The Billionaire's Secret Twins

Chapter 7: The Price

Mercy Hospital smelled like bleach and death.

It always did. I had spent two years coming here for Lily.

"Family only!" A nurse tried to stop Ethan as we ran into the emergency room. He was still holding the ultrasound pictures, and his hand was still holding mine.

"I'm her brother-in-law," Ethan said, flashing his black card like it was an ID. "And I want the best nephrologist in this hospital. Now. Whatever it costs."

Money talked. Within seconds, we were led to a private consultation room. Lily - my 16-year-old baby sister, pale and bald from treatments - was unconscious on the bed, hooked up to machines.

"Lily!" I dropped to my knees beside her bed. "Lily, I'm here!"

Dr. Miller, her usual doctor who always looked tired, came in. When he saw Ethan, his eyes widened. Everyone in New York knew Ethan Knight.

"Ms. Wilson... Mr. Knight... Lily's kidneys have completely failed. She needs a transplant immediately, or... or we have days. Not weeks. The donor list is 8 months long."

"No," I whispered. "No, you said we had months!"

"Her condition deteriorated fast last night. I'm sorry."

I was sobbing now, my head on Lily's bed. My parents died and left me with her. She was all I had. And now my babies... I couldn't lose her too.

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder.

Ethan.

He wasn't looking at me. He was looking at Dr. Miller, his face that cold, calculating CEO face again.

"How much for a private donor? How much to get her to the top of the list?"

"Ethan, you can't buy a kidney," Dr. Miller said awkwardly.

"I can buy a hospital," Ethan said flatly. "I can donate a wing to this hospital for $10 million and request that my sister-in-law gets priority evaluation for the private donor program. Isn't that how it works in America, Doctor?"

Dr. Miller went pale. "Mr. Knight, I..."

"Do it," Ethan said. He pulled out his phone and called someone. "Mark, I need you to wire $10 million to Mercy Hospital as a charitable donation. Yes, now. Under the Knight Foundation. And get my legal team to approve a private donor search for Lily Wilson. I want the best."

He hung up.

Just like that. $10 million.

I stared at him, my mouth open. "Ethan... you can't... that's too much..."

He looked down at me, still on my knees.

"You are carrying my children, Emma. Did you think I would let your sister die while you carry my heirs? My grandmother would never forgive me. And..."

He hesitated, his eyes going to Lily's pale face, then to my stomach.

"And no child should lose their mother or their aunt. My mother left me. I know what it's like to be abandoned when you're sick."

It was the second time he mentioned his mother. Pain flashed in his eyes.

Dr. Miller's phone rang. He answered, his eyes wide. "Yes... yes, the donation just came through... Yes, Mr. Knight is here... Immediately? Okay."

He hung up. "Mr. Knight, the board just approved. We have a private donor match - a 20-year-old male, car accident, family consented. We can do the transplant... tonight. If the family agrees and if you cover the surgical costs - around $400,000."

"Do it," Ethan said without blinking. "$400,000 is nothing."

$400,000 is nothing. For me, it was three lifetimes.

Lily was wheeled away for pre-op. I stood there, shaking, holding my stomach and the ultrasound pictures.

Ethan turned to me.

"Emma, we need to talk. About March 15th."

My heart stopped. Not now. Not when Lily was dying.

"Ethan, please, not now-"

"Yes, now," he insisted. He pulled me into an empty supply closet, shutting the door. It was small, cramped, just us and shelves of medical supplies. His hands were on my shoulders.

"On March 15th, I was at The Royal Hotel for a charity gala. I was drugged. Someone put something in my drink - Victoria later told me it was her friend who was jealous. I woke up the next morning in a hotel room. Alone. My clothes were messed up. I thought... I thought I had just passed out."

He was breathing hard, his eyes searching my face desperately, like I held the answer to a puzzle that had haunted him for two months.

"I had bruises on my back. Scratches. And I had a vague memory of... of a girl. Crying. A girl with brown hair who smelled like cheap vanilla perfume. Who kept saying 'please, don't'. I thought it was a dream. A nightmare."

Cheap vanilla perfume. That was my perfume. $5 from the drugstore.

"Ethan..." Tears were streaming down my face.

