The CEO's Rejected Wife And Secret Heir novel Chapter 30

Chapter 30: Chapter 30 – The First Crack

Damien POV

The city blurred past my windows as I drove through red lights and broke every speed limit I’d ever pretended to respect. My lawyer answered on the second ring, his voice carrying that careful, measured tone he always used when he knew I was about to ask for something expensive.

"Kill the story," I said before he could finish his greeting, my knuckles white against the steering wheel. "I don’t care what it costs."

"Mr. Blackwood, perhaps we should discuss the most effective approach" Thompson started, but I cut him off.

"I said I don’t care." I swerved around a taxi that had the audacity to follow traffic laws. "Buy the newspaper if you have to. Threaten legal action. Burn the building down for all I care. That story doesn’t run."

"I’ll handle it." The sound of papers rustling came through the phone. "But sir, if the information is already circulating beyond this one source"

"Then make sure it stays buried," I told him, ending the call before he could raise any more objections that would only waste time I didn’t have.

Seven minutes to the preschool, maybe less if I ignored a few more traffic laws. Aria would already be there, waiting outside Noah’s classroom with her arms crossed and her mind probably racing through every worst-case scenario. She’d be terrified, and she had every right to be, because this was my fault. Everything was my fault. Noah was in danger because I was his father, because my world was built on quicksand and blood money, and now all of that threatened to swallow our son whole.

My phone rang again, the screen showing an unknown number that made something cold settle in my stomach. I answered it anyway, because I already knew who it would be.

"Damien Blackwood?" The voice was smooth, cultured, familiar in a way that made my skin crawl.

"Marcus." I gripped the steering wheel hard enough that my fingers ached.

"Hello, little brother." He sounded genuinely amused, like we were old friends catching up over coffee instead of estranged siblings circling each other like wolves. "I heard you’ve been having a difficult week."

"What do you want?" I took a sharp turn that made my tires scream against the pavement.

"Nothing much, really." His chuckle was low and intimate, the kind of sound that promised nothing good. "I just thought I’d call and congratulate you on your son. Noah, isn’t it? Cute kid. Has your eyes."

Every muscle in my body went rigid, my foot pressing harder on the accelerator even though I was already going twenty over the limit. "Stay away from him."

"Or what, exactly?" The amusement drained from Marcus’s voice, replaced by something cold. "You’ll do what? You couldn’t even keep him safe from a nosy reporter with a tip and a smartphone. How exactly are you planning to keep him safe from me?"

"If you touch him" The words came out choked with rage that had nowhere to go except into the death grip I had on the steering wheel.

"Relax, Damien. Breathe." He laughed. "I’m not interested in the boy. Not yet, anyway. Right now, I’m much more interested in watching you squirm, watching your perfect little life fall apart piece by piece. It’s really quite entertaining."

I pulled into the preschool parking lot, my eyes immediately finding Aria near the entrance, her posture tight with anxiety as she scanned every approaching car. "This is about Father," I said, keeping my voice level even though my heart was hammering. "This is about what happened fifteen years ago."

"Oh, it’s about so much more than that, little brother." Marcus’s voice dropped to something almost tender, which was somehow worse than the anger. "But yes, Father’s sins are certainly part of it. His crimes. His cruelty. His absolute certainty that he could take anything he wanted and destroy anyone who got in his way."

I put the car in park but didn’t get out, my hand frozen on the door handle as Marcus continued, his words painting pictures I’d spent years trying to forget.

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