All Chapters of Heartbreak And Wars: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Blake's POVI stumbled through my apartment door at four in the morning, soaked to the bone and shaking from more than just the cold. My clothes dripped muddy water onto the marble floor, but I didn't care. Nothing mattered except the hollow ache in my chest where certainty used to live.She was gone.I'd spent hours combing through that forest, following every footprint, every broken branch, every possible path she might have taken. My voice was raw from calling her name into the storm. My hands were cut and bleeding from pushing through thorns and debris. But I'd found nothing except that burned-out shell of our car and the lingering smell of gasoline.Someone had been watching us.I peeled off my soaked shirt and threw it aside, my reflection catching in the darkened windows. Wild-eyed, desperate, defeated. Everything I swore I'd never let Wakes Savage make me feel again.The hot shower should have helped, but the water only reminded me of the rain, of leaving her alone in that hut

Sofia's POVI'd been Blake Matthew's head of strategic operations for seven years, and I'd never heard him sound like this. Desperate and dangerous.When my phone rang at five in the morning, I was already dressed and halfway to my car before he finished explaining what had happened.That's what you did when your best friend—your boss, your business partner, the man who'd pulled you out of a dead-end job at a failing consulting firm and made you rich… called and said one word; WAR.Blake's penthouse was chaotic when I arrived. He was pacing like a caged animal, his usually perfect composure shattered. His hair was still damp, probably from a shower, but his clothes looked like he'd grabbed whatever was closest.There was something wild in his eyes that I'd only seen once before—five years ago, when Wakes Savage had destroyed his father's company and driven the old man to an early grave."Tell me everything," I said, setting my laptop bag down on his granite kitchen island. "From the b

Aloe's POV The door opened with a soft click that made my entire body go rigid. I'd been staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours, counting the tiles, memorizing the pattern of water stains, anything to keep my mind from spiraling into panic.But that sound that seems controlled, deliberate, exactly like every entrance Wakes had ever made into a room shattered my fragile composure."Hello, darling."His voice was silk wrapped around steel, the same tone he'd used during our courtship when I'd been naive enough to mistake control for protection.I didn't turn to look at him, couldn't bear to see that satisfied smile I knew would be playing at the corners of his mouth."You're awake. Good." The chair beside my bed creaked as he sat down, and I caught the scent of his cologne… expensive, suffocating, forever linked in my mind to fear. "We have so much to discuss."I kept my eyes fixed on the ceiling. If I looked at him, if I saw that familiar mask of concerned husband, I might br

Wakes's POVThe laptop screen stared back at me like an accusation. The numbers couldn't be real. They couldn't be.Savage Group stock: down eighteen percent. Trading volume: 400% above normal. And the acquisition notifications flooding my inbox told a story I refused to believe.Blake Matthew Industries had been buying. Aggressively."Sir?" Heron's voice cut through the roaring in my ears. "The Holbrook people are on line three. They want to discuss…""Tell them we'll reschedule." My voice came out steady, controlled. Years of practice hiding weakness from competitors, from board members, from my wife.But my hands were shaking as I scrolled through the acquisition reports. Shell companies, offshore accounts, private investment firms, all traceable back to Blake if you knew what to look for. And I did. I'd used the same tactics myself.Forty-seven percent. The bastard actually owned forty-seven percent of my company.My phone rang. Unknown number, but I knew who it was before I answe

Blake's POVOne hour and seventeen minutes.I stared at my phone, willing it to ring. The deadline had passed. Wakes should have called by now—either to negotiate or to capitulate. The silence stretched like a taut wire, ready to snap."Anything?" Sofia asked from across the room, not looking up from her screens."Nothing." I set the phone down harder than necessary. "What's the status on the stock acquisition?""Fifty-one percent as of ten minutes ago. We officially have controlling interest." Her voice carried no triumph, only the flat efficiency of a general reporting battlefield casualties."The board meeting's been moved up to eight AM tomorrow."Fifty-one percent. I owned more of Savage Group than Wakes did. I could remove him as CEO, dismantle his empire piece by piece, reduce him to nothing more than a cautionary tale told in business schools.So why did it feel like I was losing?My phone buzzed. Text message from Marcus: *Medical inspection complete. Target remained in the f