All Chapters of What Daddy Left Behind: Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

181 Chapters

Something was Wrong

~ Thea’s POVI turned my head, my dark eyes snapping from the blonde woman in the trench coat directly to the man standing beside me.I expected Stellan to look furious. To summon his security detail take them out for disrupting the peace.But Stellan Vaughn wasn't angry.His face was entirely bloodless as if he had just seen a ghost. The absolute, unshakeable confidence that had commanded the room just moments ago had been completely wiped away. He was staring down at the dark-haired little boy, his pitch-black eyes wide with a profound, mind-shattering shock. It was the look of a man who had just watched a ghost walk out of a grave.The silence lasted only a heartbeat before the media apocalypse truly detonated.Over a hundred reporters surged forward, entirely ignoring the ropes and the security barricades. Who is she, Stellan?! Is that your son?! Are you married?! Is this another scandal?! The camera flashes became a violent storm, capturing every single micro-expression on

He wasn't coming.

~ Thea’s POVThe iron gates of the limestone estate parted with a slow, mechanical hum, allowing the SUV to glide through and crunch onto the gravel driveway.Graham cut the engine. The silence inside the cabin was thick, heavy, and absolutely suffocating.He quickly exited the driver’s side, rounding the hood to pull my door open. The biting, freezing Manhattan wind whipped across the circular driveway, but I barely felt it. I stepped out, my legs moving with a stiff, robotic precision. Every muscle in my body was coiled tight, vibrating with a toxic mixture of adrenaline and sheer, unadulterated shock.Graham unlocked the heavy oak front doors and guided me into the grand foyer.The moment the doors clicked shut behind us, sealing us away from the howling wind and the invisible, ravenous media storm currently tearing my husband's empire to shreds, the fragile thread holding my composure together violently snapped."Let's get you upstairs, Mrs. Vaughn," Graham murmured, his British a

What should I do?

~ Stellan’s POVThe crystal goblet caught the dim, ambient lighting of the Upper East Side penthouse, the deep red vintage swirling smoothly as she extended it toward me."Is this the woman you decided to take as your wife?"Stacy’s voice was exactly as I remembered it, a smooth, calculated purr that concealed a heart forged from pure, unapologetic greed. She stood in the center of her excessively lavish living room, wearing a designer trench coat she hadn't bothered to take off, her blonde hair perfectly styled. She looked at me with a mixture of amusement and mocking pity, holding the glass of wine out as if we were old friends catching up over a minor scandal.The feral, violently destructive beast inside my chest completely snapped his chains.I didn't answer her. I swung my arm, the back of my hand colliding brutally with the crystal goblet.The glass exploded, sending a shower of razor-sharp shards and dark crimson wine violently across the pristine white walls and the expensiv

To be viscious

~ Thea's POVThe cold was the first thing she had noticed.It wasn't just the ambient chill of the massive master suite; it was a deep, physical absence that seemed to entirely consume the mattress. I slowly opened my eyes, the heavy, bruised ache in my ribs momentarily forgotten as I stared at the pristine, completely undisturbed charcoal sheets on the other side of the bed.He hadn't come home.I lay perfectly still for a long time, listening to the suffocating, absolute silence of the limestone estate. The digital clock on the nightstand glared a harsh, unapologetic 9:00 AM. Stellan Vaughn, the man who had knelt on a sterile hospital floor yesterday to slip a flawless diamond onto my finger, the man who had promised to burn the universe to ash before he let anything hurt me, had left me completely alone on our wedding night.I forced my heavy, aching body to sit up.I reached for my phone, my thumb trembling slightly as I unlocked the screen. A pathetic, desperate part of me expect

What is going on?

~ Thea’s POV"How dare you slap me?" Stacy started, rising up from her seat.The heavy, ornate dining chair scraped violently against the polished marble floor of the private atrium. The dark crimson vintage I had just hurled into her face dripped from her perfectly coiffed blonde hair, staining the collar of her expensive white silk blouse. But it was the stark, glaring red handprint blossoming across her cheek—where my palm had connected a millisecond after the wine—that made her eyes bulge with absolute, unadulterated fury.I didn't back down. I stood my ground in my black boots and mourning attire, my chest heaving, the Mercer steel entirely overriding the throbbing ache in my bruised ribs."I dared because you are sitting across from my husband," I hissed, my voice dropping into a lethal, venomous whisper. "You paraded yourself onto a stage yesterday to publicly humiliate me, and now you think you can sit in a private restaurant drinking his wine like you've won? You are a delusi

