chapter 18

Louis’s POV

The morning light was grey and cold, matching the numbers on my screen. Victor Hale’s empire was bleeding. The initial fifteen percent drop had cascaded into a twenty two percent free fall by market close. News outlets were running headlines like “House of Cards?” and “Hale Holdings Under Siege.”

It should have felt like a victory. It only felt like a first step.

My phone buzzed incessantly, a mix of business associates smelling blood in the water and my own public relations team working to keep my name cleanly detached from the carnage. I silenced it.

My focus was split between the financial war on one screen and the security feeds on another. The kitchen feed showed Sierra making pancakes, Katie perched on the counter “helping.” The sight was a punch to the gut, a sweet ache that was becoming familiar.

My intercom buzzed. Marcus. “Louis. Your mother and sister are at the gate.”

A different kind of tension tightened my shoulders. I hadn’t spoken to them since the dinner party disaster. They would have seen the news. They would have questions. “Let them in.”

Minutes later, the refined clip of my mother’s heels echoed in the foyer. I met them in the living room. My mother, Nia Trevane, was elegance personified, her silver hair perfect, her eyes missing nothing. My sister, Diamond, stood beside her, her expression curious and concerned.

“Louis,” my mother said, her voice cool. “We saw the news. You’re making quite a statement.”

“Victor had it coming,” I replied, not offering a seat.

“I don’t doubt it,” Diamond said, her eyes darting around. “But this feels… personal. More than the usual boardroom battle.”

Before I could answer, a giggle echoed from the hall. Then a little voice.

“Daddy Louis! Mommy says the maple syrup is hiding!”

Katie skipped into the living room, a bottle of syrup clutched in her hands. She froze when she saw the strangers, her big eyes going wide.

My mother’s sharp intake of breath was the loudest sound in the room.

Katie looked from them to me, suddenly shy. She shuffled over and pressed herself against my leg. I put a hand on her head automatically.

“Hello,” my mother said, her voice strangely soft. She knelt down, her expensive trousers be damned. “And who might you be?”

“I’m Katie,” she whispered, then buried her face in my pant leg.

“Katie,” my mother repeated. She looked up at me, a hurricane of questions in her eyes. “Louis?”

This was it. The unveiling. “Mother, Diamond. This is Katie. My daughter.”

The silence that followed was absolute. Diamond’s hand flew to her mouth. My mother remained kneeling, her gaze locked on Katie’s face, then lifting to mine. She saw the truth there. The unshakable certainty.

She stood up slowly, her composure a thin veneer. “I see.” Her voice was tight. “And her mother?”

As if summoned, Sierra appeared in the doorway, her face pale. She had an apron over her clothes and a smudge of flour on her cheek. She looked beautiful and terrified. “Katie, don’t bother your… don’t bother Louis.”

“She’s no bother,” I said, my voice firm. I held out my hand to her. “Sierra, come here.”

She hesitated, then walked over, taking my hand. I pulled her to my side, completing the picture. Katie clinging to one leg, Sierra’s hand in mine.

“This is Sierra Savalini,” I told my stunned family. “Katie’s mother.”

Diamond found her voice first. “Well… hello.” She offered a genuine, if shocked, smile. “I’m Diamond, the fun aunt. Or, I guess I will be.”

My mother was not so easily disarmed. Her eyes assessed Sierra with a clinical precision that made Sierra shrink slightly. “How long have you known about the child?” she asked, the question aimed at me but meant for both of us.

“Five years,” Sierra answered softly, her chin lifting with a hint of defiance. “I raised her on my own.”

“And you chose now to inform Louis?” The subtext was clear: *Now, when he’s in a very public war? Now, when this could be used against him?*

“I didn’t choose,” I cut in, my voice hardening. “I found out. She was keeping Katie safe. From my world. Can you blame her?”

My mother looked at Sierra again, and for a flicker, I saw something other than calculation in her eyes. A hint of understanding. Raising a child alone was a battle she knew nothing of, but she could recognize the armor it required.

“The press,” my mother said finally, turning her strategist’s mind to the immediate problem. “If they find out about a secret child in the middle of this feud with Victor…”

“They will find out,” I said. “But on my terms. When Sierra and Katie are ready. And it will be framed as my greatest victory, not a scandal.”

Sierra’s hand tightened in mine. I could feel her trembling.

Katie, bored with the tense grown up talk, tugged on my pants. “Daddy, the pancakes are getting cold.”

The word ‘Daddy’ hung in the air. My mother flinched as if struck. Diamond’s smile widened.

“You’re absolutely right, Katie,” Diamond said, swooping in. She held out her hand. “Why don’t you show me these famous pancakes? I’m starving.”

Katie, disarmed by the friendly adult, took her hand and led her toward the kitchen, chattering about how she stirred the batter.

That left my mother, Sierra, and me in the heavy quiet.

“She calls you Daddy,” my mother stated.

“Yes.”

“And you believe she is yours.”

“I have the test results. She is mine.”

My mother nodded slowly. She looked at Sierra. “You have my grandson.”

“Grand*daughter*,” Sierra corrected gently.

A faint, almost imperceptible smile touched my mother’s lips. “Granddaughter.” She sighed, the sound carrying the weight of adjusted dynasties. “Well. We will need to manage this. Carefully. For the child’s sake.”

It wasn’t warmth. It wasn’t welcome. It was acceptance. From my mother, that was a monumental shift.

“We are managing it,” I said. “And we don’t need a PR plan for our family. Not from you.”

My mother’s eyes flashed, but she inclined her head. “Very well. I shall… get to know my granddaughter then.” She gave Sierra one last, inscrutable look, then followed the sound of voices to the kitchen.

When we were alone, Sierra sagged against me. “That was…”

“Intense,” I finished for her. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close. “But you survived. You were perfect.”

“She thinks I’m a gold digger. Or a liability.”

“She thinks you’re the mother of her only grandchild. That outweighs everything else in her universe.” I kissed the top of her head. “And I think you’re brave. And beautiful. And mine.”

She looked up at me, her eyes searching. “What happens next, Louis? Really?”

My phone buzzed again. This time, it was a direct message. Not through the office. A private, encrypted line.

The preview showed a single sentence from an unknown number: **You should look at your own foundation’s books before you throw stones, Trevane.**

Victor’s counterattack. He was going after my charity, the one clean, public facing part of my life. It was a smart move. A dirty move.

I showed the message to Sierra. Her face paled further.

“It never stops, does it?” she whispered.

“No,” I said, my voice grim. “But neither do I.” I tucked my phone away and framed her face with my hands. “This is the life I lead. It’s messy. It’s dangerous. And now you’re in the middle of it. I won’t lie to you. It will get worse before it gets better.”

She placed her hands over mine, holding them against her skin. Her gaze was steady now, clear. “We’re in the middle of it,” she corrected. “Together. Katie is your daughter. I’m… I’m with you. So his fight is with all of us.”

Her words were a shield and a sword. They filled a hollow place in me I hadn’t known was empty.

I leaned down and kissed her, not with the desperate heat of yesterday, but with a deep, claiming certainty. She kissed me back, matching my resolve.

When we broke apart, we could hear laughter from the kitchen. Diamond’s loud chuckle, Katie’s squeal, even my mother’s dry, amused tone.

A family. My family.

Victor Hale wanted a war of empires. Fine.

But he had just made it a war for my family.

And that was a war I would win at any cost.