Chapter 4: The DNA Confrontation
827 Words
The air in the Presidential Suite was thick enough to choke. After the chaos at the park, Ava had retreated, dragging the children back to the hotel in a frantic blur. But she had been foolish to think the walls of the Grand Regency could keep Damian Blackwood out.
He hadn't knocked. He had simply used his influence to have the manager open the door.
Now, Damian stood in the center of the living room, looking like a man who had seen a ghost and realized the ghost had teeth. Across from him, Ava stood like a shield in front of the hallway leading to the children’s bedroom.
"Get out, Damian," Ava said, her voice a low, dangerous hiss. "You have no right to be here."
"No right?" Damian’s laugh was a hollow, jagged thing. He held a small, crumpled piece of paper in his hand a strands of mahogany hair he’d retrieved from his coat after Mia had hugged him. "I spent five years mourning a woman I thought I killed with my coldness. I spent five years looking at the ocean and wishing I was at the bottom of it with her. And all that time, you were... what? Building a life? Building an empire?"
"I was surviving!" Ava took a step forward, her eyes blazing with a fire that eclipsed his. "I was doing what you couldn't. I was protecting the life you said you didn't want. You called me a vessel, Damian. You told Cynthia I was a charity case with no spine. Did you expect me to stay and let you take my children too?"
Damian flinched as if she had physically struck him. The memory of that conversation the one he’d had in a moment of arrogant posturing came roaring back. "I was a fool. I was trying to convince myself I didn't love you because I was terrified of how much I did. But those children..." He looked toward the hallway. "They aren't just 'children,' are they? They are Blackwoods."
"They are Thornes," she corrected sharply. "They have nothing to do with you."
"We’ll see about that." Damian pulled a sterile plastic vial from his pocket. "I’ve already sent the hair samples to my private lab. The results will be ready in three hours. If they are mine, Elena"
"My name is Ava," she interrupted, her voice trembling with rage. "Elena died in that river. You killed her. This woman standing in front of you owes you nothing. Not a signature, not a child, and certainly not a second of her time."
Damian moved with a sudden, predatory grace, closing the distance between them until he was looming over her. The familiar scent of his expensive cologne sandalwood and rain invaded her senses, threatening to break her resolve. He reached out, his thumb grazing the line of her jaw.
"You can change your name, your hair, and your life," he whispered, his grey eyes searching hers with a desperate intensity. "But you can't change the way your heart races when I’m this close to you. I see it, Elena. You’re still in there."
Ava didn't pull away. She leaned in, her lips inches from his. "My heart isn't racing because of love, Damian. It’s racing because of the adrenaline of the hunt. And this time? I’m the one holding the bow."
She pushed him back, her expression turning to one of pure professional coldness. "Check your DNA. Run your tests. But remember this: even if they share your blood, they will never share your life. If you try to take them, I will use every resource, every design secret, and every bit of influence I have to dismantle Blackwood Industries brick by brick."
Damian stared at her, a strange expression crossing his face. It wasn't anger. It was... admiration. He had wanted a woman with a spine, and he had finally gotten one. But she was using that spine to stand against him.
"Three hours," Damian said, turning toward the door. "I’ll be back with the results. And then, we stop talking about architecture and start talking about our family."
As the door clicked shut, Ava sank onto the sofa, her strength finally failing her. She didn't have three hours. She needed to move.
"Liam!" she called out.
The five-year-old appeared instantly, his tablet already in hand. He looked at his mother with a solemnity that broke her heart.
"I already blocked the lab’s server," Liam said quietly. "The results won't send to his phone. But Mommy... he's going to find out eventually. He’s the Big Boss, right?"
"He’s just a man, Liam," Ava said, pulling him into her lap. "And he’s a man who doesn't know what he’s up against."
"I like his watch," Noah said, peeking from the hallway with his toy shield. "But I don't like his face. He looks like he wants to steal our toys."
"He wants to steal more than that, Noah," Ava whispered.
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