Chapter 2 - The Man on the Bus
The armored SUV moved through Seattle traffic as if red lights were suggestions.
I lay back against the leather seat, breathing exactly as Lucian told me.
Slow.
Controlled.
In through the nose.
Out through the mouth.
The contractions kept coming.
Not regularly enough to tell me what was happening.
But close enough to terrify me.
Lucian sat across from me.
He had removed his coat and folded it beside him.
Without it, he looked less like a mysterious stranger and more like what he actually was: a man accustomed to command.
White shirt.
Dark suit.
No tie.
Watch that probably cost more than the apartment I was about to lose.
But it wasn’t the money that made him intimidating.
It was the way everyone around him responded before he spoke.
One security agent drove.
Another was already on the phone.
“We need maternal-fetal medicine ready,” Lucian said. “Twenty-six weeks, triplet pregnancy, acute contractions, significant stress event.”
The agent repeated the information.
I stared at Lucian.
“How do you know exactly what to say?”
His eyes met mine.
“I’ve spent too much time around hospitals.”
Something in his tone closed the subject.
My phone vibrated again.
Nathan.
I didn’t open the message.
Lucian noticed.
“You don’t have to answer him.”
“He’s their father.”
“That doesn’t give him ownership.”
I looked toward the window.
Rain smeared the city into streaks of silver.
“I signed everything.”
“What exactly?”
“The apartment. Accounts. Cars. Most of the settlement terms.”
“Did you have your own attorney?”
I hesitated.
His gaze sharpened.
“No.”
Lucian leaned back slowly.
“Why?”
“Because Nathan said it would make everything ugly.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted it to be over.”
For the first time, I heard anger in Lucian’s voice.
Not directed at me.
“At six months pregnant with triplets, he pressured you into signing a settlement without independent representation?”
“He didn’t force me.”
“Power doesn’t always need force.”
The words landed harder than I expected.
I turned away.
Maybe because I knew he was right.
The SUV slowed suddenly.
Ahead, the hospital entrance blazed with lights.
Two police vehicles waited near the curb.
My pulse jumped.
“Why are there police?”
“Not for you.”
Lucian’s voice remained calm.
The doors opened.
A medical team rushed toward us with a gurney.
Everything blurred.
Questions.
Blood pressure cuff.
Fetal monitoring.
IV line.
Someone asking me when I had last eaten.
Another person asking whether there had been bleeding.
Lucian remained beside me until the nurses began wheeling me inside.
Then I grabbed his wrist.
He looked down.
“Don’t leave.”
I hadn’t meant to say it.
But suddenly the hospital seemed huge.
Bright.
Cold.
And Nathan was somewhere inside it.
Lucian’s expression shifted.
“I’m not leaving.”
They rushed me into obstetric triage.
Three heartbeats filled the room.
Rapid.
Distinct.
Beautiful.
I started crying the instant I heard them.
A nurse squeezed my hand.
“All three babies have strong heart activity.”
“Are they coming?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Within minutes, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist arrived.
Dr. Elena Ramos.
Mid-fifties.
Calm eyes.
Steady voice.
She reviewed the monitor.
“You’re having contractions, but your cervix hasn’t changed significantly yet.”
I exhaled shakily.
“Can you stop it?”
“We’re going to try.”
Medication.
Fluids.
Steroid injections in case the babies came early.
Continuous monitoring.
Every sentence reminded me how close I had come to disaster.
Then the door opened.
Lucian entered.
Behind him came a woman in a dark green suit carrying two phones and a leather folder.
She introduced herself as Miriam Cole, Lucian’s general counsel.
That seemed excessive.
Until I saw the man behind them.
Nathan.
He stood at the end of the hallway.
Three attorneys with him.
Just like the photograph.
His expression darkened when he saw Lucian.
Then he looked at me.
“Ava.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
Dr. Ramos immediately looked at the monitor.
“Her heart rate just jumped.”
Lucian turned.
“You’re upsetting the patient.”
Nathan ignored him.
He walked toward me.
“You disappeared.”
I stared at him.
“You threw me out.”
“I told you to leave the apartment. I didn’t tell you to vanish.”
“You gave me enough money for two nights in a cheap hotel.”
Nathan’s jaw flexed.
“This doesn’t need to become a scene.”
Lucian stepped between him and my bed.
“You already made it a scene when you arrived with lawyers.”
Nathan’s eyes moved slowly to Lucian.
Recognition.
Dislike.
Something deeper.
“Well,” Nathan said. “That explains the convoy outside.”
Lucian did not answer.
Nathan looked past him at me.
“I was informed that the pregnancy is triplets.”
“Informed by whom?”
He ignored the question.
“My attorneys are preparing temporary orders to ensure there are no decisions made about the children without my consent.”
I could barely believe what I was hearing.
“The children?”
“Our children.”
“You haven’t cared about them for months.”
