My Boss's Hidden Heir (Elara and Marcus) novel Chapter 167

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Three days in the NICU had given Elara a new appreciation for the passage of time. Hours felt like days when you were watching monitors track every heartbeat and breath. Days felt like weeks when you were waiting for tiny lungs to grow stronger and fragile hearts to stabilize.

But they were getting there. Slowly, painfully slowly, but getting there.

Baby A had been moved to a regular incubator yesterday, no longer needing the intensive monitoring. She was breathing completely on his own now, gaining weight steadily, and the nurses said she was already trying to root when they touched his cheek. Looking for food, looking for his mother, already so determined to

survive.

Baby B was still in intensive care but the improvement was undeniable. His oxygen levels had stabilized post- surgery, his heart rhythm was stronger, and this morning he’d opened his eyes for the first time. Just for a few seconds, just long enough for Elara to see that they were blue like Marcus’s, and then he’d drifted back to sleep.

But those few seconds had been everything.

Elara sat in the rocking chair between the incubators, her body still sore from the C-section but healing. She’d been released from the recovery wing yesterday but had refused to go home. The nurses had set up a small room for her near the NICU where she could rest between feedings and monitoring sessions.

Marcus hadn’t left the hospital at all. He’d been sleeping on a cot in Elara’s room, wearing the same clothes for three days until Mimi had finally brought him fresh ones. He showed up for every feeding, every doctor’s round, every moment when the nurses said it was okay to hold the babies for a few minutes of skin-to-skin

contact.

Right now he was down in the cafeteria getting food that Elara had promised to actually eat this time. She’d barely managed more than a few bites here and there, too anxious and exhausted to care about eating.

Her phone buzzed with a text from Mimi.

Mimi: How are the babies today?

Elara: Better. Baby B opened his eyes this morning.

Mimi: That’s wonderful! And how are you?

Elara: Tired. Sore. Terrified. The usual.

Mimi: Marcus still refusing to leave?

Elara: He went to get food but he’ll be back in five minutes guaranteed.

Mimi: That man is completely gone for you and those babies. It’s actually disgusting how sweet it is.

Elara smiled at her phone. A month ago she’d been convinced her marriage was falling apart, that Marcus still

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Chapter 167

had feelings for Aurora, that she was fighting a losing battle for his heart. Now she couldn’t imagine him anywhere but right here beside her, fighting for their family with everything he had.

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The door opened and Marcus walked in carrying a tray loaded with soup, sandwiches, fruit, and what looked like three different kinds of juice.

“I didn’t know what you’d want so I got everything,” he said, setting the tray down on the small table beside her chair.

“Marcus, Jesus this is enough food for five people.”

“Then you can pick what you want and I’ll eat the rest. But you’re eating something, El. You can’t survive on vending machine crackers and anxiety.”

“I’m eating.” Elara picked up the fruit cup and took a bite to prove it. “See? Nutritious and delicious.”

Marcus sat down in the other chair and watched her eat with an intensity that should have been annoying but somehow wasn’t. Like he needed visual confirmation that she was taking care of herself.

“The board called,” he said after a moment. “They want to schedule a meeting to discuss transition plans.”

“Transition plans for what?”

“For when I step back from the CEO position. I told them I want Dante to take over day-to-day operations while I move into more of an advisory role.”

“Wait.” He moved to kneel beside her chair, the velvet box held carefully in his hands. “I know this is terrible timing. You’re exhausted and recovering from surgery. But I’ve been carrying this around for three days waiting for the right moment and I realized there’s never going to be a perfect moment. So I’m just going to do it.”

He opened the box and Elara saw a ring. Not the simple gold band she’d worn since their wedding, but something that looked like it belonged in a museum. A diamond surrounded by smaller stones, set in platinum that caught the fluorescent hospital lights and sparkled.

“Elara Thorne, I know we’re already married. I know we signed a contract and said vows in front of a judge and you’re legally my wife in every way that counts. But I never asked you properly. I never got down on one knee and made this real.” Marcus’s voice was shaking slightly. “I fell in love with you somewhere between the contract signing and now. Fell so completely in love that I can’t imagine my life without you in it. You’re the mother of my children, the person I want to wake up next to every morning, the only woman I’ll ever want. And I know we did this backward and unconventionally but I want to do this part right.”

Elara’s heart was pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears.

“Will you marry me?” Marcus asked. “For real this time? Not because of a contract or an inheritance or because we need each other but because I love you and I choose you and I want to spend the rest of my life proving that every single day?”

Elara couldn’t speak past the lump in her throat so she just nodded, tears streaming down her face.

“Is that a yes?” Marcus asked with a smile that was pure joy.

“Yes,” Elara managed to choke out. “Yes, of course yes. I love you. I choose you too.”

Marcus slid the ring onto her finger beside the gold band she was already wearing. It fit perfectly, like it had been made specifically for her hand. Then he stood up and kissed her, soft and gentle and full of promise

The kiss deepened and Elara forgot where they were, the feeling of Marcus’s lips on hers and his hands cradling her face like she was something precious.

“Ahem.”

They broke apart to find a nurse standing in the doorway trying very hard not to smile.

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Xhapter 167

“Sorry to interrupt,” the nurse said. “But someone’s here to see you.”