By the time they moved me toward the ambulance, I had stopped trying to understand Warren Sterling.<\/p>\n
I couldn't think about his company.<\/p>\n
Or his money.<\/p>\n
Or the strange way he had looked at me.<\/p>\n
I could only think about my son.<\/p>\n
I needed someone to tell me he was alive.<\/p>\n
I needed to know why I couldn't feel him moving.<\/p>\n
And I needed to get to the hospital before anything became worse.<\/p>\n
The rain was still falling.<\/p>\n
I remember the cold air against my face as the medical team brought me outside.<\/p>\n
The change in temperature made me shiver.<\/p>\n
I looked toward the driveway.<\/p>\n
Bright emergency lights reflected against the wet ground.<\/p>\n
Everything seemed too bright.<\/p>\n
Too loud.<\/p>\n
Too fast.<\/p>\n
The responders moved with a confidence I desperately wanted to borrow.<\/p>\n
They knew where everything belonged.<\/p>\n
They knew what questions to ask.<\/p>\n
They knew how to move me safely.<\/p>\n
I followed their instructions as closely as I could.<\/p>\n
Warren stayed nearby.<\/p>\n
At first, I assumed he would leave.<\/p>\n
He had already done more than I could reasonably expect from someone I had never met.<\/p>\n
He had come to my house.<\/p>\n
He had stayed beside me.<\/p>\n
He had helped me feel less alone while I waited for medical assistance.<\/p>\n
Surely he had other responsibilities.<\/p>\n
Important people must have been expecting him.<\/p>\n
Meetings.<\/p>\n
Messages.<\/p>\n
Decisions.<\/p>\n
All the things Vance had spent years telling me mattered in Warren Sterling's world.<\/p>\n
But he didn't leave.<\/p>\n
He followed the medical team.<\/p>\n
When arrangements were made for my transport, he remained with me.<\/p>\n
And before I could understand how it had happened, he was sitting beside me inside the ambulance.<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
His dark coat looked even more out of place beneath the ambulance lights.<\/p>\n
He was still holding the white handkerchief.<\/p>\n
The fabric had become wrinkled.<\/p>\n
One corner was damp.<\/p>\n
I looked away.<\/p>\n
A medical professional was attending to me.<\/p>\n
Questions continued.<\/p>\n
My breathing.<\/p>\n
The timing of the contractions.<\/p>\n
Whether I had noticed any movement from the baby.<\/p>\n
I answered as clearly as I could.<\/p>\n
Each time someone asked about my son, fear tightened in my chest.<\/p>\n
I wanted to give a different answer.<\/p>\n
I wanted to say he had moved.<\/p>\n
That I had felt him kick while they brought me outside.<\/p>\n
That everything seemed normal again.<\/p>\n
But I couldn't.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
The answer hurt every time.<\/p>\n
"I still haven't felt him."<\/p>\n
The medical team continued working.<\/p>\n
I could hear equipment being prepared.<\/p>\n
I could hear the ambulance around us.<\/p>\n
Then the vehicle began moving.<\/p>\n
The siren sounded.<\/p>\n
For a moment, I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
I had heard ambulance sirens countless times in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Usually from a distance.<\/p>\n
Sometimes while walking along a busy street.<\/p>\n
Sometimes late at night, when one passed somewhere outside our neighborhood.<\/p>\n
I had never imagined hearing one while lying inside the vehicle myself.<\/p>\n
I had never imagined being the person everyone was trying to reach.<\/p>\n
The thought made me feel small.<\/p>\n
Not unimportant.<\/p>\n
Just painfully aware of how quickly an ordinary life could change.<\/p>\n
That morning, I had still been a pregnant woman expecting to meet her son soon.<\/p>\n
By evening, I was inside an ambulance with an unfamiliar billionaire who seemed to know something about my family.<\/p>\n
And my husband was somewhere else.<\/p>\n
Still at his mother's celebration.<\/p>\n
I looked at my phone.<\/p>\n
There was nothing new from Vance.<\/p>\n
I placed it down.<\/p>\n
I didn't want to keep checking.<\/p>\n
I was frightened that if I saw his name, I would start crying again.<\/p>\n
And if I didn't see it, that would hurt too.<\/p>\n
Warren noticed me looking at the phone.<\/p>\n
He didn't ask whether Vance had called.<\/p>\n
He seemed to know the answer.<\/p>\n
Instead, he leaned forward slightly.<\/p>\n
"Natalie, are you comfortable enough to talk?"<\/p>\n
It was such a strange question.<\/p>\n
Nothing about that night was comfortable.<\/p>\n
But I understood what he meant.<\/p>\n