I can't come home

~ Stellan’s POVThere was no oxygen left in my lungs.The private elevator doors slid open to the top floor of my corporate penthouse, and the moment I stumbled across the threshold, my knees completely gave out. I hit the concrete floor hard, the impact jarring my bones, but I couldn't feel it. I couldn't feel anything except the phantom, sickeningly soft touch of Stacy’s fingers lingering against my skin, wrapping around my throat like a vine, dragging me backward in time until I was no longer a thirty-five-year-old billionaire, but a paralyzed, terrified boy trapped in a nightmare.I ripped the ruined tie from my neck, my hands shaking so violently I nearly tore the collar of my bespoke shirt.I gasped, my chest heaving in erratic, shallow bursts, but the air wouldn't enter my lungs. A massive, crushing weight sat directly on my sternum. The edges of the dark, unlit penthouse began to warp and blur. The sound of the torrential rain lashing against the floor-to-ceiling windows mut

I will fight for him.

~ Thea’s POVThe morning sun did not bring warmth to the master suite of the limestone estate. It simply illuminated the vast, suffocating emptiness of the room.I sat completely still in the velvet armchair by the floor-to-ceiling windows, my legs pulled up to my chest beneath the black silk robe. I hadn’t slept. Not for a single second. The digital clock on the mahogany nightstand glared a harsh, unrelenting 7:00 AM.Outside the heavy, reinforced iron gates, the world was actively tearing my life to shreds.Even through the thick, bulletproof glass of the mansion, I could hear the faint, chaotic hum of the media frenzy. The low, rhythmic thumping of a news helicopter vibrated in the overcast sky above the property. The paparazzi were swarming the perimeter like vultures, their long camera lenses pressed against the iron bars, desperately waiting to catch a glimpse of the disgraced, abandoned bride weeping in her gilded cage.I looked down at the massive, flawless emerald-cut diamond

Being Manipulated

~ Stellan's POVThe private elevator ascending to the Tribeca penthouse moved but every passing floor felt like the tightening of a hangman’s noose around my neck.I had purchased the sprawling, eighty-million-dollar property five years ago as a pure real estate investment. I had never spent a single night within its glass walls. Yet, the moment the heavy steel doors slid open, the air rushing into the elevator cabin was thoroughly, irreparably tainted.The cloying, suffocating scent of heavy tuberose and bergamot hit the back of my throat.It was a fragrance that didn't just register in my olfactory senses; it bypassed my logic entirely and slammed directly into the deepest, most scarred recesses of my amygdala. It was the exact perfume she had worn twenty years ago. The scent of locked bedroom doors. The scent of my mother walking away down the carpeted hallway, ignoring my frantic, pleading voice. The scent of absolute, paralyzing powerlessness.I stepped out of the elevator, my bo

It Would Kill Him

~ Thea's POVThe black Maybach sliced through the congested Manhattan traffic like a shark navigating bloody waters.As we approached the towering, sleek glass monolith of the Vaughn Enterprises headquarters, the sheer scale of the media apocalypse became terrifyingly clear. The plaza was entirely completely barricaded by NYPD officers and Stellan’s private security firm, desperately trying to hold back a ravenous, surging ocean of journalists, satellite trucks, and paparazzi. The moment my vehicle was spotted, a ripple of chaotic shouting erupted through the crowd."Mrs. Vaughn," the driver said, his voice tense as he eyed the rearview mirror. "I am routing us to the secure underground executive garage. It’s too volatile up front.""No," I commanded, my voice cutting through the quiet cabin with absolute, freezing authority. "Pull up directly to the main plaza steps."The driver hesitated, glancing back at my reflection. He saw the crimson blazer, the dark, uncompromising fire in my

Looking for the truth

~ Thea’s POVAs I walked out of the executive suite, the sting of his fierce loyalty burned in my chest, yet I couldn't entirely fault him. Graham was an employee, a soldier sworn to protect the Dragon’s secrets even if those secrets were actively tearing the empire apart.But there was someone else.Someone who considered himself Stellan’s equal, his brother in arms, and the only man arrogant enough to tell my husband when he was making a mistake.I stepped back into the freezing Manhattan wind and climbed into the idling Maybach."The Obsidian Club," I told the driver, not missing a beat.The exclusive, ultra-private gentlemen’s club in Soho was Julian Hayes’s sanctuary. If he wasn't gutting hedge funds from his corner office, he was holding court in the amber-lit depths of the Obsidian.Twenty minutes later, I pushed through the heavy, unmarked brass doors of the club. The atmosphere inside was a stark contrast to the sterile panic of Vaughn Enterprises. It was a world of hushed we

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