"Emma," he whispered, his hands sliding down from my shoulders to my waist, holding me tight like I would disappear. "Was it you? That night? Were you that girl?"

I couldn't lie anymore. Not when he paid for Lily's life. Not when he looked at me like that - vulnerable, broken, scared.

"Yes," I sobbed. "It was me. I was working that night as a server. You were drunk, you were sad... a man was harassing me in the hallway. You... you saved me. You pulled me into your room to hide me. And then... and then we..."

"We had s*x," he finished, his voice rough. "We had s*x and I don't even remember if I... Emma, did I hurt you? Did I force you?"

"No! No, you didn't! You were gentle! You asked me if I was sure! I... I wanted you to. I had a crush on you from the newspapers. I thought... I thought it was my only chance to be with someone like you."

He let out a shaky breath and rested his forehead against mine. We were so close in that tiny closet.

"Why didn't you tell me? When my grandmother introduced us, why didn't you say anything?"

"Because you didn't remember me! And you were offering $50,000 to marry you! I needed that money for Lily! I thought if you knew I was the girl from the hotel, you would think I was lying to trap you! Like Victoria said!"

He was silent for a long time. Then his hand moved down to my stomach again. To our babies.

"March 15th. Eight weeks and two days ago. Twins. Dr. Patel said twins can happen when..."

"When the conception is... intense," I whispered, blushing furiously.

Ethan let out a laugh - a real laugh, not cold, not fake. A surprised, happy, disbelieving laugh.

"Emma Wilson, are you telling me that my one-night stand that I thought was a dream... that girl is my contract wife? And she's pregnant with my twins?"

"Yes," I whispered.

He stared at me, then at my stomach, then back at me. His gray eyes were shining with tears now. Ethan Knight was crying.

"My babies," he whispered, his voice breaking. "They ARE mine. All along, they were mine."

He dropped to his knees - the billionaire on his knees in a dirty supply closet - and pressed his face against my stomach, over my ugly sweater, right where our twins were.

"I felt it," he whispered. "In the ultrasound room, when I heard their heartbeats... I felt like I knew them. Like my soul knew them. Because they ARE mine."

He looked up at me, tears on his perfect face.

"Emma, I have to ask you something, and I need you to be honest. Contract aside. No money. No $50,000. If I had remembered that night and found you... and asked you to marry me for real... would you have said yes?"

What was he asking? Was this a proposal? A real one?

Before I could answer, the closet door was ripped open.

"THERE you are! Emma Knight, you shameless-"

Victoria stood there, with two security guards and... and a police officer?

"I called the police!" Victoria shrieked, pointing at Ethan on his knees. "This woman is a fraud! She tricked him! She is pregnant with another man's baby and she is extorting the Knight family!"

The police officer looked confused. "Ma'am, this is a hospital..."

But Victoria wasn't done. She held up a piece of paper - a paternity test? Or fake one?

"I have proof! I have a DNA test from her trash! The father is NOT Ethan Knight! Arrest her!"

Ethan stood up slowly, his face transforming back into the terrifying billionaire. He stepped in front of me, shielding me and our babies again.

"Officer, this woman is harassing my wife, who is pregnant with my children and whose sister is in surgery. I suggest you escort HER out, not my wife."

"Your children?" Victoria laughed hysterically. "Ask her! Ask her who the father is! She told me it was a one-night mistake!"

Ethan looked back at me. His eyes were soft. He knew the truth now. He knew he was the father.

He turned to Victoria and smiled - a cold, dangerous smile.

"Victoria, you want proof? Fine. I will take a paternity test. Right now. In this hospital. With my wife. And when it comes back 99.9% that I am the father of those twins, I will sue you for defamation for $100 million. And I will win."

Victoria went white.

What? A paternity test now? But the babies were only 8 weeks!

Ethan leaned down and whispered in my ear, so only I could hear:

"Don't worry, my love. A 8-week fetal DNA test from mother's blood will prove I'm the father. I already called Dr. Patel on our way here. She is on her way up with the kit. I knew. A part of me knew from the moment I saw you in that boutique."

He knew! He had already planned this!

He took my hand and kissed it, in front of Victoria, the police, and the nurses who were staring.

"My wife is carrying my twins. And I dare anyone to say otherwise."

Victoria's fake DNA paper fell from her hands.

She had lost.