Chapter 5

The car slid to a halt in front of a skyscraper that looked more like a blade than a building. All sharp glass edges, silver reflections, and cold defiance against the sky. Damian stepped out first, and the crowd of cameras outside instantly roared to life, flashes tearing across the night like lightning.

For a heartbeat, I thought about bolting. The door handle was still in my grip. If I ran, maybe I could disappear into the chaos. But one look at the swarm waiting beyond—their hungry lenses, their shouts that clawed like talons—told me the truth. Alone, I’d be shredded alive.

So I followed him.

The second I stepped onto the pavement, his hand brushed my lower back, steering me. It wasn’t gentle. It was possession. Every step I took beside him only tightened the noose. Reporters shouted questions, my name mixing with his in the air like poison. My chest locked, panic threatening to swallow me whole.

By the time the lobby doors sealed behind us, my legs were trembling.

Marble floors gleamed under a canopy of lights, so bright it felt like I’d stepped into another world. Men in tailored suits dipped their heads as Damian strode past, their respect as practiced as it was genuine. No one looked at me, yet I felt more exposed than ever.

I hugged the stack of papers tighter to my chest, clinging to them like they were a shield. They weren’t. They were scraps of the life I’d once known, and I could already feel them slipping through my fingers.

“This way,” Damian said. His tone wasn’t an invitation. It was an order.

I followed him into a private elevator, the polished doors closing with a hush that sealed us in together. The silence pressed on me, heavier than prison walls. My pulse thundered in my ears.

“You had no right,” I whispered, my throat raw, the words tasting like ash. “You used me to make a spectacle.”

He turned, his dark eyes pinning me in place, unyielding as stone. “No. I saved you from being torn apart in front of the world. Do not confuse salvation with exploitation.”

I almost laughed. The sound that escaped me was brittle, sharp. “You don’t want me. You want what’s inside me.”

“Correct,” he said without hesitation. No apology. No shame. “I want your child. And I want the world to know that child is mine.”

The air left my lungs in a rush, and I staggered back against the elevator wall. My chest burned. He said it like a fact of nature—unchangeable, unquestionable.

“You could have… you could have paid me off,” I spat. My fingers dug into the papers, crumpling them. “Signed a contract. Bought the baby like you buy everything else.”

His expression hardened, his jaw clenching. For a flicker of a second, the atmosphere shifted, sharp enough to slice skin.

“An heir is not bought,” he said, his voice low, vibrating with something dangerous. “An heir is claimed. Raised. Protected. And the mother of my heir…” His gaze dropped to my stomach, lingering for a beat before snapping back to my face. The weight of it crushed me. “…will stand beside me.”

My pulse stuttered, wild and frantic. “You mean—”

“Yes.” His interruption was sharp as glass. The final blow. “You will marry me.”

The words detonated in the silence, ringing louder than any prison door slamming shut.

My knees nearly buckled. I grabbed the railing of the elevator to keep from collapsing. “No,” I gasped. “Absolutely not. I won’t chain myself to another man. Not after Adrian. Not after prison.”

The name slipped out before I could catch it.

His jaw twitched, a flicker of something lethal flashing in his eyes, so fast I almost thought I imagined it.

“Adrian is irrelevant,” he said coldly. “But if it’s freedom you want, you will never find it in his shadow. He and your cousin will shred you the moment they learn the truth. Do you really think they’ll let this child live without scandal?”

His words struck like a blade, cutting through every fragile hope I’d been clinging to. My breath came in ragged pulls. I wanted to deny him, scream at him, claw my way out of this cage he was building around me.

But the terrifying part was that he was right. Again.

The elevator chimed, the doors sliding open.

His office sprawled before me like a fortress—glass walls overlooking the city, furniture in sleek blacks and silvers, shadows stretching long in the dim light. Everything about it screamed control. Power. Traps.

I stood stiff, glaring at him like a cornered animal, refusing to step deeper inside.

