Vanessa Black

The same nightmare again. At 3:00 AM, 40-year-old Vanessa Black wakes up drenched in cold sweat, crushed by overwhelming guilt. The memory haunts her: leaving her 7-year-old son at a Chicago orphanage when she was just 24. She still hears his sobbing voice: "Mom, please don't leave me! I'll be a good boy!" He was a good boy, but born from a naive teenage romance. Dropping out of school, broke and alone, Vanessa couldn't raise him. She abandoned him and never looked back. Not a single phone call. Years later in Seattle, she met the love of her life, Robert Sullivan, owner of Sullivan Global Logistics. Now happily married, Vanessa works as a top executive in her husband’s massive shipping empire. This morning, she has three job interviews for an office position. After rushing through two female applicants in 40 minutes, a handsome young man in his early twenties steps into her office. Vanessa hasn't checked his résumé yet. But the moment she looks at him, she freezes. His eyes... his smile... they look dangerously familiar. The young man sits down, looking at her with a calm, unreadable smile. "Hello, Mom. It's so good to see you again." Vanessa pales, unable to breathe. It's him. Her abandoned son. "Don't worry," he says softly. "I'm only here for the job. Not to ruin your life, and not to judge you. Not to ask you to love me back. And I'll keep our biological connection a complete secret. I just need a chance to work. Please." Terrified, her hand trembles over the phone, ready to call security and have him thrown out. Seeing her hesitation, his smile fades into desperate pleading: "Please, Mother..." Stunned and broken, Vanessa finds herself unable to kick him out.