Chapter 3

Eight days after the divorce. At the InterContinental Hotel, the grandest venue in Lakeport City.

Cecil Delgado and Jessica Swanson held a lavish wedding, a hundred tables laid out.

The news that Jetstream Group and Taikang Medical had struck a deep strategic partnership ran across the front page of every financial outlet in the city.

Sheila didn't click on any of it. On the strength of her attending-physician exam scores, she joined the oncology department at Rayhill Hospital, a subsidiary of Jetstream Group.

Six months later, she gave birth to Earl alone in the delivery room.

The line for the father on the birth certificate was left blank.

For six years, Sheila raised Earl by herself.

Three days after the chance meeting outside the elevator. Rayhill Hospital, the private office of the oncology attending physician.

Ten in the morning. Sheila was at her computer, entering a patient's electronic chart.

The office door was pushed straight open. No knock.

Lily Mason wore a cashmere coat, two bodyguards in black suits trailing behind her.

The bodyguards turned and shut the office door, then stood on either side of it, inside.

Lily pulled out the chair across the desk and sat down without invitation.

"That child. Two days ago I had someone go to his preschool and take a strand of his hair. I ran the blood type and the DNA at a testing center. He's a Delgado."

She took a DNA report out of her bag and slapped it on the wooden desktop. "Tomorrow at nine, I'm sending two cars to the preschool to bring him back to the Delgados, where he belongs. He takes the Delgado name."

Sheila stopped typing. Her right hand left the mouse.

"This is the recommendation letter you'd file next month, and the nomination for deputy chief physician of oncology." Lily pushed a document envelope in front of her. "Hand over the child, sign this agreement giving up all visitation rights for life, and the title and the resources are yours."

She leaned back in the chair. "And if you don't cooperate. You'll never hold a scalpel again. I promise you won't find a foothold in a single hospital in Lakeport City."

Sheila opened the top drawer on the right side of her desk.

She took out a black voice recorder, pressed stop, and saved every word spoken since Lily walked in.

She set the recorder on the desk.

"Take your things and get out." Sheila looked at Lily and gave her four words.

Lily stared at the recorder. She stood, snatched up the DNA report and the envelope.

"You had your chance to do this the easy way. Now wait and see." Lily turned and left the office with her two bodyguards.

Two in the afternoon. Downtown Lakeport City, Truvale Law Firm.

Sheila sat at the oval conference table and handed the senior partner across from her the copies of the birth certificate and the property deed.

The lawyer looked through the materials, took off his rimless glasses, and set them on the table.

"Dr. Pruitt, I'll be blunt. The equity and fixed assets currently in Cecil Delgado's name total over four billion dollars. You earn twenty-five hundred a month, and the only thing in your name is a mortgaged two-bedroom."

He looked at her. "In legal terms, if the Delgados sue for custody, the court will prioritize an assessment of the child's living environment. The father can offer the child a substantial trust fund, an overseas education, and top-tier resources. That's a hardware gap you can't cross."

"With the evidence I have now, what are my chances?" Sheila looked at him.

"Under ten percent." The lawyer gave her an exact number.