He crossed the room with unhurried confidence, then turned to face me. “You don’t understand yet. But you will. This marriage isn’t about romance or comfort. It is survival. My name shields you, my ring chains you to protection. Without it…” His eyes darkened, voice dropping to something that crawled under my skin. “…you are nothing more than prey.”

My heart thundered, a frantic bird beating its wings against a locked cage.

Marriage. Chains. Protection. Prey.

Every word was a link binding me tighter.

And for the first time, I realized something bone-deep and terrifying.

Damian Blackwood wasn’t offering me a choice.

He was delivering a sentence.

***

The words still echoed inside me when the office doors burst open.

“Evelyn!”

The sound of his voice turned my blood to ice.

Adrian.

I spun around, my stomach knotting so tightly I thought I would be sick. He stood there, tall and furious, his golden hair gleaming under the office lights, his tailored suit perfectly pressed—as if the months I’d rotted in prison meant nothing, as if my suffering had never happened.

Behind him, Eloise slinked in like a shadow, her painted lips curved into a smile that made bile rise in my throat. Her manicured fingers curled around Adrian’s arm possessively.

The sight made me want to scream.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I whispered, though my voice trembled. My hand instinctively pressed against my stomach, a shield for the life growing inside me.

Adrian’s gaze caught the movement, and his eyes narrowed. For a flicker of a second, something sharp and suspicious glimmered there. But it was gone before I could read it, replaced with a sneer.

“You’ve sunk even lower than I thought,” he said. “Clinging to Damian like some desperate beggar. Is this what you planned all along? Seducing him for his wealth?”

His words were acid, eating through the fragile wall of strength I had left.

“I didn’t—” My voice cracked. I swallowed hard and tried again. “I didn’t ask for any of this, Adrian. You told me you’d save me. You told me—”

“That I’d come for you?” His laughter was harsh, cruel. “God, you’re pathetic. You believed that?”

My chest burned. My nails dug into my palms until they threatened to break skin.

Eloise’s voice slipped in, soft and cutting. “We should pity her, darling. Look at her. She doesn’t even realize she’s nothing but a pawn.” She leaned closer to him, her perfume thick and suffocating even across the room. “But don’t worry. She won’t matter once we’re married. The world will forget she ever existed.”

Married.

The word sliced through me, sharper than any prison shiv.

My throat closed. For months I had clung to the tiny ember of hope that maybe—just maybe—Adrian hadn’t abandoned me. That maybe there was some mistake, some twist that would undo the betrayal.

But hearing it now… that ember died.

I opened my mouth, but Damian’s voice cut across the room like a blade.

“Enough.”

The single word vibrated with authority, silencing everything. Adrian stiffened, his jaw tight. Eloise faltered, the smugness slipping just for a second.

Damian rose from behind his desk, moving with a predator’s calm. His eyes locked on Adrian, dark and unyielding.

“You dare walk into my building, into my office, and insult her under my roof?” His voice was low, dangerous, each word dripping with venom.

Adrian scoffed. “Insult her? She’s nothing. A stain on my family name. And you—” he jabbed a finger at Damian, anger spilling over “—you’re a fool if you think she’s worth anything.”

The air seemed to drop several degrees.

Damian’s hand curled into a fist at his side, but his face remained carved from stone. “Choose your next words carefully, Adrian. You are speaking about the mother of my heir.”

The room froze.

Eloise gasped. Adrian’s face drained of color.

The silence that followed was suffocating, thicker than prison air, heavier than the weight of chains.

“What?” Adrian’s voice cracked, disbelief laced with rage. His gaze snapped to me, wild, searching. “You’re… you’re pregnant?”

I couldn’t speak. My lips parted, but no sound came out.

The secret I had guarded with every shred of strength I had left was no longer mine. It was out. Exposed.

Adrian’s eyes burned into me, betrayal twisting his features into something monstrous. Eloise’s perfect facade shattered, her eyes widening in horror as the reality of it hit her.

And Damian… Damian only smiled. A cold, razor-edged smile that promised war.

“Yes,” he said, his voice like a death sentence. “And she will be my wife.”

The words slammed into the room like thunder.

Adrian lunged forward, his rage erupting…