A Woman Worth Billions Dated the Wrong Brother novel Chapter 426

So Many Firsts

Jason POV

Emory pushed my wheelchair toward the neonatal unit, but by the time we reached the doors, I was impatient enough to cotisider getting up and walking the rest of the way myself. One look from him stopped me.

“Don’t.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You looked at your legs.”

“I have legs.”

“You have legs that managed three steps after two weeks of recovery and then decided they’d accomplished enough for the month.”

I glared at him. “You’re annoying.”

“And you’re still in the wheelchair.”

Unfortunately, he had a point.

A nurse let us through after checking with the neonatal team, and the moment we entered, I realized I wasn’t the first member of my family to visit.

Grandmother was sitting between the two bassinets with Iris on one side and Rose on the other. Iris was leaning over Baby A with an expression of complete concentration, while Rose had both hands resting on the edge of Baby B’s bassinet, whispering something to him as though they were having a private conversation.

Grandmother noticed me first.

“There you are.”

I looked between them. “How did you three get here before me?”

“We have functional legs,” Iris said without looking up.

I stared at her.

She finally glanced over and smiled innocently.

Rose giggled.

Traitors. All of them.

Emory made a suspicious sound behind me that sounded remarkably like laughter before telling the nurse he’d be nearby if I needed him. I waved him away and rolled myself closer.

My sons looked exactly as they had the first time I’d seen them.

Tiny.

Wrinkled.

Slightly offended by existence.

And, despite Alice’s insistence otherwise, still not particularly attractive.

1/9

༩༽

+15 Bonus

“They’re still ugly,” I announced.

Rose gasped.

“Jason!”

I looked at her. “What?”

“They are babies.”

“I know.”

“You’re not supposed to call babies ugly.”

“Why? They can’t understand me.”

Iris looked down at Baby A. “Don’t listen to him. You’re adorable.”

“He looks like an angry potato.”

Grandmother slapped my shoulder.

“Ow.”

“Stop insulting my great-grandsons.”

I rubbed my arm. “Amber would’ve agreed with me.”

“Amber would have slapped your other shoulder.”

Probably.

That thought should have hurt.

Instead, for one brief second, it made me smile.

I moved between the bassinets and looked down at them. The neonatal team had already told me both boys were doing well. Their cardiac evaluations had been reassuring, there had been no concerning rhythm disturbances, and nothing currently suggested they had suffered significant effects from the aconite exposure.

They had survived.

Somehow, after everything that had happened before they even took their first breaths, they were here.

Rose carefully touched one tiny hand.

1

Baby B immediately wrapped his fingers around hers.

Her entire face changed.

“He grabbed me.”

“That’s a reflex,” Iris said.

Rose glared at her. “He loves me.”

“Obviously,” I said. “Ignore Iris.”

Iris rolled her eyes.

2/9

།་།།

+15 Bonus

Grandmother watched the babies for another moment before looking at the identification cards.

Baby A Sun.

Baby B Sun.

Her mouth tightened.

“No.”

I looked at her. “No what?”

“This has gone on long enough.”

That tone immediately made me suspicious.

She pointed at the cards. “Baby A and Baby B. Those are not names.”

“I know.”

“They need names.”

“They’ll get them.”

“When?”

“When Amber wakes up.’

Grandmother’s expression softened slightly, but she didn’t surrender. “Jason, sweetheart, we don’t know exactly when that will be.”

“I know.”

“It could still take days.”

“I know.”

“And these babies cannot remain Baby A and Baby B forever.”

“They won’t.”

She sighed. “Then name them.”

“No.”

The answer came so quickly that even Iris looked at me.

Grandmother frowned. “Jason.”

“I’m not naming them without Amber.”

“You are their father.”

“And she’s their mother.”

“I know that.”

“Then you know why I’m waiting.”

Grandmother studied me carefully. “Amber would understand if you chose their names now.”

3/9

“Maybe.”

