บอสฮั่ว พี่ชายทั้งสิบของคุณผู้หญิงเร่งให้หย่าอีกแล้วนะ

Gianna’s POV

Cold air bit at my face, but I barely felt it. My fingers stayed tightly locked around small, warm ones. Standing outside the towering glass facade of the corporate headquarters, I stared up at the name etched in polished steel. Three years. Three long years of hiding, surviving, and guarding my heart. Every step I had taken since running away led directly to this massive building.

"Mommy, are we going inside?"

The small voice broke through my frozen thoughts. I looked down, meeting wide, curious eyes that mirrored the exact shade of hazel I tried so hard to forget.

"Yes, sweetie. Stay close to me."

I took a slow breath, forced my shoulders back, and pushed through the heavy revolving doors. The lobby was as grand and intimidating as ever, buzzing with expensive suits and hushed telephone conversations. I ignored the stares and walked straight toward the front desk.

The receptionist offered a practiced, polite smile. "Good morning. Do you have an appointment?"

"No. Tell Lucas Vance that Gianna is here to see him."

"Mr. Vance is currently in a board meeting and doesn't take unscheduled visitors," the receptionist said, her smile cooling slightly. "If you'd like to leave a message…"

"He will see me," I interrupted, my tone calm, though my pulse hammered a frantic rhythm against my ribs. "Just tell him my name."

Before the receptionist could argue, a pair of private elevator doors chimed open nearby, and a security guard stepped forward with a wary expression. I didn't wait for him to reach me. I turned and walked directly toward the private elevators, my heels clicking steadily against the marble floor.

"Ma'am, you can't go back there…" the guard warned, reaching out to block my path.

I stopped, looking him dead in the eye with a quiet authority that caught him off guard. "Touch me, and you'll be answering to Mr. Vance for throwing out the mother of his child."

The words dropped into the lobby like a stone in still water. The guard froze, his hand hovering in mid-air. Around us, murmurs died down. Seizing the opening, I pulled the child past him and pressed the elevator call button. By the time security recovered, the heavy doors slid shut, sealing us inside.

Upstairs, the top floor was quiet, draped in luxury and muted tones. I stepped out into the familiar corridor, my chest tightening with every step toward the double oak doors at the end. I could hear voices murmuring inside the boardroom.

Without knocking, I turned the handle and pushed the door open.

He sat at the head of a long mahogany table surrounded by senior executives who looked up in instant alarm. But Lucas didn't look at them. His gaze locked onto the doorway, and the breath seemed to leave his lungs entirely.

The room went dead silent. The executives scrambled to their feet, muttering apologies and packing tablets, but Lucas didn't blink, didn't move, didn't even acknowledge the people fleeing around him. He simply stared across the room as if a ghost had walked through solid wood.

Within seconds, the boardroom emptied, leaving only the heavy silence between us.

Lucas stood up slowly from his chair. His face was devoid of color, his jaw tight. When he finally spoke, his voice was barely a whisper.

"Why are you here?"

I stood my ground, pulling the child forward into the light of the tall windows.

"I didn't come here for you, Lucas."

His gaze dropped. He looked down, taking in the small child standing beside me, and his breath hitched. The resemblance was undeniable the dark hair, the shape of the jaw, the sharp curve of the brow. The world around Lucas stopped spinning.

"Is this..." He couldn't finish the sentence. He couldn't force the words past the sudden tightness in his throat.

"Yes," I said quietly. "This is your child."

Lucas gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white.

"How old?"

"Three."

A dark, heavy realization washed over his features, turning his shock into something volatile. He calculated the date, the timeline, the exact week I had vanished from his life.

"You were pregnant when you left."

"I was." I answered.

"You kept my child from me for three years?" His voice rose, vibrating with suppressed fury and disbelief.

"You think I wanted to?" My calm exterior cracked, a flash of old pain bleeding into my tone. "I left because of what I found out. Because of what you did."

"What did I do?" Lucas rounded the table, closing the distance between us with dangerous speed. "I spent months tearing the city apart looking for you! I tore my life apart trying to find out where you went!"

"Don't lie to me," I snapped, stepping back to shield the child. "I saw the message. I knew where your loyalties were."

"I never sent any message!" Lucas shouted, stopping short as the sheer weight of their conflicting truths hung in the air between us. "I woke up and you were gone. Everything I had was gone."

Before I could process the sudden, violent shift in his words, my phone buzzed sharply in my pocket. My hand shook as I pulled it out. A text message flashed on the screen from an unknown number, displaying a clear photograph taken just minutes ago from outside the building, accompanied by a single sentence: You can run into his arms, Gianna, but you can't hide from us.

Lucas caught sight of the phone over my shoulder, his eyes narrowing with lethal intent. "What is that?"

"Nothing," I lied, pulling the phone away.

"Give me the phone, Gianna."

"I handled things for three years without you, Lucas. I don't need your help now."

"You're standing in my building with my child while someone stalks you," he said, his voice dropping to a low, furious command. "You are not handling anything alone anymore."

I turned toward the door, desperate to escape the pull of his gravity. "Watch me."

Lucas moved faster than I anticipated, stepping directly into my path. He didn't block me physically, but the look in his eyes held me in place.

"You think you're safe out there alone?" he asked softly, the anger fading into a chilling certainty.

"You think you had a reason to run three years ago? Somebody set us up, Gianna. And until I find out who, you aren't going anywhere."

I stared at him, the reality of the threat anchoring my feet to the plush carpet. I could not simply walk away anymore. I needed to know whether Lucas was telling the truth about the past, while Lucas now knew he had a child and that someone had deliberately separated us.