CHAPTER 19

Ryan’s POV

The letter had been sent.

I leaned back in my chair, staring out the wide windows of my office as the city lights began to pierce through dusk. The skyline glittered like fireflies caught in glass, but I felt nothing of its beauty tonight. My thoughts were elsewhere circling, tightening, like a hawk zeroing in on prey.

Amanda.

Even her name left a bitter taste on my tongue.

I hadn’t wanted it to come to this. For weeks, I’d tried to play by her rules, telling myself it was for Levi’s sake, that shielding him from conflict was worth the cost of swallowing my pride. But she’d taken that goodwill and twisted it into a weapon — serving me a restraining order like I was some criminal lurking in the shadows of my own son’s life.

The humiliation of it still burned.

I could live with Amanda despising me. Hell, I could live with her fighting me tooth and nail in every conversation we had. But what I couldn’t accept what I refused to accept was her branding me unfit to be a father. That was a line she should never have crossed.

And because she had, everything changed.

My phone buzzed, the screen lighting up with her name.

I almost didn’t answer. A part of me wanted to let her stew, to keep her guessing. But curiosity and something sharper, more dangerous pushed me to swipe the call open.

“Ryan.”

Her voice was tight, clipped, carrying the sharp edge of fury she was trying and failing to contain.

“Hello to you too, Amanda,” I said smoothly, leaning back in my chair. “I take it you got my lawyer’s letter.”

“You arrogant bastard,” she snapped. “Is this what you want? To drag Levi through a court battle like some… like some trophy to be won?”

My jaw clenched, but I kept my voice calm. “Don’t talk to me about trophies. I wouldn’t be doing this if you hadn’t treated me like a criminal in front of my own son.”

“You earned that restraining order,” she shot back. “You think I don’t see what you’re doing? You want to worm your way back into his life just to tear him away from me.”

Her words cut sharper than I expected. For a moment, I couldn’t speak, the weight of her accusation pressing against the walls I’d built around myself. But I forced myself to push the hesitation aside.

“You’re wrong,” I said finally. “I don’t want to tear him away from you. I want what’s best for him. And what’s best for him is knowing his father not being raised to think he doesn’t exist.”

There was a pause, filled only by the sound of her breathing on the other end. When she spoke again, her tone was quieter, but no less firm.

“You don’t get to decide what’s best for him. I do.”

That… that right there was the problem.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, forcing myself to steady the irritation thrumming under my skin. “That’s where you’re wrong. You don’t own him, Amanda. He’s not just your son. He’s mine too.”

Her voice dropped into a low, dangerous register. “Over my dead body.”

For the first time in years, I felt something dangerous stir in me the part of me that hated being challenged, that despised losing. The part I usually kept buried for the sake of civility, for the sake of appearances.

“I’m done playing fair,” I said quietly. “You’ve made this into a war, Amanda. And in a war, there are no half-measures.”

“You don’t scare me,” she said, though there was the faintest tremor in her words. “I’ll fight you until my last breath if I have to.”

The call ended abruptly her cutting the line before I could respond.

I stared at the phone in my hand, my reflection warped across the glass.

She didn’t back down. Not an inch.

And yet… that tiny tremor in her voice hadn’t escaped me. She was scared. Maybe not of me, not yet, but of the possibility that she could lose Levi. That fear would eat at her. It would make her reckless.

And if she thought I was going to hesitate out of guilt, she was dead wrong.

---

The door creaked, and Selene stepped inside without knocking, her heels clicking against the hardwood. She looked polished, calculated a dark silk dress hugging her frame, her hair glossy and sharp as a blade.

“You’ve been in here all night,” she said, setting down a tray she’d been carrying. Wine, cheese, something expensive I didn’t care to name. “Still sulking over Amanda?”

I didn’t look at her. “Not sulking. Planning.”

She arched a brow, easing onto the edge of my desk. “Planning, hmm? That sounds like progress.”

I finally turned to meet her gaze. “We had a fight on the phone. She knows I’m coming for Levi.”

Selene’s lips curved into something between a smile and a smirk. “Good. Let her sweat. You’ll win, Ryan. You always win.”

I wanted to believe that. But Amanda wasn’t like the people I usually dealt with rivals in business, competitors who played by rules they secretly hated. She was raw, emotional, relentless in ways that made her dangerous.

Still, Selene’s words sparked something in me. Confidence. Resolve.

I leaned forward, folding my hands on the desk. “If I’m going to do this, I need to be ready for her to fight dirty. She’ll play the victim, spin her story until people sympathize with her. The hospital drama already gave her a taste of that role.”

Selene tilted her head. “Then play dirtier.”

The casual way she said it sent a ripple through me. A reminder that I wasn’t alone in this but also that Selene’s motives weren’t mine. She didn’t care about Levi. She cared about keeping me tethered to her side, about ensuring Amanda was erased from the picture entirely.

Part of me hated her for that. Another part… considered using it.

I stood, crossing to the window again. The city stretched out before me, vast and glittering, a kingdom waiting to be claimed.

Amanda thought she could corner me with her accusations, her paranoia about the Stewards. She thought she could win by fear alone.

But she’d underestimated one thing.

When my pride was on the line — when my family was on the line I didn’t back down.

I conquered.

---

Later that night, long after Selene had left, I sat alone in the dim light of my office. The letter to Amanda had been the first move, a simple declaration. But it wasn’t the last.

I’d already instructed my lawyer to prepare for the custody battle ahead. I’d fund it, fuel it, fight it with everything I had.

Because Amanda might think Levi belonged to her alone.

But I’d make sure the world and the courts knew he belonged to me too.

And if I had to burn through every ounce of patience, every last restraint I had left, so be it.

This was war.

And I intended to win.