~ Seraphina ~
The heavy oak door click-locked with a finality that made the air in the conference room feel instantly thin. Outside, the muffled sounds of the board meeting’s conclusion—the scraping of chairs, the polite hum of corporate networking—faded into a suffocating, artificial silence. Lucien didn't move to sit. He stood by the expansive glass table, his silhouette sharp against the city skyline, the kind of calm that told me he thought he’d already won.
“Adrian’s going to use the pregnancy against you, if he found out fully” he said. His voice was flat, devoid of the usual boardroom performativity. It wasn't a warning; it was a cold statement of fact. “He’ll claim it’s his. Then he’ll destroy your credibility in court and take custody. That’s his play.”
The words hit me with th
