All Chapters of The Secret Son Of Lucien Ardent: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"Sign it, Elowen. Your role as a vessel is complete."I stared at the thick leather folder on the mahogany desk, then up at the man I had called my husband for the last two years. Lucien Ardent didn't look like a man who had just been told he was going to be a father. He looked like a CEO closing a tedious, low-stakes merger."A vessel?" I whispered, my voice sounding foreign to my own ears. "Lucien, I just told you I’m pregnant. This is our child. Our son.""It is an Ardent heir," Lucien corrected coldly. He leaned back in his chair, his grey eyes as lifeless as polished stone. "And you were the carefully selected biological incubator. Don't tell me you actually started believing the fairy tale? You were chosen for your health, your genetic markers, and your complete lack of social ties. Nothing more."The positive pregnancy test felt like a burning coal in my palm. "Two years, Lucien. We shared a bed. We shared a life. Was every single night just a part of the script?""I never said

"Is this the place, Mommy? Is this where the giants live?"Liam’s small hand was trembling in mine as we stood before the towering iron gates of Ardent Manor. Five years ago, I ran from this place with nothing but a broken heart and a secret. Now, I was returning in the back of a black Rolls-Royce, flanked by the man who had turned my life into a calculated survival game."No, Liam," I whispered, glancing at the cold, stone-faced man sitting across from us. "This is just a house made of expensive rocks. Don't be afraid.""He shouldn't be afraid of his own heritage," Lucien snapped, his grey eyes fixed on Liam with a hunger that made my skin crawl. "The boy needs to get used to the scale of his future. This is the Ardent legacy.""It’s a graveyard of emotions, Lucien. Don't try to dress it up as a playground," I countered.The car stopped. The heavy doors were opened by a line of servants who stood in eerie, perfect silence. I stepped out, pulling Liam close to my side. The air here al

"Three seconds, Elowen. Cut the blue one!"Lucien’s voice was a jagged rasp against my ear. His blood-slicked hands held Liam’s head with a terrifying, statue-like stillness. The air in the ballroom was thick with the scent of ozone and the frantic, high-pitched beep-beep-beep of the timer.I didn't breathe. I couldn't afford to. My micro-forceps hovered over a hair-thin copper wire buried deep within the translucent casing of the collar. If my hand shook by a fraction of a millimeter, the pulse would trigger."If we die, Lucien, I am spending eternity making you miserable," I whispered."Count on it," he replied.I snipped the wire.The silence that followed was deafening. The red light on the collar flickered once, turned green, and then went dark. The timer stopped at 00:01.I slumped against the sofa, the adrenaline leaving my body so fast I felt physically sick. Lucien didn't waste a second. He ripped the collar off Liam’s neck and threw it across the room. He gathered our son in

The silence in the dining room was so thick it felt like it could be cut with a surgical blade. Thomas stood beside me, his hand resting possessively on my shoulder, while Lucien looked like he was ready to commit a crime in broad daylight."My wife is the majority shareholder of Vane Holdings?" Lucien’s voice was a low, dangerous rumble. He didn’t look at the documents. He looked at me, his eyes searching for a betrayal he hadn't prepared for. "How?""My father wasn't just a doctor, Lucien," I said, my voice finally finding its edge. "He was the silent partner Silas Vane spent twenty years trying to buy out. He knew Silas was a shark, so he kept his shares in a blind trust in Zurich. I didn't even know the extent of it until Thomas unsealed the will this morning.""It is a majority stake, Mr. Ardent," Thomas added, his Swiss accent smooth and cold. "Sixty-two percent. Which means the merger Silas was forcing is now entirely under Dr. Hart’s control. Including the debt the Ardent Grou

"Your father took him? Lucien, he can barely stand without a machine!"I crushed the note in my hand until the vellum turned to dust. The handwriting was slanted and weak, but the message was as sharp as a scalpel piercing my heart. Arthur has Liam. "He lied to all of us, Elowen," Lucien hissed, his face deathly pale, yet his eyes burned with a suppressed, lethal rage. "He faked his frailty to steal his grandson while we were distracted by the board's chaos.""Check every exit! Now!" I screamed, my voice piercing through the corridors of this cold, arrogant house. "He is a sick old man, Lucien! He couldn't have carried Liam past your guards alone!""He wasn't alone," Julianne said, appearing from the stairs with ragged breath, her face as white as a sheet. "The old butler... the man has been loyal to Father since before I was born. I saw them at the rooftop helipad. They’ve already flown, Lucien! Father is taking Liam to the Ardent private island in the middle of the Atlantic!"Lucien