He wanted to explain something.<\/p>\n
Something important.<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
Then I changed my mind.<\/p>\n
"First, tell me why you came."<\/p>\n
He looked at me for several seconds.<\/p>\n
His expression became serious.<\/p>\n
The warmth hadn't disappeared.<\/p>\n
But there was something heavier beneath it.<\/p>\n
Regret.<\/p>\n
I recognized that emotion.<\/p>\n
I had felt it often enough.<\/p>\n
He folded the handkerchief slowly.<\/p>\n
Then he said that an investigator working for him had confirmed my identity earlier that evening.<\/p>\n
I frowned.<\/p>\n
"Confirmed what?"<\/p>\n
He took a breath.<\/p>\n
"That you are Natalie Brooks."<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
"Yes. That's my name."<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
It seemed like he was struggling to decide where the explanation should begin.<\/p>\n
The ambulance continued moving.<\/p>\n
The siren sounded again.<\/p>\n
I could feel the vehicle turning.<\/p>\n
A medical responder checked on me, and the conversation paused.<\/p>\n
When we were allowed to continue, Warren spoke carefully.<\/p>\n
He said he had been searching for someone.<\/p>\n
Not for a few days.<\/p>\n
Not for a few weeks.<\/p>\n
For much longer.<\/p>\n
He had finally received information that led him to me.<\/p>\n
At first, I didn't understand why that mattered.<\/p>\n
I wasn't missing.<\/p>\n
I hadn't been hiding.<\/p>\n
I had lived under my own name.<\/p>\n
I had married Vance Mercer.<\/p>\n
I had an address.<\/p>\n
A telephone number.<\/p>\n
A normal life.<\/p>\n
Why would someone need an investigator to find me?<\/p>\n
"Mr. Sterling, I don't understand."<\/p>\n
He nodded again.<\/p>\n
"I know. And I owe you an explanation."<\/p>\n
I looked at his face.<\/p>\n
The resemblance I had noticed earlier returned to my mind.<\/p>\n
His eyebrows.<\/p>\n
His eyes.<\/p>\n
The way he looked at me.<\/p>\n
I felt a sudden nervousness that had nothing to do with the contractions.<\/p>\n
It seemed impossible that a stranger could look familiar.<\/p>\n
And yet he did.<\/p>\n
Warren continued.<\/p>\n
He said the investigator had only recently connected my identity to my married name.<\/p>\n
Before that, his search had not led to the right person.<\/p>\n
Then he told me something that made me forget the siren for a moment.<\/p>\n
He hadn't known I was married to Vance.<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
"Your employee?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"But you know Vance."<\/p>\n
"I know who he is."<\/p>\n
Warren paused.<\/p>\n
"I didn't know he was married to you."<\/p>\n
I tried to understand the distinction.<\/p>\n
Vance had worked for Warren's company for seven years.<\/p>\n
He spoke about its leadership constantly.<\/p>\n
He cared about every opportunity for advancement.<\/p>\n
But somehow, the man at the top had been searching for me without knowing I was connected to one of his own employees.<\/p>\n
It made no sense.<\/p>\n
Not yet.<\/p>\n
I pressed the handkerchief between my fingers.<\/p>\n
Then Warren mentioned the letters.<\/p>\n
Two of them.<\/p>\n
Both sent to me.<\/p>\n
Both important.<\/p>\n
He said they had been mailed during the previous six weeks.<\/p>\n
Certified correspondence.<\/p>\n
The kind that required a record of delivery.<\/p>\n
I felt something unpleasant move through my chest.<\/p>\n
"The letters?"<\/p>\n
He watched me closely.<\/p>\n
"You didn't receive them?"<\/p>\n
I thought about the hallway floor.<\/p>\n
The ivory envelope.<\/p>\n
My full name printed on the front.<\/p>\n
The expensive gold lettering.<\/p>\n
Then I remembered the earlier envelope Vance had opened.<\/p>\n
The one he told me was irrelevant.<\/p>\n
I swallowed.<\/p>\n
"I saw something."<\/p>\n
Warren waited.<\/p>\n
"A letter. A few weeks ago."<\/p>\n
I tried to remember exactly what Vance had said.<\/p>\n
I was frightened that my memory would fail me.<\/p>\n
But one detail was clear.<\/p>\n
The envelope had already been opened.<\/p>\n
I had asked about it.<\/p>\n
And Vance had told me not to worry.<\/p>\n
"He said it was company paperwork."<\/p>\n
Warren's expression tightened.<\/p>\n
"Company paperwork?"<\/p>\n
I nodded.<\/p>\n
"He said it didn't concern me."<\/p>\n
For a moment, neither of us spoke.<\/p>\n
The ambulance continued toward Harborview.<\/p>\n
A medical responder checked my condition again.<\/p>\n
I answered.<\/p>\n
