Reborn Before the Great Flood: I Built the Last Ark

Chapter 3

The third ring of her phone woke Naomi Grant.

Still half-asleep, she reached across the bedside table and answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Naomi.”

Her eyes opened instantly.

Naomi sat upright and cleared the sleep from her voice. “Mr. Cross. It’s been a while.”

Naomi Grant had served as the Cross family’s lawyer for ten years. She was more than an employee. She had grown close to Damian before his relationship with Sarah drove him away from nearly everyone connected to his family.

At one point, many people had even expected Naomi and Damian to end up together.

Then Sarah entered his life.

After Damian married her, he cut contact with almost everyone he had once known.

Naomi was the only exception.

“Do you need something?” she asked, reaching for her glasses.

“I want you to cancel every allowance being sent to my wife and her family.”

Naomi went completely still.

Until yesterday, Damian had been willing to pour nearly unlimited amounts of Cross money into the Moore family. Now he wanted to cut them off without warning.

“Are you sure, Mr. Cross?”

Damian tightened his grip on the phone.

The image of Sarah and Adrian smiling as he drowned flashed through his mind.

The Moores had used him once.

He would not allow them to do it again.

“Yes. Cancel everything,” Damian said. “That includes the new project my wife proposed to Cross Corporation.”

Naomi frowned. “The partnership with Rivers Trading?”

A cold light entered Damian’s eyes.

He had used his influence to secure Sarah a project manager position at Cross Corporation. One of her first major proposals had been a partnership with Rivers Trading.

In his previous life, Damian had approved it without hesitation.

He had not known that Adrian Rivers—Sarah’s lover—owned the company.

“Cancel it,” Damian repeated.

“All right,” Naomi said cautiously. “But why the sudden change? Yesterday, you instructed me to continue construction of the largest private vessel Cross Shipbuilding had ever designed. Now you want to stop everything connected to your wife?”

Damian paused.

The vessel.

He had commissioned it as the final part of Sarah’s anniversary gift—a ship large enough to travel around the world in absolute luxury. He had intended to give it to her in November, on the same day he planned to reveal his true identity.

Then the Great Flood began.

The luxury vessel eventually became the heart of the Greyhaven Sanctuary Arc. Over the following decade, they reinforced its hull and expanded it by connecting cargo ships, floating platforms, residential decks, and defensive structures.

Without that ship, Greyhaven would never have existed.

“No,” Damian said.

“No?”

“Continue building the vessel. But it is no longer for my wife.” He glanced at the calendar. “I also want several modifications made to the original design.”

Silence filled the line.

There was something different about Damian’s voice. Naomi could hear it, even if she could not understand what had caused it.

“What kind of modifications?”

“I’ll send you a complete list before sunrise. Reinforced hull plating. Independent power and water systems. Additional storage decks. Space for hydroponics, medical facilities, and emergency housing.”

Naomi became even more confused. “Damian, what are you preparing for?”

He could not tell her the truth yet.

If he claimed that endless rain would drown the world in three months, she would assume Sarah had finally driven him insane.

“Nothing you need to worry about yet,” he said. “Just prepare the documents and bring in engineers who know how to keep their mouths shut.”

“All right.”

“One more thing. How are my parents and my sister?”

Naomi did not answer immediately.

Since Damian began dating Sarah, he had stopped speaking to his family. He had severed almost every connection and communicated with Naomi only when he needed something handled privately.

“They’re well,” she finally said. “They still ask when you’re coming home.”

Damian closed his eyes.

After the Great Flood, he had become even more distant from them.

His parents had lived aboard the Greyhaven Arc, but Sarah’s manipulation had reduced them to ordinary workers inside a sanctuary their own son had built. His younger sister had eventually left the Arc after years of anger and disappointment.

Damian’s parents died when monsters breached one of Greyhaven’s outer residential decks.

His sister disappeared.

He never learned whether she had survived.

Meanwhile, the Moore family lived like royalty under his protection.

It was the greatest mistake of Damian’s life.

But this time, he would choose the people who had truly loved him.

“Tell them their son is coming home,” Damian said.

His voice was quiet, but every word carried the weight of a vow.

“Tell them Damian Cross is coming back.”

Naomi’s breath caught.

Before she could respond, Damian ended the call.

He looked down at the gold ring resting in his palm.

In his previous life, it had awakened only after the Great Flood.

But if Damian intended to prepare enough food, medicine, weapons, and fuel for what was coming, waiting until November was not an option.

He remembered the exact moment the ring had first responded to him.

His blood.

Damian picked up a kitchen knife and pressed its edge against his thumb.

Perhaps mana had awakened the ring in his previous life.

Or perhaps mana had only completed something his blood had already begun.

A thin line of red appeared across his skin.

The first drop of blood touched the gold.

The ring trembled.

Damian’s eyes widened.

A faint light emerged from the ancient markings hidden along its surface.

Then a cold, unfamiliar voice sounded inside his mind.

[Cross bloodline confirmed.]

[Dimensional Vault initiating early activation.]