Chapter 3

AVA'S POV 

"Who is it?" I called out, my voice tight and trembling with fear. I slowly backed away from the bed, my hand blindly searching the small plastic table until my fingers wrapped around the heavy base of a brass desk lamp.

 

There was no answer from the hallway. Just absolute, terrifying silence.

 

I stepped closer to the door, holding the brass lamp high over my shoulder with both hands. "Who is it? I have a weapon. Leave right now or I'm calling the police."

 

The brass door handle slowly turned downward.

Before I could rush forward to jam my shoulder against the wood, the lock clicked open, and the door was pushed inward.

 

Standing in the frame, his broad shoulders easily blocking out the flickering yellow light of the hallway, was Damien.

 

He had discarded his suit jacket somewhere along the way. His white dress shirt was soaked through from the rain, clinging tightly to his broad chest, the top two buttons undone to reveal his neck. 

 

His short black hair was messy, plastered against his forehead, and he didn't blink, didn't look away, just stood there taking up the whole doorway like he intended to stay there all night if he had to.

 

"How... How did you find me?" I whispered, taking a step back as pure terror gripped my heart. "How did you track me here?"

 

Damien stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, the latch clicking shut with a finality that made my blood run ice-cold. He didn't answer my question. 

 

His sharp gaze simply swept over the dirty walls, the stained carpet, and finally landed on me. "Is this where you live?" he asked, his deep voice dangerously quiet. "Is this the life you ran to, Ava?"

 

"Get out," I spat, tightening my grip on the heavy brass lamp until my knuckles turned stark white. "Get the hell out of my room before I scream.”

 

"Scream all you want," Damien said, taking a slow, deliberate step toward me. "Nobody in this filthy building is going to come up these stairs to save you from me."

 

"Why won't you leave me alone?" Tears of sheer frustration surged back into my eyes, hot and stinging. "I don't have anything you want, Damien. Look around. I have nothing.”

 

"You have answers," he growled, stopping just two feet away from me. The intense, suffocating heat off his body filled the tiny room, completely overwhelming my senses. 

 

"You owed me an explanation four years ago, and you owe me one now. You are coming with me tonight. I am not leaving you in this dump."

 

"I am not going anywhere with you,” I yelled, lifting the lamp higher. "I would rather sleep on the street than take a single cent from your hands.”

 

"Don't be stupid, Ava," Damien said, and the quiet in his voice was worse than shouting would have been. "Look at yourself. You're shaking. You're soaked. You can barely stand on your feet."

 

"I said NO.”

 

"Mommy?" A small, sleepy voice broke through the thick tension in the room. Damien stopped dead in his tracks. His whole body went rigid.

 

From the small twin bed in the corner, Lucas sat up, rubbing his eyes with his tiny fists. He blinked against the dim light, looking confusedly at the tall, imposing man standing in the center of the room.

 

"Mommy... who is that?" Lucas mumbled, holding his small teddy bear tight against his chest. I dropped the brass lamp onto the floor with a loud, metallic thud. Panic, far worse than anything I had felt at the club, seized my throat.

 

"Lucas, stay on the bed," I said quickly, my voice cracking as I stepped directly between Damien and my son, shielding Lucas entirely from his view. "It's okay, baby. Just go back to sleep."

 

Damien didn't move. He stood completely frozen, staring right over my shoulder at the tiny boy sitting on the mattress.

 

The color completely drained from Damien's face. His sharp jaw dropped open slightly, his silver eyes wide with an absolute, shattering disbelief. He clearly didn't see it coming. 

 

"Ava..." Damien’s voice cracked, sounding entirely stripped of its authority. He slowly looked from the little boy to me, his chest heaving up and down. "Who... who is that?"

 

I swallowed hard, my tongue feeling heavy and dry in my mouth. I couldn't let him know. If Damien realized Lucas was his son, he would use his wealth and his powerful family to rip my baby away from me forever. I would never see my child again.

 

"He's my son," I said coldly, locking my gaze with his. "He's my child." Damien took a shaky step back, as if someone had just landed a physical blow to his chest. 

 

He went completely still, the way a held breath goes still right before it breaks. "Your son?" he whispered, his hands clenching into tight fists at his sides. "You... you had a child?"

 

"Yes," I lied, forcing my voice to stay dead firm. "Now you see why I don't need you. I built a life without you. I have a family."

 

Damien stared at me, his jaw clenching so hard the muscles in his neck strained. I could see the exact moment his heartbreak turned into a dark, suffocating rage. 

"A family," Damien repeated softly, the words dripping with poison. "You left me... to build a family with someone else."

 

"It has nothing to do with you," I declared. "Now get out."

 

Damien took two long strides forward, completely ignoring my words, and grabbed my arm in a grip of pure iron. He didn't hurt me, but his hold was tight enough that I couldn't pull away.

 

"Damien, let go of me," I hissed, keeping my voice low so as not to frighten Lucas any further.

 

"No," Damien growled, leaning down until his dark eyes were inches from mine. His possessive rage radiated off him like a furnace. "You think you can just replace me? You think you can build a life with another man and hide from me forever?"

 

"He's not your concern."

"I've seen him now, Ava, and that makes him my concern," Damien rasped, his hand tightening slightly on my arm, not painful, just immovable, like a door someone had quietly bolted shut.

 "Where is he?" he asked quietly. "The father. Where is the man who's supposed to be raising that boy?"

 I said nothing, and that was answer enough.

 "He's not here," Damien said, and the words came out low, almost disbelieving, before hardening into something colder. "He let you carry his son alone, work yourself into the ground, and end up in a room like this;  and he's nowhere. What kind of man does that?"

He let out a short, humorless breath. "I've seen animals treat what's theirs better than that."

"You don't know anything about him," I snapped, my stomach twisting.

"I know enough," Damien said. "I know he's not standing in this doorway right now. I am."

He straightened, his eyes flicking once around the peeling walls, the cracked window, the damp carpet, before landing back on me.

"Pack his things. Both of you are coming with me right now."

 

"Are you insane?" I gasped, trying to pry his heavy fingers off my arm. "I am not going to your house. You can't force us.”

 

"Watch me," Damien spat, his voice going flat, stripped of the anger it had carried a second ago, which somehow frightened me more. "You can hate me all you want, Ava. You can scream at me all night. But you and that boy are not staying in this place for another minute. You belong under my roof until I find out every single truth you've been hiding from me."

 

"You don't own me, Damien,” I croaked out, my chest heaving from anger but Damien didn't budge. 

 

"You disappeared once," he whispered, bending down so his breath brushed against my ear, sending a chill straight down my spine. " Now that I’ve found you, you will never leave my sight again.”