Too Late, Mr. Billionaire: You Can't Afford Me by Thedora Birnir

Chapter 1636:

These were details he hadn’t known.

“After his birth, he had an infection… He was in an incubator… He couldn’t stop crying, but when I held him, he calmed down immediately…” Elissa’s voice grew tighter with every word. “My mom said… a child without a father couldn’t stay around… She took him from me… I couldn’t stop her…”

Ernest’s chest constricted as he pulled her into a deep embrace, his hand cradling her head.

He kissed her hair and whispered, his voice hoarse, “I’m sorry.”

He had failed her. He had failed Locke. He had failed them both.

“Locke… Locke…” Elissa murmured her son’s name, her fingers clutching Ernest’s sleeve. Her tears blurred her vision, and a faint, bittersweet smile crossed her lips.

“That name… I chose it for him.”

“You did?” Ernest froze, genuinely surprised.

had found Locke at the orphanage, the director had said the boy had always been called Locke. He had assumed the

it turned out, it was

name you gave him kept him safe and helped him

against Ernest’s shoulder, her cries rough and ragged,

eyelids drifted closed. Her body nearly gave out, but he caught her before she

“Elissa?”

lifting her into his arms. With steady steps, he carried

in distress, his brow

for the caretaker at the

stepped in right away.

“The medicine—where is it?”

bring it now,” Laney

had dozed off

a glass of water and

“Here’s her medicine,”