RISE OF THE FORSAKEN HEIR

chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Ex Who Refused to Stay Buried

The next morning hits like a bomb.

I wake up with Bella draped across my chest, her hair fanned over my shoulder, one leg hooked over mine. Sunlight pours through the windows, turning the room gold. For about ten seconds everything is perfect.

Then my phone, the real one, on the nightstand, starts vibrating so hard it nearly falls off.

I reach over and silence it without looking. Thirty seven missed calls. Ninety one new messages. The headlines are already screaming across every screen in the country.

LOCKWOOD HEIR RISES FROM THE DEAD, TAKES EMPIRE BACK IN BLOODLESS COUP

VANESSA SINCLAIR’S FIANCÉ RETURNS, AND HE’S SINGLE

WHO IS THE MYSTERY WOMAN SEEN LEAVING WITH DAMIAN LOCKWOOD?

That last one has a blurry paparazzi shot of me carrying Bella out of the old house yesterday. Her face is half hidden against my neck, but it’s unmistakably her.

Bella stirs, blinks up at me. “What’s that noise?”

“Welcome to my life now,” I mutter.

She sits up, sheet clutched to her chest, and grabs her own phone for the first time since we got here. Her eyes go wide.

“Oh my God.”

Front page of every gossip site: our picture. Speculation running wild. Half the comments call her a gold digger. The other half call her Cinderella.

Before I can say anything, the intercom buzzes.

Marcus’s voice crackles through. “Boss. You’ve got a visitor in the lobby. And she’s making a scene.”

I already know who it is.

Bella looks at me, suddenly pale. “Tell me that’s not…”

“Vanessa,” I finish.

She swallows hard. “You want me to hide?”

“No.” I cup her face. “You’re not hiding from anyone. Ever again.”

I kiss her once, hard, possessive, then climb out of bed and pull on jeans and a black shirt.

“Stay here if you want,” I tell her. “Or come down and watch me end this for good. Your choice.”

She thinks for two seconds, then throws the covers off.

“Give me five minutes.”

Seven minutes later we’re in the private elevator riding down together. She’s in one of my white dress shirts, sleeves rolled up, hair twisted into a knot, looking like she belongs on a runway instead of in my old life.

I take her hand. She squeezes tight.

The doors open to the lobby.

Vanessa Sinclair is standing in the middle of the marble floor like she owns it, blonde hair perfect, red dress painted on, cameras from three different outlets already live streaming because security couldn’t legally throw her out yet.

The second she sees me, the tears start. Oscar worthy.

“Damian!” She runs toward me, arms out. “Baby, I knew you’d come back! I never stopped…”

She stops dead when Bella steps out beside me, my arm sliding around her waist.

Vanessa’s eyes flick from me to Bella and back, venom replacing the fake tears in half a heartbeat.

“Who the hell is this?”

Bella answers before I can, voice calm and clear. “His future wife.”

Vanessa laughs, sharp, ugly. “You’ve got to be joking. Do you have any idea who I am?”

“I know exactly who you are,” Bella says. “You’re the woman who framed him, stole five years of his life, and thought you could just walk back in when the money ran out.”

The lobby goes dead silent. Even the paparazzi stop clicking for a second.

Vanessa’s face twists. “You little…”

I step forward, voice low enough that only she hears the ice in it.

“Leave. Now. While you still have the choice.”

She straightens, tries to look dignified. “We need to talk. Privately.”

“There’s nothing left to say, Vanessa. You made your bed. Lie in it.”

Her eyes dart to the cameras, then back to me. She lowers her voice to a hiss. “You think this is over? Ethan’s not done. And neither am I. You’ll come crawling back when you realize your little nurse can’t survive one week in our world.”

Bella steps forward this time, right up into Vanessa’s space.

“He crawled through hell for five years,” she says, soft but deadly. “And I was the one holding his hand the whole time. You don’t scare me.”

For the first time, Vanessa looks genuinely rattled.

Security finally moves in. Two guards take her arms, politely, but firmly.

“This isn’t over!” she screams as they drag her toward the doors. “You’ll regret this, Damian!”

The doors close. The lobby erupts in flashes and questions.

I turn to Bella, pull her against me right there in front of everyone.

“You okay?” I murmur into her hair.

She nods against my chest. “I meant it. She doesn’t scare me.”

I kiss the top of her head.

“Good. Because she’s about to learn what happens when someone threatens what’s mine.”

Marcus appears at my side, holding two coffees like nothing happened.

“Boss,” he says, trying not to grin, “remind me never to piss off your girl.”

Bella takes the coffee he offers her, gives him a small smile.

“Smart man.”

I look down at her, my girl, standing in my lobby in my shirt, holding her own against the woman who once destroyed me.

Five years ago I lost everything.

Today I just realized I’ve already won.

But Vanessa’s parting shot is still ringing in my ears.

Ethan’s not done.

Neither am I.