He divorced me and signed away our sick child… hours before I won the biggest contract of my life.

“Mia needs stability,” Ryan shot back. “And I can’t give her that with you dragging us down.”

That afternoon, he signed the papers.

And—unthinkably—signed away his parental rights as well.

The Night Everything Changed
That night, Avery sat beside Mia’s hospital bed at Children’s Mercy, watching the monitors flicker with a fragile rhythm. Mia looked small beneath the blankets—pale skin, hair thinned by chemo—yet her eyes still held light.

“Mom,” Mia whispered, “when Dad comes back… can we go to the beach again?”

Avery smiled through the fracture in her heart. “Maybe someday, sweetheart.”

After Mia drifted off, Avery opened her laptop.

And finally saw it.

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