His Billionaire Heir

CHAPTER 3

The bakery was too quiet, more quieter the next morning. Too small.

Isabella cleaned the countertops again and again for the third time even though they were already shining.

She couldn't get rid of the tight pressure in her chest, the memory of Ethan's voice still ringing in her ear.

You took away my son.

The words wouldn't stop echoing, tearing her heart apart.

"Mommy?"

She looked down.

Noah was sitting in a stool behind the counter with both of his legs in the air, his little backpack on the floor beside the stool.

He had requested to go to the bakery as soon as the school opened.

Usually, she would not have allowed him, but she could not bear to be separated from him even for a second after last night's encounter.

"Yes, baby?"

"Why was that man looking at me like that? The one yesterday."

Noah's grey eyes bore into hers

Ethan's eyes, pure but perceptive in their own way.

Isabella's throat constricted.

She knelt before him, so their eyes could meet.

"He's... someone Mommy once knew a long time ago."

"Is he my daddy?"

The question hit hard like a rock.

Noah's voice was low, inquiring, but it sliced through Isabella's heart.

Her lips quivered.

She opened her mouth to reach for words…..lies, truths, any words that could save her child. But the jingle of the bell over the bakery door interrupted her.

The world stopped again.

Ethan stood in the doorway. Again.

His presence wasn't a surprise this time. She had waited for him. Feared him.

Yet nothing could lessen the effect of gazing at him….broad shoulders claiming the space, his suit impeccable, his eyes stormy and fixed on hers as if he not only owned the room but the very air she breathed.

Noah leaned forward on the stool. "It's him," he said softly, not haggard, but possessing the odd awe that only a kid could possess.

Ethan's eyes met Noah's for a beat, then were ripped back to Isabella. He walked toward her with the same lethal stride that had made him an urban legend - made him a legend in her own mind.

"We need to speak," he murmured in a deep tone.

"Not here," Isabella rasped, launching out of her chair so quickly that her knees nearly buckled.

She stopped to look at Noah, her pulse hammering against her ribs. "Not in front of him. ".

Ethan clenched his jaw. She expected him to push, to challenge, to tear a confession from her right there - but, instead, he gave one curt nod.

"Tonight. After you finish. ".

It wasn't a request.

Isabella's heart dropped, but she held himself still, buoyed on the strength of the air all around him. She had to do right by Noah. If nothing else, she had to keep Ethan's dark leaking from their lives.

Ethan turned his back and walked away, and the weight of the room lightened. But her heart hurt, and Noah looked up at her with his brows knitted together.

"Mommy," he said softly. "I think he is my daddy. ".

The hours dragged. Each cupcake iced, each order filled, each smile smeared on her face…..it was a blur.

Isabella's hands worked mechanically, but her mind reeled.

By the time she flipped the sign to Closed, her heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

And there he was.

Ethan was waiting outside, leaning against a sleek black car that gleamed in the streetlights.

He wasn't drumming his foot. He wasn't pacing. He simply stood with the calm assurance of a man who knew he would get what he had come for.

Isabella shut the door behind her, putting her keys into her pocket as she stepped into the cool night air.

Where's your son?" Ethan's voice was smooth, but an undercurrent was present.

"With Mrs. Henderson," Isabella answered, her throat dry. "She's babysitting for the evening."

"Good."

He stepped back from the car and closed the space between them in a few swift steps. Up close, the effect of him was overwhelming—his scent, clean and sharp; the warmth of his body; the storm of his presence.

Now you can tell me," he said. "Why the hell you kept him from me."

Her stomach tightened. She looked away, gazing at the darkened street instead of his piercing gaze. "It wasn't that easy."

"It never is, is it?" His voice dipped lower, threatening. "You left me, Isabella. You disappeared. And now I find out you didn't just leave me…..you took my son with you.".

Her head snapped back to him, her eyes flashing with anger. "Your son? Don't you even try to make this about possession. You weren't there, Ethan. You weren't the man who stayed up all night when he was sick. You weren't the man who taught him to tie his shoes, or who held him when he had nightmares."

Ethan's jaw tightened, his chest rising with pent-up anger. "Because you never gave me the chance."

Isabella's breath caught. His words hurt, and she was shaken. She had expected anger, maybe even threats. She had not expected the exposed wound beneath his voice.

She turned away, blinking fast, forcing herself not to fall apart. "You wouldn't have wanted this. You wouldn't have wanted him."

His hand shot out, closing around her arm…..not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to stop her withdrawal. "Say that to my face," he ordered.

Her eyes lifted unwillingly. His storm-grey eyes locked with hers, implacable, blazing.

And she couldn't do it.

Because in that moment, she saw the truth in his face—the same truth she had seen years ago when she first fell into his world. Beneath the power and control, Ethan Blackwood was a man who felt everything too deeply.

“Damn it, Isabella,” he whispered, his voice cracking just slightly. “He’s mine. And I’m not letting him go.”

Her heart shattered. She wrenched her arm free, her voice fracturing. "You don't get to sweep back into my life and attempt to lay claim to him like he's some sort of business deal. He's not a contract you can sign. He's a little boy with feelings—my little boy—and I won't allow you to hurt him."

Hurt him?" Ethan's tone sliced keener, his face hardening to granite. "The one whose hurt him is you. By keeping him from his father."

The words cut deep. She flinched, biting back tears that stung at the corners of her eyes.

There was a long, strained moment of silence between them, broken only by the far-off hum of the city.

Finally, Ethan pulled away, his control snapping back into place. His eyes were steel now, expressionless.

"I'll give you until tomorrow," he said, freezing cold. "Tell him the truth, or I will."

Then he turned and slid into his car, the engine roaring to life. The black car pulled away, and Isabella was left alone in the darkness, trembling.

Her chest rose and fell unevenly. The weight of his ultimatum bore down on her shoulders.

She'd fought for years to protect Noah. But now Ethan had found them. And nothing would ever be the same again.

Isabella wrapped her arms around herself, shivering as the night air seemed to tighten around her.

And in the deepest part of her chest, a part of her knew—this was only the beginning.