Sixty Days In The Billionaire's Arms

Chapter 11

Nate’s Pov

Victor’s voice cut through the room like a bad memory I’d tried to bury. Serena’s hand went rigid in mine, her fingers cold and tight. I stepped slightly in front of her without thinking, my body reacting before my brain caught up.

The executor cleared his throat awkwardly, but I barely heard him. All I saw was Serena’s face—pale, shocked, those green eyes wide with a mix of fear and confusion that made my chest ache.

“Get out,” I said to my father, voice low and hard. “You don’t get to walk in here and drop that on her.”

Victor smiled that same charming smile he used to fool investors back in the day. He looked older, hair more gray, but the reckless glint in his eyes hadn’t changed.

“Now, son. Is that any way to greet family? Serena, darling, you really do have your mother’s eyes. Elizabeth was something else.”

Serena sucked in a sharp breath beside me. I felt her sway a little, so I wrapped my arm around her waist, pulling her close against my side. She leaned into me, trusting, even now. “Don’t call me that,” she whispered, but her voice shook. “I don’t know you. Robert is my dad. He raised me.”

I rubbed her back slowly, trying to steady her. “He’s right, Victor. Leave. This isn’t your show. Whatever game you’re playing with Diana, it ends here.”

The executor shuffled papers, looking uncomfortable. “Mr. Calloway, Victor—your presence was requested due to the new documents. The will requires full disclosure for the clause to hold. Miss Voss, the DNA test can be arranged immediately if you consent.”

Serena looked up at me, searching my face like she needed me to make sense of this. Her free hand fisted in my shirt. “Nate… he’s saying I might be his daughter. And your mom’s will wants us to marry anyway? This is insane. I feel like I’m losing my mind.”

I turned to her fully, ignoring everyone else. Cupped her cheek with my free hand, thumb brushing her skin. She was warm, real, the only thing in this room that mattered. “Listen to me. I don’t care what some letter or blood test says. You’re the woman I kissed in the alley, the one who fell asleep on my shoulder last night. You’re Serena. My Serena. Nothing Victor did twenty-six years ago changes what I feel right now.”

Tears welled in her eyes but she blinked them back fast, the way she probably did a hundred times dealing with bills and her dad’s illness. “You keep choosing me. Even with all this mess. I don’t deserve it, Nate. Not when my existence might destroy your company.”

“You do deserve it,” I said firmly. I leaned down and kissed her right there, in front of the executor, my father, the whole damn room. It was soft, reassuring, pouring everything I couldn’t say into it.

She kissed me back, her hand coming up to my neck, holding on like I was her anchor. For those few seconds, the chaos faded. Just us.

When we pulled apart, her lips were a little swollen, cheeks flushed. “I’m so scared,” she admitted quietly, forehead against mine. “What if the test says yes? What if Robert finds out and it breaks him? What if we marry because of some will and later you resent me?”

“I won’t,” I promised. My arms tightened around her. “Sixty days was supposed to be fake. Now I want forever, Serena. Will or no will. Test or no test. We do this our way.”

Victor chuckled from across the table. “How romantic. Just like your mother, Nate—always pushing for the heart over the head. But blood doesn’t lie. Elizabeth and I… it was brief, passionate. Robert knew. He took her back anyway. Raised the girl as his own. Noble, really.”

Serena stiffened. I glared at him. “Enough. You abandoned Mom. You nearly sank the company with your deals. Don’t pretend you care about family now.”

The executor cleared his throat again. “To satisfy the clause fully, the marriage must occur within the remaining days, with full knowledge of the parentage. Otherwise, control shifts. A private lab is ready downstairs for the swab. Results in twenty-four hours.”

Serena looked at me, biting her lip. “I’ll do the test. I need to know. For Robert. For us.” Her voice was small but steady. That strength—the same one that made her jump into stormy water—hit me all over again.

I nodded and walked with her to the side room they set up. The tech was quick, professional. A swab from her cheek, one from mine for comparison, and Victor’s too, though he acted like it was beneath him.

Back in the main room, I kept her tucked against me on a small couch in the corner while we waited for the initial paperwork. “Tell me something real,” I whispered, echoing what I’d asked her at that first dinner. “Something about you and Robert. Before all this.”

She smiled faintly, relaxing a fraction into my side. “He taught me to ride a bike when I was six. Fell a dozen times but he never let me quit. Said Voss girls don’t give up. Even if I’m not really a Voss…” Her voice trailed off.

“You are,” I said. “In every way that counts. And if biology says different, we’ll tell him together. I’ll be there. No more carrying everything alone.”

She turned her face into my neck, breathing me in. “You make me want to believe in happy endings, Nate. Even now, with your dad sitting ten feet away and the company on the line. I think I’m in love with you. Not the billionaire part. Just you.”

My heart slammed hard. I tilted her chin up and kissed her again, deeper this time, not caring who saw. “I’m in love with you too. The real you. The fighter. The one who makes me feel alive after years of nothing.”

We stayed like that, whispering plans—how we’d talk to Robert, how we’d fight Diana, how the next fifty days could be ours no matter what. Her hand stayed laced with mine, thumb tracing my knuckles like she was memorizing me.

Victor approached once, trying to speak to her, but I shut him down fast. “She doesn’t need you. She has me.”

The executor returned with a folder. “Preliminary results can be expedited. But there’s another document here from Eleanor. She suspected the truth and hoped this situation would force healing. Or expose it.”

Serena sat up straighter beside me. “What does it say?”

Before he could answer, my phone rang. Marcus. I put it on speaker.

“Nate, bad news. Diana just released another story. She has copies of the letter and is claiming the engagement is incestuous cover-up. Stock’s dropping. And Robert Voss is on his way to the office—he heard the rumors.”

Serena gasped. “Dad…”

I stood, pulling her up with me. “We’re coming now.”

As we rushed out, Victor called after us, “The truth always comes out, kids. Better face it.”

In the elevator, Serena pressed close, face buried in my chest. “What if the test confirms it? What if Dad gets here and everything explodes at once?”

I held her tight, kissing the top of her head. “Then we stand together. I love you, Serena. That’s real.”

The doors opened to the lobby. Robert was already there, supported by a cane, face stormy. But behind him, Diana stood with a triumphant grin, holding up her phone showing live news coverage.

And next to her, a lab tech from upstairs approached us fast, envelope in hand.

“Mr. Calloway, Miss Voss—the results are back early. You need to see this.”