CHAPTER 26: CLAIMED

Chloe stood shoulder to shoulder with Damian in the narrow hallway of the Brooklyn brownstone, heart hammering against her ribs as security let Vanessa through the reinforced door. The woman swept in like she owned the place, designer coat swirling around her slim frame, a thick folder clutched in one perfectly manicured hand.

“Those are my babies,” Chloe said firmly before Vanessa could open her mouth. She stepped forward, one hand spread protectively over the large curve of her belly. “I carried them. I felt every kick, every scare, every single day of this nightmare. You walked away months ago. You don’t get to show up now with more lies.”

Vanessa’s eyes narrowed, flicking over Chloe’s body with open contempt. “Still playing the devoted mother? Cute. But I have proof this time.” She slapped the folder against Damian’s chest. “Embryo switch. The clinic mixed up the samples. Those twins were always meant to be mine and Damian’s. Your little bakery body was just the rented oven.”

Damian snatched the folder and flipped it open, scanning the pages with a darkening expression. Chloe moved beside him, reading over his arm. Official-looking documents, lab stamps, signatures. Numbers that matched the original procedure dates. Her stomach twisted.

“This is fabricated,” Damian growled. “The same clinic that’s been poisoning her. The same one my mother donated to. You’re desperate, Vanessa. It’s pathetic.”

Vanessa laughed, sharp and brittle. “Desperate? I’m fighting for my children. The ones she stole by spreading her legs for money. Check the dates. Check the lab codes. The embryos intended for me were implanted in her by mistake. Or maybe not by mistake. Maybe your precious wife knew and kept quiet so she could trap you.”

Chloe’s hands curled into fists. Heat flooded her face. “You really think I’d do that? Risk my own health, my business, my future, just to trap a man who didn’t even want me at the start? I wanted a baby on my own terms. Not this circus. Not you. Not any of it. These twins have been mine from the first positive test. Mine to protect when you ran. Mine to fight for when your people tried to poison them.”

She stepped even closer, belly almost brushing Vanessa’s designer dress. “Get out of our home. You don’t get to claim them. You don’t get to claim him. Not anymore.”

Damian moved beside her, his hand settling firmly on her lower back. The touch grounded her. He looked at Vanessa with ice in his eyes. “She’s right. Those are our children. Chloe’s and mine. She carried them through every threat, every scandal, every attempt to tear us apart. You walked away the moment it got complicated. I choose her. I choose them. I’ve chosen them every single day since you left. The marriage isn’t temporary anymore. It’s real. Now leave before I have security drag you out.”

Vanessa’s face twisted with fury. She jabbed a finger toward Chloe. “You’ll regret this. Both of you. When the real DNA results come back, you’ll see. She’s nothing but a placeholder.”

Security stepped forward on Damian’s signal. Vanessa snatched her folder back and stormed toward the door, heels stabbing the floor. “This isn’t over!” The door slammed behind her hard enough to rattle the frame.

The silence that followed felt heavy. Chloe turned to Damian, breath still coming fast. His hand stayed on her back, warm and steady. He looked down at her, gray eyes intense in the dim hallway light.

“You stood up to her,” he said quietly. “Again. Even after everything.”

“I meant it.” Chloe reached up and touched his jaw, the stubble rough under her fingers. “Those are our babies. And whatever this is between us… it feels real now. Not just survival.”

He leaned down and kissed her—slow and deep, one hand cupping the side of her face while the other stayed protective over her belly. She kissed him back, pouring the fear and the fight and the growing warmth into it. When they pulled apart, his forehead rested against hers.

“I’m not letting anyone take you from me,” he whispered. “Not Vanessa. Not my mother. Not Marcus. This is our family.”

Her phone rang on the hallway table. The private doctor they’d switched to after the last hospital visit. Damian answered on speaker, keeping one arm around her.

