Chapter 1: No Name, No Goodbye
Outside, it was raining.
A relentless winter downpour lashed against the hospital windows, each droplet striking the glass like a desperate cry trying to tear through the heavy curtain of night. The wind howled through the cracks and crevices like a grieving ghost, cold and sharp, echoing through sterile white corridors that felt more like a mausoleum than a place of healing.
Camila lay curled on the hospital bed, her body convulsing in pain. But this wasn't just any pain. It was a storm—a hurricane crashing through her core. Every contraction ripped through her like shards of ice, each wave of agony clawing through muscle and bone, tearing at the line between life and death. Her breath hitched, short and ragged, as the primal force of labor waged war with her will to survive.
She had never felt anything like this.
It wasn’t pain—this was devastation.
It wasn’t fear—this was complete undoing.
Her hands, trembling and slick with sweat, gripped the metal rails of the bed like the edge of a cliff. Her lips cracked and bled as she bit down, stifling screams that seemed to tear her vocal cords apart.
“Deep breaths, Camila! That’s it! Don’t tense up—breathe… breathe with me!” the nurse’s voice rang out, distant and dreamlike, as if echoing from the bottom of a well.
Her abdomen tightened again—unrelenting, merciless. Another contraction surged like a tidal wave, crushing everything in its path. She was drowning, flailing in the throes of something so much bigger than herself.
And then... a cry.
A faint, delicate sound—thin as gossamer, yet enough to slice through the cold sterile air and lodge itself in the deepest crevice of Camila’s soul.
She tried to open her eyes. But everything was blurred, washed over by tears and the haze of exhaustion. She saw only a nurse’s silhouette—a fleeting blur of movement. A pair of arms. Someone… carrying the baby away.
Too fast.
Too soon.
“Does the baby… have all his fingers and toes…?” Her voice was barely audible, a mere wisp of wind grazing fallen leaves.
No one answered.
Camila moved her hand, just a little. All she wanted—needed—was to touch him. Even if it was only for a second. Even just the warmth of his skin on her fingertip.
But her body had betrayed her. Her limbs felt numb. Foreign.
“Let me… see him… just once…”
Still, no one stopped. No one turned.
Only the cold white ceiling remained—and a single tear that rolled quietly down her cheek into the pillow. Then, everything went black. A silent abyss swallowed her whole, and no one called her name.
She woke to brightness.
White lights. Steady beeps. Sterile air. Her body lay still beneath the crisp hospital sheets, the ache in her abdomen now a distant drumbeat beneath the surface—but the emptiness in her chest screamed louder than any physical pain.
She looked around.
No crib.
No baby’s cry.
No baby.
“Where’s… my child?” Her voice cracked like frost on glass—fragile, breaking at the edges.
The door creaked open. A nurse entered, her expression soft but empty, like a winter breeze brushing past a withered tree.
“Good morning, Miss Dawson. How are you feeling? I’ll call the doctor—”
“Where’s my baby?” Camila interrupted, pushing herself up. A wave of dizziness struck like a boulder crushing her lungs.
The nurse hesitated. Just for a heartbeat. Then she smiled again—that same gentle, emotionless smile.
“The baby has been taken.”
“Taken? By whom?” Her voice sharpened, the confusion giving way to fear. And rage.
“A man,” the nurse replied calmly. “He said he was the legal guardian. All documentation had already been processed.”
Camila’s world shattered in an instant.
She wanted to scream, to demand answers—but her throat was dry, her words dried up before they could form.
Then, a sound.
A message.
Ting!
She turned her head. Her phone screen lit up with a new notification:
"A large sum of money has been deposited into your account."
Beneath it, another message:
"The baby is healthy. Forget everything. Move on with your life."
Camila laughed.
A hollow, broken sound. The laugh of someone whose heart had been shredded into a thousand pieces. To them, she had never been a mother. She had been a vessel. A machine. A paid surrogate who had fulfilled her duty.
“Leon Sterling…” she whispered, her voice dry and cracked like old paper. “I will never forgive you.”
She placed a hand over her stomach—where life once grew. Now, it was nothing but hollow silence. Cold. Violated.
Suddenly, the phone vibrated again.
An unknown number.
She hesitated, then answered.
A voice, deep and low, as if emerging from the shadows, spoke:
“If you want to know the truth about the baby… stay alive. In time, everything will be revealed.”
Click.
The call ended. No name. No clue.
Just a ripple.
Something stirred inside her—a suspicion, a whisper, a single echo from the void.
Maybe… the child wasn’t entirely Leon’s.
Maybe… there were secrets buried deeper than she could ever imagine.
Camila sat up slowly.
Her eyes, once blurred with grief, now held a flicker of something else. Not vengeance. Not yet. But purpose. A spark.
It wasn’t hatred that would keep her alive.
It was love.
A mother’s love.
And it wasn’t done speaking.