She seemed surprised by my answer.

+15 Bonus

Maybe Amber would understand. She would probably wake up, hear that I’d named them, stare at me for ten seconds and then make some sarcastic comment about whether I’d at least managed not to name one Chronos.

She might forgive me immediately.

That wasn’t the point.

I looked down at the boys.

“She missed their birth.”

Nobody spoke.

“She didn’t hear them cry for the first time. She didn’t get to hold them. She didn’t get to see their faces. She wasn’t awake when they took their first breaths, and she wasn’t there when I met them.”

Grandmother’s expression changed.

I swallowed before continuing.

“Someone took those things from her. She didn’t choose to miss them.”

My hand settled against the edge of one bassinet.

“I had to consent to the C-section because she couldn’t. I know it was the right decision. I know she would’ve chosen them. But that was still another decision she didn’t get to make.”

I looked at Grandmother.

“So I’m not taking this one.”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“Jason-”

“No.” My voice wasn’t angry. I simply needed her to understand. “There have already been too many firsts taken away from Amber. Naming our sons isn’t going to be another one.”

I looked down at Baby A.

“We talked about names, but we never decided. We were supposed to do it together.”

Baby A shifted in his blanket, his face scrunching as though he had a serious objection to the entire conversation.

I touched one finger gently to his hand.

“When she wakes up, I’ll bring them to her. She’ll complain that I let them stay nameless for a week. I’ll tell her it was her fault for sleeping too long. She’ll probably threaten me.”

Iris smiled.

Rose nodded solemnly. “She will.”

“Definitely.”

4/9

༧༽

+15 Bonus

Grandmother wiped beneath one eye.

Nooked at the second bassinet.

“Then we’ll name them.”`

Grandmother didn’t argue again.

Instead, she bent down and kissed the top of my head.

“Then Baby A and Baby B they remain.”

“For now.”

“For now,” she agreed.

Rose looked between the bassinets.

“Can we give them temporary nicknames?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because Alice will hear them and make the nicknames permanent.”

Iris laughed. “He’s right.”

Rose considered that before reluctantly nodding.

My phone rang.

The sound felt too loud in the quiet neonatal unit.

I reached for it automatically.

Jasmine.

My stomach tightened.

Jasmine rarely called just to talk, and after everything she’d already done today, seeing her name on my screen immediately put me on alert.

I answered.

“What did you do now?”

There was a brief silence.

“Why do you automatically assume I did something?”

“Because you put on a housekeeping uniform and walked into a room belonging to people potentially involved in poisoning my wife.”

“That was productive.”

“You entered a room where there may have been aconite.”

“I didn’t touch the flowers.”

5/9

+15 Bonus

“Congratulations on meeting the minimum requirements for survival.”

s looked over at the sound of Jasmine’s voice.

Grandmother’s eyes narrowed.

“Is that Jasmine?”

I held up one finger.

Jasmine sighed through the phone. “Are you finished?”

“No.”

“Can you temporarily become finished?”

Something in her voice changed my mood instantly.

The sarcasm was still there, but underneath it was the tone she used when she’d found something.

I straightened in the wheelchair.

“What is it?”

Noah said something in the background that I couldn’t make out.

Jasmine became quiet for a second before speaking again.

“We got something else from the surveillance.”

I glanced toward Grandmother. She understood immediately and moved closer to Iris and Rose, drawing their attention back toward the babies.

“What?”

“One of the men made a call.”

“To whom?”

“Don’t know yet. Noah is working on that.”

“Then what do you know?”

“We heard enough of his side.”

I waited.

Jasmine didn’t make me ask twice.

“I think I have a clue about where Mr. White is.”

Every trace of warmth disappeared from me.

For weeks, governments, military units and law enforcement across multiple countries had been looking for that man. He had disappeared after everything we’d uncovered-the trafficking network, the Vincents, the mines, the ledgers, the children he’d helped move around like property.

And after kidnapping me.