Chapter 4: The Declaration

Lorenzo's POV

I woke up to the warm sunlight penetrating through my eyelids.

I opened my eyes and vaguely remembered the night that had just passed. A smile formed on my lips, I was glad.

Turning my head to the woman beside me, I blinked in surprise. She was gone. When did she leave?

I sat up abruptly and my eyes scanned the hotel room. Her coat was missing, and so was the red lingerie that had driven me wild. It was an empty space with no traces of her.

The only proof that she was real and that I had actually slept with a woman was the ruffled sheets and the satisfactory memories that were imprinted in my mind.

Fuck!

She had been the only one. The one woman I was actually able to have sex with. In my forty five years of life, I had never been able to get aroused by any woman even though I'd been with several of them. I just enjoyed the act of satisfying women in different ways and I had become a master at it. I had given up on getting aroused in my lifetime until I met this woman last night.

I had been merely intrigued by her; she was getting drunk in a bar all by herself late in the evening. It was easy to guess what had happened to her and she confirmed it. Her eyes that screamed sexual frustration and pent up tension that needed release. I just wanted to play around and that's why I had taken her to a room at the top of the bar. I knew my right-hand man would take care of the lodging.

Everything was happening as usual and I wasn't aroused until the moment I stripped her and the lingerie she was wearing entered my view. It was then something awoke within me. I had seen all sorts of lingerie, underwear and even cosplays and none had any effect on me. But I was shocked to notice that I had grown a powerful boner. I had become instantly horny and all I wanted to do was fuck her brains out. And that's what I did.

I had the most wonderful sleep I'd ever experienced since I could remember. My mind was made up to make her mine no matter what. She was the cure to my curse.. or maybe it was never a curse in the first place. Maybe other women just didn't live up to my expectations.

She was different.

I stood up and looked around the room more carefully to see if I could find a trace of her. That was when I saw a piece of paper on the bedside table, it looked like it was deliberately positioned there so I picked it up immediately. There were some notes of money behind it on the table. I was intrigued and read the note. It read:

Thank you for last night.

That was it. No name. No number. Just a polite dismissal like I was some gigolo she'd hired for the evening.

I picked up the money with a dark chuckle. It was absurd.

Here I was, Lorenzo Blackwell—CEO of GN Group, one of the most powerful men in the underworld—being treated like a man whore.

But my amusement wore off quickly, I was reminded of something troubling.

My condition.

It was something that couldn't be explained even by doctors. They had no cure for it. I had labelled it a curse. But this woman I'd successfully slept with had proven that she was the only solution. She had broken the curse. But she had also disappeared.

The woman who was my cure had vanished like smoke after giving me what I had never had.

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and dialed Eric, my right-hand man.

"Boss?" His voice was alert. He was someone who took his job seriously and was always ready to carry out my orders and get things running.

"I need you to find someone," I said, my tone leaving no room for argument.

"The woman you took to the room last night?" As expected, he was too diligent to not be aware.

"Yes."

"Any name?"

"...No." It was bitter to admit it. I had been so engrossed in enjoying the moment that I forgot to ask for her name. But I also hadn't expected that she'd leave before I would wake up.

"I'll pull the security footage and run facial recognition," Eric replied without hesitation. "Anything else?"

"Just find her fast. I don't care what you have to do to get it done."

"Understood."

I hung up and stared at the note again. The handwriting was elegant but shaky, like she'd written it in a hurry. Or maybe regret after she had come to her senses.

Who was she? Why did she run?

Most women stayed after the mind-blowing orgasms I gave them even without using my dick. I usually had to leave it to Eric to get them away. Maybe she left because she didn't know who I was. After all, I had just returned from a very long journey.

I showered quickly, regretfully washing away the scent of her and the reminder of the previous night's pleasures.

I had business to attend to today. Something I'd been planning for twenty five years.

My driver pulled up to the Blackwell ancestral mansion just before noon. It looked exactly how I remembered it—aloof, imposing, and suffocating with old money and generational secrets.

I hadn't set foot in this place since I was twenty years old. Since the day they murdered my mother and called it an accident.

The guards at the gate didn't recognise and were about to stop me from going in when an old guard came forward and recognised me. His face paled.

"Mr. Lorenzo!" He exclaimed.

"It is Master Lorenzo to you."

He adjusted his posture out of fright and bowed his head subtly. The other guards were confused.

"Master Lorenzo... We weren't expecting you to—"

"I don't need an invitation to visit my own family." I said coldly and stepped past them.

The main hall was as extravagant as I remembered. Marble floors, crystal chandeliers, paintings of previous Blackwells staring down at me from the high walls.

I heard voices echoing from the living room, angry voices. I recognised the booming tone of my father, Chairman Blackwell, even after all these years.

"You foolish boy! Do you have any idea what you've done?"

I paused at the doorway, observing the scene playing out.

The old man sat in his high-backed chair like a king on a throne, his face red with anger. Standing before him was a young man I recognised.

Marco, my nephew. It had been more than two decades since I left when he was still a baby. The supposed golden child of the Blackwell family, the legitimate heir. He was being scolded by the Chairman.

He had the glossy black hair that was reminiscent of the Blackwell family. But he looked dishevelled, his suit was wrinkled and he looked at the Chairman with a mix of defiance and fear.

"I divorced her because she was useless!" He shot back to his grandfather, my brows rising in surprise. I had gathered information about the family with the help of Eric and I knew he was married, I just never bothered much about who his wife was. But the chairman seemed so agitated about it.

"Belinda is the woman I love. Why should I stay married to someone who—”

"Because that 'useless' woman was the only reason you had any success in this company!" Chairman Blackwell roared, slamming his cane against the floor. "Vivienne Duarte built your career from nothing, you ungrateful fool! And now you've thrown her away for that Cavalli girl?"

Duarte.

The name struck me. They were one of the most powerful families in the region. I was very familiar with them. It was a shock that my nephew was married to a Duarte and had the guts to divorce her.

"She never did anything for me!" Marco protested. "Wasn't it Belinda who helped me after I refused to get married to her?"

"You really are an idiot." The Chairman looked like he was going to have a stroke. "That girl loved you so much and gave up everything for you, including her family, and this is how you repay her?"

I got irritated by the useless conversation and revealed my presence, slowly stepping into the room.

"Having a family meeting without me? How rude."

Every head in the room turned toward me. The shock on their faces was priceless.

Chairman Blackwell's eyes widened. "Lorenzo?"

Marco looked at me like he didn't hear the Chairman correctly. "Lorenzo? As in—Uncle Lorenzo?" He must have heard of me.

"What are you doing here?"

Some other people who were scattered across the room, including the old butler who stood by the Chairman, were all frozen in surprise.

I smiled, satisfied by the shock on their faces.

"I heard there was some drama in the family," I said casually. "Thought I'd come see what all the fuss was about."

"You've been gone for twenty-five years," my father said, his voice hard. "What brings you back now?"

I met his gaze without flinching. The man who had killed my mother. The man who had thrown me out like trash because I was born from an affair.

"You seem to have become contended and comfortable in my absence. You have forgotten your sin against my mother." My eyes were fixed on the chairman's face.

"So, I came back for just one purpose," I said, my voice dropping several degrees. "It is to destroy this family completely. So do look forward to it."

My threat was followed with gasps. But I just smiled, turned on my heel, and walked out.

I had made my declaration. And I was going to see it through.