Then Warren turned back to me.<\/p>\n
"Both letters were addressed to you, Natalie."<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
"Not Vance?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
I thought about the unopened correspondence scattered across the hallway floor.<\/p>\n
I remembered reaching toward the door.<\/p>\n
The envelopes falling.<\/p>\n
The ivory one beside my hand.<\/p>\n
My name.<\/p>\n
The law firm's address.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, something I had barely noticed became important.<\/p>\n
"There was another envelope tonight."<\/p>\n
Warren leaned closer.<\/p>\n
"Where?"<\/p>\n
"Near our front door."<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
"It fell off the table when I was trying to get up."<\/p>\n
He listened without interrupting.<\/p>\n
"It had my name on it."<\/p>\n
I opened my eyes.<\/p>\n
"Was that from you?"<\/p>\n
His expression told me the answer before he spoke.<\/p>\n
"Very likely."<\/p>\n
I felt sick.<\/p>\n
Not because I understood everything.<\/p>\n
Because I understood enough to be frightened.<\/p>\n
Someone had been trying to contact me.<\/p>\n
Someone important.<\/p>\n
And at least one letter had reached my husband's hands before I could read it.<\/p>\n
I thought about Vance's impatience on the phone.<\/p>\n
His refusal to leave the birthday celebration.<\/p>\n
The way he had acted as though my medical emergency were a personal inconvenience.<\/p>\n
Then I thought about the envelope he had dismissed.<\/p>\n
I didn't want to connect those things.<\/p>\n
I was afraid of what they might mean.<\/p>\n
"Why didn't he give it to me?"<\/p>\n
Warren didn't answer immediately.<\/p>\n
He looked troubled.<\/p>\n
"I can't tell you why he made that decision."<\/p>\n
I appreciated that he didn't pretend to know.<\/p>\n
I had heard enough confident explanations from Vance.<\/p>\n
I wanted facts.<\/p>\n
Not excuses.<\/p>\n
Not assumptions.<\/p>\n
Facts.<\/p>\n
I looked at Warren again.<\/p>\n
"What was in the letters?"<\/p>\n
He took a careful breath.<\/p>\n
"Information about you."<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
"And about me."<\/p>\n
The ambulance seemed suddenly quieter.<\/p>\n
I knew that wasn't true.<\/p>\n
The siren was still sounding.<\/p>\n
The medical team was still working.<\/p>\n
But my attention had narrowed to Warren's face.<\/p>\n
"About us?"<\/p>\n
He nodded.<\/p>\n
I looked at his eyes again.<\/p>\n
Silver-gray.<\/p>\n
Like mine.<\/p>\n
I thought about Aunt Ruth.<\/p>\n
The woman who had raised me after my biological mother's death.<\/p>\n
She had loved me.<\/p>\n
I had never doubted that.<\/p>\n
She had given me a home.<\/p>\n
She had cared for me until I was old enough to care for myself.<\/p>\n
When she died while I was twenty-two, I lost the person who had always made my childhood feel secure.<\/p>\n
She had also been the person who told me my father had disappeared before I was born.<\/p>\n
I had grown up believing he hadn't wanted me.<\/p>\n
I never knew his face.<\/p>\n
I never knew his voice.<\/p>\n
I didn't know whether he was tall or short.<\/p>\n
Whether he laughed easily.<\/p>\n
Whether he had eyes like mine.<\/p>\n
Those were questions I had learned to live without answering.<\/p>\n
Now Warren Sterling was sitting beside me.<\/p>\n
Looking at me with an expression I couldn't explain.<\/p>\n
And talking about letters concerning our connection.<\/p>\n
A thought entered my mind.<\/p>\n
I rejected it immediately.<\/p>\n
It was too much.<\/p>\n
Too strange.<\/p>\n
I was in labor.<\/p>\n
My son might be in danger.<\/p>\n
I couldn't begin questioning everything I had believed about my family.<\/p>\n
But the thought wouldn't leave.<\/p>\n
"Mr. Sterling."<\/p>\n
My voice sounded unsteady.<\/p>\n
"Why do you keep looking at me that way?"<\/p>\n
He lowered his eyes.<\/p>\n
For the first time since arriving at my house, he seemed unable to speak immediately.<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
Then another contraction began.<\/p>\n
The pain interrupted us.<\/p>\n
I gripped the side of the stretcher.<\/p>\n
My questions disappeared.<\/p>\n
My fear for the baby returned with full force.<\/p>\n
I struggled to breathe through the contraction.<\/p>\n
Warren stayed close without interfering with the medical team.<\/p>\n
I heard someone speaking about my condition.<\/p>\n
I heard the word urgent.<\/p>\n
It frightened me.<\/p>\n
I wanted them to hurry.<\/p>\n
