The CEO's Contract Bride

Chapter 17: The Visitor

The hospital room was quiet except for the soft beeping of monitors.

Mrs. Lin lay against white pillows, thinner than Ava remembered, her face pale but her eyes clear. When Ava walked in, her mother's face lit up.

"Ava." Mrs. Lin reached out a trembling hand. "My girl."

Ava rushed to the bedside, tears falling. "Mom. I'm here."

Ethan hung back near the door, giving them space. But Mrs. Lin's eyes found him.

"You must be Ethan." She smiled weakly. "My daughter talks about you in her sleep, you know. She says your name like it's a prayer."

Ethan came forward and took the older woman's other hand. "Mrs. Lin. I'll take care of her. I promise."

"I know." Mrs. Lin studied his face. "You have honest eyes. Like..." She stopped herself.

"Like who, Mom?" Ava asked.

Mrs. Lin didn't answer. Instead, she looked toward the small cabinet beside her bed.

"There's an envelope," she said quietly. "In the drawer. He left it for you."

Ava's blood ran cold. "He? The visitor?"

Mrs. Lin nodded.

With shaking hands, Ava opened the drawer and pulled out a cream-colored envelope. Her name was written on it in elegant, old-fashioned handwriting: "For Ava."

She opened it.

Inside: a photograph, faded with age. A young man in his thirties, smiling, holding a tiny baby girl. On the back, in the same handwriting: "Lin Guoqiang and Ava, 2002."

Ava stared at it. "This is... my father?"

"You were two." Mrs. Lin's voice was soft. "That was the last photo taken of you together."

Under the photograph was a folded note. Ava read it aloud:

"She deserves to know the truth about her father. The accident was not what they told you. I'm sorry I stayed silent all these years. — A friend."

The room went silent.

"Mom." Ava's voice shook. "What is this? Dad died in a car accident when I was three. What truth? What accident?"

Mrs. Lin closed her eyes. Tears slid down her cheeks.

"I told him never to come," she whispered. "I told him to stay away from us."

"Who is he, Mom?" Ava gripped her mother's hand. "Who is this man?"

Mrs. Lin opened her eyes. They were full of twenty years of fear.

"His name is Zhou Weimin." She said it like the name burned her tongue. "He was... your father's business partner. A long time ago."

Ethan leaned forward. "Mrs. Lin, did he say why he came? What did he want?"

"He asked about Ava." Mrs. Lin's voice trembled. "Her health. The baby —" She looked at Ava's belly. "He knew, Ava. He knew you were pregnant. He asked if the baby was healthy, if you were being cared for." She clutched Ava's hand. "He cried, Ava. This old man sat in that chair and cried. He said, 'She looks just like him. Guoqiang would have been so proud.'"

Ava felt the room tilt. "Mom, you're scaring me."

"There's something I never told you." Mrs. Lin's grip tightened. "Your father didn't die in an accident, Ava."

The words hung in the air like smoke.

"What?" Ava breathed.

"The car crash — it wasn't an accident." Mrs. Lin was crying openly now. "Your father found something. In the company's accounts. He told me he was going to report it, that it was too big to stay quiet." She took a shuddering breath. "Three days later, his car went off the bridge. The police called it an accident. But Guoqiang was the most careful driver I ever knew."

Ethan went very still. "Mrs. Lin. What company did Ava's father work for?"

Mrs. Lin looked at him. Then at Ava. Then back at him.

"Gu Group," she whispered.

The silence was absolute.

Ava felt Ethan's hand tighten on her shoulder.

"My father worked for the Gu Group?" Ava's voice was barely audible. "And he died because he found something in the accounts?"

"I don't know what he found." Mrs. Lin shook her head desperately. "He never told me the details. He said it was safer if I didn't know." She looked at Ethan with pleading eyes. "Mr. Gu — Ethan — I kept quiet for twenty-two years to protect my daughter. But now this old man comes, and your family, and the baby..." She broke down. "I'm so tired of being afraid."

Ethan knelt beside the bed, his voice gentle but firm. "Mrs. Lin. I swear to you — on my life, on my child's life — I will find out what happened to Ava's father. And I will protect both of you."

Mrs. Lin searched his face for a long moment. Then, slowly, she nodded.

"Ethan," she said quietly, "can I ask you something? As a mother."

"Anything."

"Do you love my daughter?" Her eyes were sharp despite her weakness. "Not the contract. Not the baby. Her."

Ethan didn't hesitate. He looked at Ava — really looked at her — and Mrs. Lin saw everything she needed to see in his face.

"More than my own life," he said simply.

Mrs. Lin smiled through her tears. "Then I can rest." She turned to Ava. "My girl, listen to me. Whatever you learn about your father, about the past — don't let it poison what you have now." She touched Ava's belly gently. "This baby is the future. The past is just... the past."

"But Mom, if Dad was—"

"Your father loved you more than anything." Mrs. Lin's voice was firm. "Whatever happened to him, remember that. He died trying to do the right thing." She closed her eyes, exhausted. "Now go. Both of you. And Ava —" She caught her daughter's sleeve. "Be careful. Zhou Weimin was crying, yes. But tears don't always mean kindness. Sometimes they mean guilt."

She paused, her brow furrowing as a memory surfaced. "Oh — and one more thing. Right before he left, he turned at the door and said..." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "'Tell Ava the past isn't buried. It's just waiting.'"

As they left the hospital, Ava was silent, the photograph clutched in her hand.

Ethan's phone rang. David.

"Sir. The exchange location just came in." David's voice was tense. "Tomorrow. Noon. The old ferry terminal — abandoned since 2019." A pause. "And sir... I ran the name Zhou Weimin through our system."

"And?"

"Sir." David's voice dropped. "Zhou Weimin was on the Gu Group board of directors. Twenty-two years ago. He resigned one month after Lin Guoqiang died."

Ethan stopped walking.

"Ava," he said quietly. "Your father's death. My family's company. The same people who are after our baby now." He looked at the photograph in her hand — her father smiling, holding her as a baby. "This isn't a coincidence. It never was."

Ava looked up at him, her eyes bright with tears and something else — something fierce.

"Then we find the truth," she said. "About my father. About Phoenix. About everything." She pressed her hand to her belly. "For them. For all three of us."

Ethan pulled her close, right there in the hospital corridor, and held her like she was the only real thing in the world.

Behind them, unnoticed, a nurse's aide paused at the corner — and spoke quietly into her sleeve.

"They're leaving the hospital now. The girl has the photograph."