I left my ex-wife two years ago thinking she moved away to forget me. Today, my new girlfriend watched in shock as I recognized the dying woman rushed into the ICU on a gurney—holding an oxygen mask over her face while carrying my nine-month unborn child."

The high-powered fluorescent lights of Saint Jude Memorial Hospital buzzed overhead, reflecting sharply off the pristine, polished linoleum floor. The air smelled intensely of antiseptic and cold steel. Standing near the glass doors of the Labor & Delivery unit, Adrian Ashford adjusted the cuffs of his beige wool blazer over his black turtleneck. Beside him, Madison Chen tapped her designer heels impatiently, clutching her luxury handbag while scrolling through her phone in her cream-white blazer dress.

"Adrian, the reservation at the bistro was for seven," Madison muttered without looking up. "We've been waiting for your father's test results for an hour."

Before Adrian could answer, double swinging doors slammed open with a violent crash.

"Severe respiratory distress! Clear the hallway! Move!" a paramedic shouted, his voice echoing off the glass walls.

Four paramedics and nurses in dark blue scrubs sprinted down the corridor, pushing a blue emergency gurney at high speed. Medical monitors mounted on the rail beeped frantically in high-pitched, erratic pulses.

Adrian glanced casually toward the commotion, but as the gurney passed within two feet of him, his heart stopped dead in his chest.

Lying on the elevated mattress was a woman clutching an oxygen mask tightly over her mouth, her knuckles white with strain. Her dark wavy hair was matted with sweat against her deathly pale forehead. Her eyes were half-closed, her chest rising in shallow, desperate gulps of air. But beneath the thin hospital gown was a heavily swollen, nine-month pregnant belly.

It was Elena.

Elena Ashford—his ex-wife, the woman who had walked out of his life two years ago without leaving a forward address, taking nothing but a single suitcase and a broken heart.

Adrian froze, the blood draining from his face as if he’d been struck by lightning.

"Adrian?" Madison asked, noticing his sudden rigidity. "What are you looking at?"

The gurney slowed down briefly as the doors to the operating wing pre-opened. Adrian took a involuntary step forward, his voice choking in his throat.