He swallowed hard. “Maya… what happened?”
Before she could answer, the youngest child began coughing violently. Instinctively, Adrian removed his coat and wrapped it around the boy’s shoulders.
“Come with me,” he said firmly.
Within minutes, they were seated inside a warm café nearby. The children—Sophie, Caleb, and Jonah—devoured plates of pancakes as if they hadn’t eaten properly in days.
Maya’s voice trembled as she finally spoke.
“I found out I was pregnant after you left. I tried reaching you, but your number changed. I didn’t know where you were. I worked two jobs for years… but when the pandemic hit, I lost everything. We were evicted. Since then, it’s just been survival.”
Adrian felt the weight of every missed birthday, every first word he hadn’t heard. While he had been celebrating IPO projections and luxury acquisitions, she had been fighting to keep their children alive.
That night, he booked them into a suite at a nearby hotel. By morning, he had arranged an interview for Maya at one of his partner firms and contacted a private school willing to offer the children scholarships.