Chapter 10
Across the city, Clare awakened.
Lily was there when she learned about Noah.
Clare panicked.
She tried to get out of bed.
Lily stopped her and told her the truth.
Noah had experienced a serious episode.
But Adrien was with him.
The best heart surgeon in the country was coming.
Noah was stable.
He was not alone.
For the first time in 8 years, Clare allowed someone else to hold her while she was afraid.
Lily wrapped her arms around the woman who had held her the previous night.
“You held me last night. When I was scared, you told me not to be afraid. You said you were there. So let me do it back. Don’t be afraid, Clare. I’m here. I’ve got you. We’ve got you. Both of you.”
Clare wept in Lily’s arms.
Noah went into surgery at 11:00 that morning.
Dr. Howerin had arrived at 9:00, reviewed the scans, and said there was no longer time to wait.
The surgery Clare had spent 2 years begging for, the surgery banks had refused to finance and that had originally been planned for weeks later, happened that morning in a public hospital transformed for 1 day by Adrien’s money into something that worked the way medicine was supposed to work for everyone.
Adrien stayed.
Maya brought him coffee he did not drink.
Mrs. Alvarez prayed beside him.
Eventually, without quite deciding to, Adrien prayed too.
Clare was transferred as soon as she was stable enough to move.
By early afternoon, she sat in a wheelchair outside Noah’s operating room, pale, stitched, and ignoring every instruction to rest.
She and Adrien waited beside each other.
“You didn’t have to come,” Clare said.
“Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
Adrien thought about the question she had asked the previous night.
What was the price?
Clare had become so accustomed to the world taking from her that she could barely understand a gift.
Adrien did not want Noah to grow up believing the world only took.
He wanted the first thing the boy learned after waking to be that a complete stranger had fought to save him and wanted nothing in return.
Maybe then Noah could grow up differently from both of them.
Clare said nothing.
After a moment, she put her hand over Adrien’s.
A waitress and a criminal sat in silence waiting for the same heart.
The surgery lasted 6 hours.
Shortly after 5:00 p.m., Dr. Howerin emerged smiling.
Noah had done beautifully.
The defect had been repaired.
His heart was strong.
He was going to have a real recovery, a real childhood, and a real life.
He would run like a normal child and give Clare gray hair for the next 50 years.
Clare covered her mouth with both hands.
Then she folded forward in her wheelchair and sobbed.
2 years of fear finally left her body.
Noah woke 2 hours later.
The first face he saw was his sister’s.
“Clare.”
His voice sounded like sandpaper.
Clare took his hand and pressed it to her face.
“I’m here, baby. I’m right here. You’re okay. You’re all fixed up. I’m here.”
Noah saw her crying.
He raised his other hand, touched her face, and gave back the words she had given him throughout his life.
“Don’t cry, Clare. Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”
Adrien had to leave the room.
He barely reached the hallway before he cried.
Maya found him there.
She had begun compiling the accounting he requested.
The list was long.
20 years of names and families.
If Adrien truly tried to repay every debt, it could take the rest of his life.
It could cost almost everything.
His empire might not survive.
Adrien looked through the doorway at Noah touching his sister’s face.
“Good.”
He no longer wanted to be Adrien Voss as the city knew him.
That man had created Marcus Reed.
May you like
That man had created a hundred Marcus Reeds.
Adrien would rather spend the rest of his life paying debts than spend another day being the thing that created them.
