The week following Sophia’s bombshell arrival had been a whirlwind, the penthouse transformed into a temporary home for Ethan, the five-year-old boy with Daniel Isiah’s blue eyes. Sayrn Sauns, at twenty-eight with her RN degree earned earlier this year, was used to navigating the chaos of Chicago General’s ER, but balancing her role as Daniel’s medic, his official girlfriend under the Velvet Contract, and now a potential caregiver for a child claiming to be his son tested her resilience. The specter of Rocco Varga’s threat—his warehouse attack still fresh—loomed, but Daniel’s tightened security and the DNA test pending with Sophia kept the focus on Ethan.
The penthouse, usually a sleek fortress of glass and steel, was now scattered with signs of a child’s presence: a small backpack on the
