Chapter Forty-Five: The Web Unravels

Blake looked up, his eyes hollow. "She said it was because she loved him. Because she couldn't stand to watch him throw his life away on someone who would never be good enough."

The words stung, even though I knew they weren't true. This was how Lydia saw me—as a threat to her son's success, a stain on the family reputation that needed to be removed.

"There's something else," Blake said quietly. "Something she made me promise never to tell."

Jules waited.

"She said if Scarlett ever got pregnant, it would ruin everything. That she'd never let some poor girl's bastard inherit the Blackwood empire." Blake's voice broke. "She said she'd do whatever it took to make sure that baby was never born."

The blood in my veins turned to ice. My hand moved instinctively to my stomach, protecting the life growing inside me.

Dominic turned from the window, his face a mask of cold fury. "She threatened an innocent child?"

"She said families like yours don't mix with families like Scarlett's," Blake continued. "That the bloodline needed to stay pure, powerful. That Scarlett's baby would be nothing but a weakness that enemies could exploit."

Jules looked directly at the mirror, knowing we were watching. "Is there anything else?"

Blake's face twisted with something dark. "The baby might not survive anyway. The stress, the trauma—sometimes these things work themselves out."

"You'd be okay with that?" Jules asked, her voice dangerously quiet.

"If it meant Scarlett would come back to me? If it meant she'd finally see that she belongs with me?" Blake's obsession leaked through his words like poison. "She's going to inherit the Reynolds company eventually. She'll need someone to help her run it. Someone who understands that world."

"You want to control her," Jules said flatly.

"I want to protect her," Blake snapped. "From people like him, from families like his. She doesn't understand the game she's playing."

Jules leaned forward. "And if she doesn't want your protection?"

"She will," Blake said with chilling certainty. "When she realizes what she's up against, when she sees that everyone wants to use her or destroy her, she'll come back to me. She'll have to."

Jules's expression hardened. "What else is she up against?"

Blake hesitated, then seemed to realize he had nothing left to lose. "The acid at the gala—that wasn't from Lydia. That was my family. My mother, my father, the entire Reynolds board. They found out about the Van Alston inheritance before I did."

My stomach dropped. "They knew?"

"They've known for weeks," Blake continued. "They have investigators, people who dig up information for a living. When they realized Scarlett was the real heiress, they panicked."

"Why?"

"Because she's about to become more powerful than all of us combined. The Van Alston fortune makes the Reynolds empire look like pocket change. And if she takes control, if she decides she wants revenge for what my family did to her..." Blake's voice trailed off.

"They'd lose everything," Jules finished.

"So they decided to eliminate the threat," Blake said. "Even knowing she's carrying their grandchild. Even knowing that baby would be the rightful heir to both empires."

The words hit me like a physical blow. The Reynolds family was willing to murder their own blood to protect their power.

Jules looked directly at the mirror, knowing we were watching. "Is there anything else?"

Blake shook his head. "That's everything. All of it. I'm sorry—God, I'm so sorry. I never wanted anyone to get hurt."

"But you were willing to let it happen," Jules said coldly. "You were willing to watch an innocent woman and her unborn child suffer because you couldn't handle losing what was never really yours."

Blake didn't answer. He just put his head in his hands and sobbed.

Dominic was already moving toward the door, but I caught his arm.

"Where are you going?"

"To have a conversation with my mother," he said, his voice deadly calm.

"Dominic, wait. We need to think about this. Plan it carefully."

"I've thought about it," he said. "For the last ten minutes, I've been thinking about how the woman who raised me has been trying to murder my wife."

The pain in his voice was almost unbearable. This wasn't just betrayal—it was the destruction of everything he'd believed about his family, his mother, his own judgment.

"We do this together," I said firmly. "Like we agreed."

He looked at me for a long moment, then nodded. "Together."

Through the intercom, Jules's voice crackled. "Should I start questioning Delilah?"

"No," Dominic said, his voice carrying the weight of absolute authority. "We have what we need."

Because now we knew the truth.

Lydia Blackwood hadn't just disapproved of me.

She'd declared war on me.

And she wasn't the only one.

The Reynolds family, Blake's own blood, were willing to murder their grandchild to protect their empire.

I was surrounded by enemies who'd stop at nothing to destroy me.