Eric, Julian's right-hand man, didn't dare confirm it. He played dead on the line. "Give me Julian's direct line," I demanded. "I need to speak to him." "I... I need to request authorization from Mr. Sterling first." "Then go request it." I hung up. Arthur looked at me. "Julian Sterling... is that the ex-boyfriend you told me about?" "Yes." I hadn't expected him to connect the dots so fast, but I wasn't going to lie to him. Getting confirmation, Arthur looked deeply worried. Was Julian doing this for revenge? Or had he discovered the truth and wanted me back? Back in New York, Eric wanted to cry. This idiot Arthur actually called while Anna was right next to him! He's going to get me killed! Eric dialed his boss's number, bracing himself. "Mr. Sterling, Arthur Davis just called. Anna was with him. She recognized my voice. She asked for your direct line. Should I give it to her?" Julian's voice was like glacial ice. "No. Tell her if she wants to talk, she has to come see me in person." The line clicked dead. Eric shadow-boxed the air in frustration. "What a terrible attitude! No wonder she dumped you!" After his minor tantrum, Eric texted Arthur's phone: Tell Ms. Anna that if she wishes to speak with Mr. Sterling, she must come to New York in person. Reading the text, I immediately pulled up a travel app. "We're delaying the acquisition signing tomorrow. We're going to New York to see Julian first." "I'm not letting you go alone. I'm coming with you." "Okay. We'll go together." The next day, Arthur and I took the train to New York and headed straight for Julian's corporate headquarters. The front desk security refused to let us up, so I called Eric. Eric got the call, realized I was already in the lobby, and rushed to Julian's office. "Mr. Sterling, Ms. Anna is downstairs. She's demanding to see you." "Tell her to wait." Julian's face was a mask of utter indifference, but the way his expensive fountain pen was practically tearing through the paper on his desk betrayed his internal chaos. Eric tried to sugarcoat it when he came down to the lobby. "Ms. Anna, Mr. Sterling is currently in a very important meeting. It's going to be a little while." "You answer my calls on the first ring, and you're running messages back and forth in record time. Do you honestly expect me to believe he's 'in a meeting'?" Eric realized he was outmatched. He dropped the act and gave it to me straight. "Mr. Sterling said to tell you to wait." "Is he standing right next to you?" "No." "Take your phone and go to his office. I'm going to say one sentence to him." "Just tell me, I'll pass the message along." "You really don't want to be the middleman for this. If I just tell him directly, he won't have the time to punish you for it." Eric cautiously walked back into Julian's massive corner office and nervously placed his phone on the mahogany desk. "Mr. Sterling, Ms. Anna is on the line." He didn't put it on speaker. After setting the phone down, he rapidly backed away, putting as much distance between himself and the desk as possible. He was not going to eavesdrop on anything above his pay grade! Julian picked up the phone and held it to his ear, saying nothing. Eric heard total silence from his end, but I knew Julian was listening. "I was pregnant with your child." That single sentence hit Julian like a sledgehammer. The phone slipped from his fingers, clattering loudly against the hardwood floor. He didn't care about the phone. He didn't care about anything. He just needed to see Anna now. "I was pregnant with your child" looped endlessly in his brain. When Eric had first investigated Anna and reported that she was married with a five-year-old daughter, Julian had been consumed by a venomous rage. How could she dump him and immediately run off to marry someone else and start a family?! But now, the timeline clicked into place. The truth was highly likely that Anna had discovered she was pregnant with his child and, in a panic, was forced to find someone—anyone—to marry immediately! The more Julian thought about it, the more certain he became that this was the truth. A wave of overwhelming, ecstatic joy crashed over him. Watching Julian frantically sprint out of the office, almost tripping over his own expensive rug, Eric praised whatever god was listening that he hadn't overheard the call. Then he remembered he had just bought that phone a few days ago. He rushed to the desk, picked it up, and inspected it meticulously. Finding no cracks, he clutched it to his chest. "Thank god." I didn't get a response after I dropped the bomb, but the chaotic sound of the phone hitting the floor, followed by the rapid, frantic clicking of dress shoes sprinting down a hallway, told me everything I needed to know. Julian was coming. Sure enough, minutes later, Julian appeared in the lobby, looking slightly disheveled despite his custom Tom Ford suit. Suppressing his intense emotional high, he forced a composed greeting. "Anna. It's been a long time."
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