At her advanced age, a miraculous recovery was impossible. Simply stabilizing her condition was considered a massive victory.

That night, after putting Evelyn to bed, Eleanor lay wide awake. She couldn't bring herself to tell her daughter the truth about her great-grandmother.

Evelyn was too young to understand the crushing weight of mortality.

Early the next morning, Eleanor dropped Evelyn off at school. She wanted to rush straight to the hospital, but lan texted her, insisting she go to work instead.

It wasn't until the afternoon of the third day, while Eleanor was deep in her research, that her phone rang. It was Serena.

"Ellie, can you come to the hospital? Grandma says she needs to talk to you." Serena was desperately trying to hold it together, but a broken sob finally tore through her throat. "She's... she's fading fast."

Eleanor stopped breathing. Her mind went completely blank.

A moment later, Callie walked in, having just received a call from lan. Ian had specifically ordered him to drive Eleanor to the hospital, completely unwilling to let her behind the wheel in her current state.

"Mr. Goodwin asked me to bring you, Miss Sutton," Callie said gently.

Within an hour, Eleanor was pushing open the door to the VIP room. Magdalen looked infinitely more fragile, her breaths coming in rapid, shallow gasps.

"Ellie, come here..." she whispered, extending a trembling hand.

Eleanor sat on the edge of the bed, biting the inside of her cheek to hold back her tears. "I'm right here, Magdalen."

Magdalen's frail fingers gripped Eleanor's hand with shocking, desperate strength. Her gaze was cloudy, yet she fought to focus entirely on Eleanor's face.

"Ellie, I... I don't have many days left. But my greatest hope... is to see you and lan find your way back to each other. If I know you have someone to take care of you, I can leave this world in peace..."

Magdalen exhaled heavily, her face painted with raw, profound longing.

The room fell dead silent. Gina clamped a hand over her mouth, and Serena stifled her sobs. Ian stood frozen at the foot of the bed, his knuckles stark white as his hands balled into fists.

He knew that, once again, he was utterly powerless.

Looking at the frail woman clinging to her last thread of life, waiting stubbornly for an answer, Eleanor whispered, "I will."

Those two words ignited a brilliant, final spark in Magdalen's clouded eyes. She managed a faint, relieved smile. She clearly had more to say to the rest of the family.

Pressing a hand to her mouth to trap her sobs, Eleanor slipped out of the room. lan immediately followed her into the hall. "I'm going to speak with the doctor." Eleanor stayed put, while Serena hurried after lan.

Just as Eleanor reached for the door handle to pull it completely shut, Magdalen's weak voice drifted into the hallway Gina have one last wish, but I didn't dare say it in front of tan..."

"What is it, Mom?"

"I hope... I hope they have another child..."

Eleanor froze, lowering her eyes as the door clicked shut, but Magdalen's final,

desperate whisper bled through the wood.

"It would be wonderful if it were a boy."

Eleanor leaned heavily against the wall.

Inside the room, Magdalen's eyes

brimmed with tears. "The family

empire is simply too massive. Evelyn will be crushed under the

weight of it all by herself. Serena can have a few more children too..."

Gina's tears finally spilled over. "Mom, please stop worrying about all of this now."

Magdalen closed her eyes. She knew her time was measured in hours. If she didn't voice her deepest fears now, they would die with her.

In

She would never be cruel enough demand a son in front of lan or Eleanor, but in her dying moments, the desperate need for a male heir to secure the legacy consumed her.