2026-01-08 22:06:59Chapter 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.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
chapter 110
Chapter 110: Elena at Seven Elena turned seven on a bright June morning that smelled like cut grass and summer starting. The rooftop was back in use this year—no rain to chase them inside. She wore a white sundress with thin blue stripes, hair in two neat braids Bella had done while Elena sat very still and told stories about what she would do when she was “really grown up.” Alex, three now and full of opinions, wore a matching blue shirt he kept tugging at because “it’s itchy, Mommy.” The party was small again. Cake with seven candles. Team members who had become uncles and aunts in every way that mattered. Rico grilled burgers on the portable barbecue. Lydia brought a drone that Elena flew in careful circles over the city skyline until Alex begged to hold the controller and nearly crashed it into the railing. Marcus gave her a leather-bound journal with her name embossed in gold on the cover. “For writing down the important things,” he said. Elena hugged it to her chest like treas
chapter 109
Chapter 109: Elena at Six Elena turned six on a rainy April afternoon. The rooftop party was moved indoors to the penthouse living room—string lights still hung, balloons taped to every surface, and the long table pushed against the windows so the city rain streaked like silver behind the cake. Elena wore a new dress this year, deep emerald green with tiny gold stars sewn along the hem. She said it made her feel like a night sky walking. Alex, almost two now, toddled after her with determined steps. He wore a tiny matching bow tie that he kept trying to pull off. Every time he got close to the cake, Elena gently steered him away. “Not yet, Alex. Candles first.” The team came again. Rico brought empanadas and a piñata shaped like a dinosaur. Lydia gave Elena a kid-safe coding kit that lit up when you connected the pieces. Marcus handed her a small wooden box with a lock—she spent ten minutes figuring out the combination (her birthday backward) and found
chapter 108
Chapter 108: Elena at Five Elena started kindergarten in September wearing the same purple dress she’d insisted on for every first day since preschool. It was too short now, sleeves riding up her arms, but she refused to change. “It’s my lucky dress,” she told Bella that morning while Damian tied the laces on her new sneakers. “It worked for ballet. It’ll work for big school.” Bella knelt to adjust the hem anyway. “You’re right. Lucky dress it is.” Alex, now nine months old and crawling at alarming speed, watched from his play mat in the living room. He banged two plastic blocks together like cymbals, cheering his sister on in his own language. Damian scooped him up before he could launch himself toward Elena’s backpack. “Your turn next year, little man.” Elena hugged Alex’s chubby legs. “Don’t cry when I leave, okay? I’ll be back after snack time.” Alex grabbed a fistful of her curls and grinned. The walk to school was short—three blocks through the park. Elena held Dam
chapter 107
Chapter 107: Elena at Four and a Half Elena turned four and a half on a crisp November Saturday. The rooftop party from her fourth birthday had become tradition now—same long table under string lights, same too-sweet cake, same team members who showed up every year like family. This time Alex was six months old, chubby-cheeked and drooling on everything within reach. He sat in Bella’s lap most of the afternoon, gnawing on a teething ring while Elena ran circles around the guests, showing off her new “big sister tricks.” She had decided, in her very serious way, that big sisters must be able to do three things perfectly: tie shoes (even though she still needed help), read chapter books (she could manage the pictures and some words), and protect the baby. That last one she practiced constantly. When Marcus bent down to say hello, Elena stepped in front of Alex’s stroller like a bodyguard. “You have to be gentle,” she told him. “He’s still little.” Marcus raised both hands in surre
chapter 106
The Second Arrival Time moved faster with a three-year-old in the house. Mornings were chaos—Elena insisting on choosing her own clothes (always the purple dress with the sparkly stars), breakfast negotiations (no green bits in the eggs, Da-da), and the daily ritual of walking her to preschool hand-in-hand while she told long, winding stories about imaginary friends who lived in the clouds. Bella’s pregnancy showed by spring. A gentle curve under her loose sweaters. She glowed in a way that made strangers smile at her on the street. Damian noticed everything: the way she rested one hand on her belly when she laughed, how she ate pickles straight from the jar at midnight, the soft hum she made when Elena pressed her ear to the bump and whispered secrets to the baby inside. They didn’t rush to tell Elena at first. Wanted to wait until it felt real, solid. But kids sense things. One evening Elena climbed onto the couch between them, put both hands on Bell
chapter 105
: Elena at Three Three years slipped by the way good years do—quiet, steady, full of small moments that stack up into something solid. The penthouse nursery was gone. Elena had her own room now, walls painted soft blue with white clouds stenciled near the ceiling because she once said she wanted to sleep inside the sky. Her bed was low to the floor so she could climb in and out without help. Bookshelves overflowed with picture books, chapter books she pretended to read, and one worn copy of The Little Prince that Damian read to her every night she asked. She was three and a half. Tall for her age. Dark curls that never stayed in ponytails. Eyes that missed nothing. That morning she stood in the kitchen doorway in mismatched pajamas—one leg blue, one striped—watching Damian pour coffee while Bella sliced strawberries. “Da-da,” she said, serious as a judge. “Why do bad uncles go away?” Damian paused mid-pour. Bella glanced up from the cutting board. They had known this question w
You may also like
From Trash Bag to Cash Bag
Zuxian124.1K viewsUnexpected Trillionaire.
Max Luthor91.8K viewsXayne Xavier, The Ironclad Protector
Blanco Burn194.8K viewsThe Return Of The God of War
Esther Writes377.2K viewsHOW TO BE LEO ROMANS
MYLOVEFROMTHESTARS485 viewsThe Unparalleled Ex-husband is Back!
Impartial Cleverest1.6K viewsTHE SILENT INHERITANCE
CAMARA AISSATA818 viewsThe Illegitimate Heir
Kabirat Aleem1.8K views