“That’s not relevant.”
A laugh escaped me.
Sharp.
Bitter.
Not relevant.
Lucian’s face hardened.
Nathan continued.
“I also want immediate access to all medical records.”
Dr. Ramos stepped forward.
“That will require the patient’s authorization unless there is a court order.”
“I’m the father.”
“You are not the patient.”
Nathan looked annoyed.
As if he was unused to being told no.
One of his attorneys moved closer.
“Mr. Drake has legitimate parental interests.”
Miriam Cole opened her leather folder.
“So does Ms. Bennett, who apparently signed divorce documents today without independent representation while medically vulnerable.”
Nathan froze.
His attorney glanced at him.
Lucian looked at Miriam.
“File an emergency notice with family court.”
Nathan’s expression sharpened.
“You’re involving yourself in something that has nothing to do with you.”
Lucian finally turned fully toward him.
“It has everything to do with me.”
Silence.
Even I stared.
Nathan’s face changed.
Just slightly.
But enough.
“You should be careful,” Nathan said.
Lucian smiled without warmth.
“You first.”
A nurse stepped between them.
“Everyone who is not essential needs to leave now.”
Nathan pointed at me.
“Ava, we need to speak privately.”
“No.”
The word surprised both of us.
He stared.
I had spent years agreeing.
Years smoothing things over.
Years avoiding conflict.
But lying in that bed with three monitors tracking three babies, something inside me shifted.
“No, Nathan.”
His expression went flat.
“You’re emotional.”
“I’m finally paying attention.”
Lucian said nothing.
He didn’t need to.
Nathan took one slow breath.
“You think this man is protecting you?”
“I don’t know what he’s doing.”
“Then ask yourself why Lucian Blackwood happened to be on the same bus as you.”
The room went still.
My eyes moved to Lucian.
Nathan smiled faintly.
“You didn’t think about that?”
Lucian’s jaw tightened.
Nathan continued.
“Men like him don’t ride public buses.”
My heart began to pound.
The monitor reflected it immediately.
Dr. Ramos snapped, “Enough.”
But the question had already entered my mind.
Why had Lucian been there?
A billionaire industrialist on a city bus.
Two rows behind me.
With three armored SUVs somehow waiting beside the bridge.
Nathan stepped back.
“Ask him, Ava.”
Then he walked out.
The attorneys followed.
I stared at Lucian.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
“Was Nathan telling the truth?”
“Yes.”
My throat tightened.
“You weren’t there by accident?”
“No.”
“Then why were you following me?”
Lucian looked toward Miriam.
She quietly left the room.
Now it was only us.
Rain tapped the window.
Machines hummed.
Three heartbeats continued steadily.
Lucian walked closer.
“I wasn’t following you.”
“You were on my bus.”
“I was following Nathan.”
I stared.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It will.”
“When?”
“When your doctors say you’re stable.”
“That’s not good enough.”
His expression softened.
“Ava, you need to keep your blood pressure down.”
“Everyone keeps deciding what I can handle.”
He went silent.
Then nodded once.
“You’re right.”
He pulled a chair closer and sat.
“I’ve been investigating Nathan Drake for eleven months.”
My breath caught.
“Why?”
“Because he stole from me.”
I blinked.
“What?”
“Not money directly. Something more valuable.”
“What?”
Lucian stared at me.
“Control of a company he never had the right to touch.”
I waited.
He continued.
“And three months ago, my investigators discovered that your name was connected to the missing ownership documents.”
I felt cold.
“My name?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible.”
“I hoped so.”
Lucian leaned forward slightly.
“But then I learned Nathan had been moving assets through accounts opened under your identity.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“He used your signature.”
“No.”
“Your tax information.”
“No.”
“And at least one trust your parents created before they died.”
The room tilted.
“My parents didn’t have that kind of money.”
“They didn’t when they died.”
I stared at him.
“What are you talking about?”
Lucian hesitated.
Then said something that changed everything.
“Your father once owned part of Blackwood Aerospace.”
I forgot how to breathe.
“That’s impossible.”
“He was one of the original engineers.”
“My father taught physics.”
“After he left the company.”
I tried to sit up straighter.
Pain pulled across my abdomen.
Lucian immediately reached forward but stopped himself before touching me.
“My father never mentioned you.”
“He had reasons.”
“What reasons?”
“That is what Nathan has spent years making sure you never discovered.”
My phone vibrated again.
This time, a message from an unknown number.
I opened it.
One sentence.
Ask Blackwood what happened to your father the night he left the company.
I looked at Lucian.
His face went completely still.
“You know what happened.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
He held my gaze.
And for the first time, the most feared billionaire in America looked afraid.
“Your father saved my life.”
My chest tightened.
“But I couldn’t save his.”
May you like
And suddenly Nathan wasn’t the only man in the hospital keeping secrets from me.
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