جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 10

After Cassia left, I sat in what was left of the funeral hall. The tears would not stop.I gathered every grain of my father's ashes I could find. I drove him to the grave myself. I buried him quickly. I did not want those two coming back.That night, Stella's message came.[Tomorrow. Be here.]My face tightened. I printed the divorce papers and went to bed.I drove out to Stella and Hudson's villa in the morning. The gate was locked.Before I could knock, Stella's voice came through the speaker on the gate."Kneel there and wait for Hudson to wake up and apologize. You ignored my message last night. Hudson is upset."I kept my face expressionless. "Do you think I'm that cheap? I'm here to sign the divorce papers."The gate opened. Several of her staff rushed out and pinned me to the ground.They sneered."She told you to kneel, so kneel. You don't get up until Hudson wakes."She said you wouldn't bring the ashes, so she sent people to dig up the grave early this morning…"

Her eyes went venomous. She spoke slowly, making sure I heard every word."Letting my son use his ashes as a potty was already giving him face. If it weren't for you, I would have fed his ashes to the dogs.""What... what did you say?"My voice trembled. I could hardly believe my ears.Hudson walked over, arms folded, then hooked an arm around Stella."Damon, if it weren't for your father, Zane would have been aborted long ago."His eyes reddened. "When Stella was pregnant, your father used the excuse of bringing soup to visit her, but he put abortion drugs in it.""If I hadn't discovered it in time, Zane would already be…"I clenched my teeth, cutting him off."Impossible. My father would never do something like that."My father was the gentlest man I had ever known. Even when he found out Stella had cheated and was carrying another man's child, he only said to me, calm but firm, "Just divorce her. You and I will live our own lives."He had never once thought of harming a

Cassia took in the room with one look. Glass on the carpet. Stella over me. Me on the floor, holding the urn.She did not slow down. She crossed the room in three steps. She caught Stella's arm in that half-second of confusion, then pulled the urn out of her hands.She moved into Stella's space. Stella swung at her. Cassia caught it.I did not wait. I clamped my arms around the urn and crawled, hands and knees, glass under me, out to the SUV. I yanked the back door open and folded into the seat."Cassia! Now!"Cassia broke off cleanly and got into the driver's seat. The SUV sped out of the villa as Stella and Hudson shouted after us.She drove me to one of her places.The moment I stepped inside, I lost control. I held the urn to my chest and sobbed.If I had not been blind back then… if I had not insisted on marrying Stella… none of this would have happened to my father.He had already suffered so much.And even after death… he still couldn't be spared this humiliation.It

The room shifted.The shareholders who had been sitting on Stella's side of the table stopped looking at her.Stella took half a step back. She had to brace herself on the edge of the table to stay on her feet. She stared at me. The look on her face held too many emotions to name–anger, unwillingness, envy, and, most of all, fear.She had never imagined that the man she had once toyed with and humiliated would one day stand before her like this, strong enough to crush everything she was proud of."Fake. This has to be fake."Damon, you think a forged contract can fool everyone?"I let out a cold laugh."Whether it's real or not, the room can decide."I tapped the table lightly, my gaze sharp."As the largest shareholder of Vance Group, I propose we reopen today's agenda."First item, removal of Stella Vance from all positions within Vance Group."The boardroom doors closed heavily behind me.I let out a long breath.With Cassia's help, I had won the first crucial battle.

Stella drove a fist into a tree near the courtyard.A few minutes earlier, watching me with Cassia, something had moved in her that she had not been able to name. She had walked over with the half-formed thought that if I knelt, she might actually forgive me.She had been forty percent of the way to forgiving the man whose father she had publicly defiled.She drove home with her face burning.The villa was dark. The only sound was a low, careful voice coming from the upstairs bedroom.She walked up the stairs barefoot.Hudson's voice came through the door. He was talking to someone she could not see."What do we do? The kid is starting to look like neither one of us. She'll figure it out."Not his?Stella's stomach dropped.What?The words echoed in her head and burned. The blood drained from her hands. Her body went rigid.Hudson kept talking."I tried everything to get her pregnant. Nothing worked. Turns out I can't father a child."So I took advantage of that night whe