I wanted Harborview to appear immediately.<\/p>\n
When I could speak again, I looked toward the medical responder.<\/p>\n
"Please help my baby."<\/p>\n
The answer was calm.<\/p>\n
They were doing everything they could to get us the care we needed.<\/p>\n
I held onto those words.<\/p>\n
Then I turned back to Warren.<\/p>\n
He was watching me with tears in his eyes.<\/p>\n
I couldn't understand how my pain could affect him so deeply.<\/p>\n
He had only just found me.<\/p>\n
At least, that was what he kept saying.<\/p>\n
Found me.<\/p>\n
As though I were someone he had been afraid he would never see.<\/p>\n
I noticed his hands shaking.<\/p>\n
He tried to steady them by clasping them together.<\/p>\n
It didn't work.<\/p>\n
For a man known for his control, he looked completely overwhelmed.<\/p>\n
"Are you all right?"<\/p>\n
The question slipped out before I could stop it.<\/p>\n
He gave a small, surprised laugh.<\/p>\n
I suppose it was strange.<\/p>\n
I was the one lying on a stretcher.<\/p>\n
I was the one experiencing a medical emergency.<\/p>\n
And I had asked whether he was all right.<\/p>\n
He shook his head.<\/p>\n
"Not entirely."<\/p>\n
His answer was quiet.<\/p>\n
Then he looked directly at me.<\/p>\n
"I never expected our first meeting to happen like this."<\/p>\n
Our first meeting.<\/p>\n
The words stayed with me.<\/p>\n
I realized he wasn't simply speaking as my husband's employer.<\/p>\n
He believed this moment belonged to both of us.<\/p>\n
He had come to find me.<\/p>\n
Not to discuss Vance.<\/p>\n
Not to handle a company matter.<\/p>\n
Me.<\/p>\n
I thought about the two letters.<\/p>\n
The investigator.<\/p>\n
The long search.<\/p>\n
His eyes.<\/p>\n
His voice when he called me his girl.<\/p>\n
I could no longer pretend those details were unrelated.<\/p>\n
"Who am I to you?"<\/p>\n
I asked the question softly.<\/p>\n
Warren looked at me.<\/p>\n
His face changed in a way I would remember for years.<\/p>\n
The sadness remained.<\/p>\n
But there was relief beneath it.<\/p>\n
As though the question had finally given him permission to speak.<\/p>\n
He reached toward my hand.<\/p>\n
Then stopped.<\/p>\n
I understood what he was asking without words.<\/p>\n
I held out my fingers.<\/p>\n
He took them gently.<\/p>\n
"Natalie."<\/p>\n
His voice trembled.<\/p>\n
"I believe you're my daughter."<\/p>\n
I stared at him.<\/p>\n
I had spent my life believing my father was a man who had walked away before I was born.<\/p>\n
A man who had never wanted to know me.<\/p>\n
A man who existed only as an absence in my family history.<\/p>\n
Now Warren Sterling was telling me that absence had a name.<\/p>\n
A face.<\/p>\n
A voice.<\/p>\n
And hands that were trembling as they held mine.<\/p>\n
I wanted to ask a hundred questions.<\/p>\n
I wanted to know about my mother.<\/p>\n
I wanted to know why he had never come.<\/p>\n
I wanted to know whether Aunt Ruth had understood the truth.<\/p>\n
I wanted to know how a man could search for a daughter for so long without finding her.<\/p>\n
But before I could say any of those things, a medical responder spoke.<\/p>\n
We were approaching Harborview.<\/p>\n
My body tightened with another painful contraction.<\/p>\n
The questions about Warren would have to wait.<\/p>\n
I looked at him one last time before the medical team began preparing for our arrival.<\/p>\n
He was still holding my hand.<\/p>\n
I didn't know whether I could call him my father yet.<\/p>\n
I didn't know whether I was ready to believe that my life had changed in such an enormous way.<\/p>\n
But I believed one thing.<\/p>\n
When I asked Vance to help me, he had chosen to stay away.<\/p>\n
When Warren discovered where I was, he had come through the rain.<\/p>\n
And now, as the ambulance carried me toward the hospital, he was still beside me.<\/p>\n
I held onto his hand.<\/p>\n
Not because I understood everything.<\/p>\n
Because for the first time that evening, someone had made me feel that I mattered enough to stay.<\/p>\n
By the time they moved me toward the ambulance, I had stopped trying to understand Warren Sterling. I couldn't think about his company. Or his money. Or the strange way … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama-sory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17582,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17562\/revisions\/17582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastestdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}