“Mr. and Mrs. King,” the doctor said, voice tight. “The new DNA test samples we collected yesterday are ready for processing, but there’s an issue. The lab just notified us—the vials show signs of tampering. Seals broken and resealed. Contamination is possible. We’re running them anyway, but results will be delayed and we can’t guarantee accuracy. Someone got to the samples before they left the facility.”

Chloe’s hand tightened on Damian’s shirt. Tampered samples. Again. The threats had followed them even here, to this new safe house. She looked up at him, fresh dread settling heavy in her chest as the doctor continued speaking.

********

Damian paced the length of the brownstone living room, shoes wearing a path into the hardwood as he checked his watch for the tenth time in five minutes. The private courier was late with the DNA results. Every second stretched tighter, twisting something deep in his chest until he could barely breathe right. Chloe rested on the couch nearby, legs tucked under a throw blanket, one hand moving in slow circles over her belly. She watched him but said nothing, her face pale from the stress of the last twenty-four hours.

He stopped by the window and gripped the frame, staring out at the quiet Brooklyn street. “If these results come back wrong, if Vanessa’s lies have any truth to them. I don’t know what I’ll do. Those twins are ours. I felt them kick, I watched you protect them through every attack. The thought of someone taking that away…”

Chloe shifted on the couch, adjusting the blanket higher around her. “Pacing isn’t going to make the courier arrive faster. Sit down before you wear a hole in the floor.”

He turned and dropped into the armchair across from her, elbows on his knees, hands clasped so tight his knuckles showed white. The board vote loomed in two days. Marcus had the numbers. The leaked contracts, the scandals, the sabotage, all of it had eroded support. Part of him wanted to fight with everything he had left, call in favors, expose every dirty secret, burn the company down if it meant keeping Chloe and the twins safe. The other part wondered if stepping back would finally end the attacks.

“The board vote is in two days,” he said, rubbing his jaw. “Marcus is pushing hard. If I fight dirty like he does, I might keep control. But it means more scandals. More attacks on you. If I step down, maybe the pressure stops. The threats to the twins might ease. But I lose everything my father built. Everything I’ve worked for.”

Chloe’s hand stilled on her belly. She looked at him directly. “You’re actually considering it? Walking away from the company to protect us?”

“I’m considering a lot of things I never would have before.” He leaned forward, eyes locked on hers. “This marriage started as a contract. Protection. Image. But I don’t want that anymore. I want it real, Chloe. No expiration date. No escape clause. I want to wake up next to you after the twins are born. I want to argue about bakery suppliers and parenting rules and grow old watching them drive us both crazy. No matter the cost to the company. No matter what Marcus or my mother throws at us. I’m in this. All the way. For you. For them. For us.”

The words hung in the quiet room. Chloe’s fingers pressed deeper into her belly, her breath catching slightly. She looked down for a long moment, then back up at him. Her voice came softer than he expected. “I’ve been fighting how I feel since the night you stayed at the hospital. Since the kitchen. Since that kiss. My exes made me believe I’d always be too much or not enough. Your world tried to prove the same. But you keep staying. You keep choosing me even when it costs you everything. I’m starting to feel the same way. Like this could be real. Like I want it to be real. I’m scared as hell, but… I’m in too. With you.”

Damian crossed the room in two strides and knelt in front of the couch. He rested his forehead against hers, one hand covering hers on her belly. The twins kicked under their joined hands, strong and insistent. For the first time in weeks, something in his chest loosened. Not fixed. Not perfect. But real.

A sharp knock sounded at the front door. Security opened it and a courier stepped in, handing over a sealed envelope with the lab’s official markings. Damian signed for it, tipped the man, and closed the door. His hands felt unsteady as he carried the envelope back to the couch and sat beside Chloe.

“This is it,” he said. “Whatever it says, we face it together.”

Chloe nodded, leaning into his side. He tore the seal and pulled out the papers. The top sheet looked official. lab headers, barcodes, signature lines, but something felt off. The edges of the envelope were slightly bent in a way that didn’t match normal handling. A small handwritten note had been slipped between the pages.

He unfolded the note first. The words were printed in plain block letters:

"The truth will destroy you both."