Chapter 564:

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Nell froze, blindsided by the thought that had just gripped her. The suspicion struck so hard it knocked the words right out of her.

A chill rippled down her spine. Her eyes widened, and when she finally managed to whisper, her voice trembled with disbelief. “Could Henry… be Madison’s child?”

Once the thought took root, it spread like wildfire. Suddenly, every tilt of Henry’s head, every flicker of his eyes, bore Madison’s imprint. It wasn’t about the shape of his nose or the curve of his lips—it was something far subtler. The way he moved, the way he paused between words—it was Madison all over again.

Nell felt the ground sway beneath her. Her heart slammed against her ribs. She had adored Henry just yesterday—a gentle, sweet, cherubic boy who made her dream of having a child of her own someday.

But now? That warmth vanished, swept away by the dark realization of who his mother might be.

“Madison went abroad during college and only returned three years ago,” Dayna said thoughtfully, her eyes distant. “I remember noticing something odd when I did her surgery last time. Signs that she might have been pregnant and delivered once.”

Whether it had ended in birth or loss, such things left lasting scars on a woman’s body. Back then, Dayna had focused only on Madison’s dangerously thin uterine wall, consumed by the thought she might have gone through multiple abortions or miscarriages. But now she realized those marks could just as easily have been left by childbirth.

Nell’s chest tightened. A slow, heavy ache bloomed inside her. She knelt down before Henry, searching his innocent face with a quiet ache, and sighed. “How could such a cute child possibly be Madison’s?”

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Then something clicked in her mind. She turned sharply toward Dayna. “Does Declan know?”

Dayna gave a humorless smile. “And if he did… would it change anything? He and Madison can’t have children anymore. If our suspicion is true, at least Madison still has a piece of herself in Henry. But Declan… he’ll never have that.” She glanced again at the boy, remembering the way he had explained his family situation the day before.

“Henry, have you really never seen your mother?” she asked.

He shook his head slowly. “Dad said she left us a long time ago.”

“And do you remember how you got to this city?”

Another shake. “I only remember being in a hospital. When I woke up, I was already here.” His eyes lifted to her, hopeful, unsure. “Miss Angel… do you know who my mom is?”

Dayna hesitated—just for a beat—and then offered a soft shake of her head. “Let’s focus on the surgery first. As for your mother… that’s something your father will explain when the time is right.”

There was no reason to tangle an innocent child in the mess adults had made. Especially not this child—so composed, so heartbreakingly understanding.

The theory was still just that—a theory. There was no evidence, nothing concrete to prove if Madison truly was Henry’s mother. And Dayna had already made her decision. Whether Henry was Madison’s child or not—she would save him.

And perhaps that very suspicion explained why he had arrived at the studio’s doorstep with such conveniently timed precision. It was too perfect to be coincidence. As the elevator doors opened, she pressed the button with one hand and held tightly onto Henry with the other.

The hospital was familiar—one she had worked with often, complete with a private passage set aside just for her. But she didn’t rush him to the operating room. Instead, she pulled out the private detective’s phone and fired off a quick message to Madison: “Something’s gone wrong. The surgery appears to have failed. All medical staff are doing everything to save the child.”

The reply came back almost instantly. “What do you mean?”

Dayna didn’t bother reading it. She handed Henry over to a nurse, instructing them to begin blood work and complete the pre-surgery preparations.

Nell, peering over Dayna’s shoulder, saw the message. Her voice was low with disgust. “She’s got some nerve. Still using you… to save her child.”

“She’s cold-blooded,” Dayna said softly. “Maybe she abandoned Henry because he was born with health issues. But now that she’s lost the ability to have more children, he’s the only one left. She’ll do whatever it takes to keep him alive.”

Nell let out a long, quiet breath. “If she hadn’t lost her uterus… would she even be here, begging for help?”

The silence that followed was answer enough.

Henry had been ill since birth, surviving only through an exhausting regimen of treatments and surgeries all these years.

If Madison had truly cared, she would have found the Wraith Physician years ago—not only when she had run out of options.

Dayna could see it in Henry’s eyes—the quiet ache, the unspoken yearning. He was a child longing for love, especially a mother’s love. But the truth was brutal: he wasn’t Madison’s miracle—he was her last resort.

That kind of reality was far too harsh for a child his age to comprehend. And what child could ever truly accept that truth—that their own mother had never wanted them?

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