CHAPTER 9: You Don't Get To Take Him
611 Words
The silence between them the next morning was sharp enough to bleed.
Arielle stood in the kitchen, clutching a mug like it might anchor her.
Damon sat at the table, reviewing contracts. Cold. Composed. Unbothered.
But beneath the surface?
Everything was fractured.
Finally, she spoke.
“You’re quiet.”
“I’m thinking.”
“About?”
He looked up—expression unreadable.
“Custody.”
The mug slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor.
She stared at him.
“What did you say?”
Damon rose, slow and deliberate. “You kept Ezra from me for four years. I’m just… leveling the field.”
Her breath hitched. “You’re going to take me to court?”
“No,” he said. “I’m going to win in court.”
(Law Offices of Black & Associates)
“Full custody?” the lawyer asked, eyebrows raised.
Damon didn’t flinch. “Joint on paper. Control in practice.”
“She’s the biological mother.”
“She lied. She ran. That’s abandonment.”
The lawyer hesitated. “This could turn ugly.”
Damon’s eyes were like stone.
“It already is.”
Back at the Apartment… Arielle clutched Ezra’s drawing, tears falling onto the paper.
She’d let him in.
She told the truth.
And now?
He was weaponizing it.
She heard the front door open.
And she turned like a storm.
“You can’t do this,” she snapped.
“I already filed the papers.”
“Damon, he’s not your property!”
“No,” he said. “He’s my blood.”
She slapped him.
Hard.
Silence.
His jaw ticked, but he didn’t react.
Instead, he stepped closer, eyes burning with cold fire.
“You want to hate me, Arielle?” he whispered. “Do it. But you don’t get to erase me again. Not from his life. Not from yours.”
She trembled.
“You think this is love?” she said. “This is control.”
He smiled bitterly.
“I told you. I don’t love. I own.”
Meanwhile… Veronica stood in the news studio hallway, holding a USB drive.
“Are you sure about this?” the anchor asked her.
She smiled like poison.
“Oh, I’m not just sure. I’m done waiting.”
Later That Day…
The television flickered in the background while Arielle held Ezra, trying to keep it together.
Until her name appeared on the screen.
“BREAKING: Billionaire’s Assistant Linked to Secret Baby Scandal”
Her face.
Ezra’s name.
Photos of her old college records.
The segment said:
“Sources confirm Arielle Quinn gave birth four years ago and concealed the child from his billionaire father, Damon Black. Is this a calculated move for inheritance?”
Arielle’s stomach dropped.
Ezra looked up, confused. “Mama?”
And all she could whisper was,
“Oh God… they found us.”
Meanwhile…
Damon watched the same broadcast from his office.
He didn’t speak.
He didn’t move.
He just crushed his whiskey glass in one hand.
That Night...
Veronica called Vivienne.
“I did what you wouldn’t.”
Vivienne was silent for a beat.
Then she said coldly,
“You just declared war.”
At Arielle’s Apartment...
Damon knocked once.
She opened the door. Barely breathing.
He held up the custody papers.
But his voice was calm.
“I’m pulling the case.”
She blinked. “Why?”
“Because if anyone’s going to ruin you, Arielle…”
He stepped closer.
“…it won’t be on her terms.”
She stared at him, shaking.
“You’re still going to ruin me?”
He leaned in, lips barely an inch from hers.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
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