The billionaire, the doctors, the nurses, and everyone stood there with their mouths open, staring as if I'd just done a magic trick.
Even my sweet, soft-hearted mom was still catching up to what had just happened.
"She's… already out?" someone stammered. "I've never seen a delivery go this smoothly! Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Gardner. You've got an angel baby!"
Mom gathered me into her arms, laughing and crying all at once. "Leon, look at her! The moment I held her, she stopped crying. She's even smiling at me!"
My billionaire father's eyes filled with tears. He pulled both of us into a protective hug, his voice thick with emotion.
"She didn't want you to suffer. That's our little girl, so thoughtful already."
At that moment, he named me: Lucy Pearl Gardner, Heaven's precious pearl.
And because my dad never did anything halfway, he immediately announced the launch of a charitable foundation in my name and transferred 5% of the Gardner Group's shares to it.
"This is your reward, my precious daughter," he said, like he'd been waiting years for this exact moment.
Inside, I was doing mental cartwheels.
Meanwhile, my sister was losing her mind in the delivery room next door.
She was so furious, she nearly made Vivian black out from the pain. In the end, they couldn't take it anymore and went with an emergency C-section.
Word traveled fast.
It didn't take long for the entire hospital to buzz with gossip about the "miracle baby" born naturally and peacefully, and the "debt collector" who had to be cut out while screaming in agony.
As for Vivian? She didn't even bother looking at her newborn. Just waved her off like yesterday's trash and had a nurse carry her away.
Meanwhile, I was tucked in right next to my mom, cozy and snug, placed there personally by my tycoon dad himself.
I was beginning to drift off, wrapped in warmth and smelling my mom's perfume, when a shadow crossed over me.
A pale, strikingly handsome face appeared above mine.
Amber eyes, sharp jawline, expression cold and unreadable.
Oh, I knew that face...
Even from this angle, I recognized him immediately. That was the obsessive older stepbrother—the one who ruined my sister's life during our last encounter.
I remembered everything.