The Twenty-Billion-Dollar Sacrifice

ritance and cut ties with my family, al

l him I was pregnant with our

Sophia. She'd been in a hit-and-run, and her acting career

baby, his face went cold. He told me t

ere from that same fire. He didn't know I

me to the clinic alone. There, the nurse told me the

nd he stil

t lit up my phone. It was a glowing article announcing that Liam and Sophia were expectin

ay a tear, I found the number

ice breaking. "I was wron

pte

d you ju

of our modern apartment. My

nd of five years, didn't even look up from his tab

Elena. A minor one, nobody was seriously hurt, but her image can't

I am a Cardiac Surgeon. A felony record will revoke my medical l

u can take a sabbatical. Sophia... she's fragile. You know she saved me from that

oulder blades, spreading down my spine-the exact path of the

spered. "Liam, s

up. "She dragged my unconscious body out of a burning building. Sh

to scream. Two small, coin-sized burns fr

him as a burning beam crashed down on my back. I remembered dragging him, inch by agonizing inch, until my skin felt like it was melting of

he career I built from nothing

vely. "My company is about to go public. W

enty-billion-dollar inheritance to live in a studio apartment and pay your tuition whil

nds. "That's why I know you're strong enough to do th

I said, backing away from

expression vanished, repl

Six

Finding out you're pregnant... it would break her heart. She thin

choked out. "My license, my re

pity. "We can't have this ba

ed. "It's you

made a vow when I was fifteen that I would never let a

mouth. I had saved him. I had taken the fire for him. And no

my voice hollo

e rang-Sophia's ringtone. "S

assistant will book the

alone with the ghosts of the