All Chapters of The Divorce That Ruined Him: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Nadia I took it upon myself to dig further. The town that had answered to my silent questions was small, quiet, and smelled heavily of wet sand, and old wood. I had been driving for over two hours, leaving the heavy highway traffic behind until the towering glass skyscrapers of the city vanished completely from my rearview mirror. The air down here was different. It was thick with fog and a damp chill that seemed to seep right through the floorboards of my car. I parked along the narrow, uneven gravel road, looking through the sweeping windshield wipers at the small, weathered cottage sitting near the jagged edge of the gray water. This was where Martha had lived for the last fifteen years, completely removed from the brutal politics, the endless boardroom wars, and the toxic drama of the Holt family empire. She had been our childhood nanny, the only person who had ever given Damien, Zara and me a true sense of warmth or safety when we were growing up. Our mother’s wo

Damien The house was completely dark and dead by the time I returned to my private study in the east wing. Rose had gone up to bed hours ago, completely satisfied that I was back under her absolute influence, ready to sign the emergency custody petitions her high-priced legal team had drawn up. She had smiled at me before she went upstairs, a soft, reassuring expression on her face as she gently touched my shoulder. She told me, in that quiet, steady voice of hers, that everything would finally be back to normal once the board vote was finalized. But normal was completely gone. It had died the exact second Serena looked at me in my office and asked me if I truly believed she would use our innocent son as a corporate weapon against me. It had died when I heard the raw, unscripted terror in her voice over the phone line. I sat alone at my desk, the small desk lamp casting a single, bright beam of white light across the financial spreadsheets and legal documents. The rest of the ro

SerenaThe storm had finally passed, leaving the evening air outside cold, damp, and perfectly quiet. I sat on the living room sofa, my legs pulled up tightly against my chest, my arms wrapped around my shins as I stared blankly into the empty, dark fireplace. The absolute silence of the house was suffocating, but it was nothing compared to the noise inside my own head.My conversation with Damien from earlier was still echoing endlessly through my thoughts, each word a slow-dripping poison. The raw, broken terror in his voice when he asked his final question hung over me like a physical weight, pressing the air from my lungs."Is that boy my son?"The question hadn't just been an accusation; it had been a fracturing of everything we had built, a brutal reminder of how easily the people who pull the strings could weaponize our past against us. I closed my eyes, pressing my forehead against my knees, trying to block out the memory of Damien’s desperate, searching eyes.The front doo

Serena Fray sat on the opposite side of my kitchen, his laptop open, his fingers tapping a slow beat against the counter. He had spent the last two hours tracking the land deeds linked to the 'V.H.' initials. "The paper trail is clear," Fray commented, looking up from his screen. "Rose has been trying to buy up these specific properties in secret for years to secure the Hale Group's expansion. She has no idea they belong to the V.H. estate, or that you now control them. She just knows some anonymous entity has been blocking her land acquisitions." "The board meeting is in forty-eight hours, Fray," I replied, my voice dry. "If we don't drop the Zurich logs on the committee before the vote, Rose will use every resource she has left to paint me as unstable. The press will run with it." "I know," Fray answered, shutting his laptop. "But the real wild card isn't Rose anymore. It's Damien. Now that he knows the medical files were forged and knows his son is alive, he's a loose ca

Damien I hadn't slept in hours. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Serena standing on the stone steps of her house, her face pale, her eyes filled with a cold, protective fury that cut deeper than any blade. "Choosing not to destroy me today doesn't mean I trust you with my son tomorrow." The words echoed in my head, a slow-dripping poison that I couldn't flush out. She was right. I had spent the years letting Rose mold me, letting her teach me how to look at people as assets and liabilities. I had turned my chest into a vault, and now, I was standing outside the gates of my own life, holding a key that didn't fit the lock anymore. I reached for the glass of whiskey on the desk, took a slow swallow, and set it back down. The alcohol burned my throat, but it did nothing to touch the cold knot in my stomach. I pulled my laptop closer, my fingers hovering over the keyboard. I had promised Serena I would stay away. I had promised myself I wouldn't hunt them. But the silence in