THE BILLIONAIRE’S HIDDEN HEIR

The war begins

Calla Monroe’s POV

The silence was the worst part.

It pressed against my skin, heavy, suffocating, until every creak of the old floorboards sounded like footsteps and every shadow seemed to carry his shape.

Damian was gone. I knew it. I had heard the low purr of the engine fade into the distance. And yet… I could still feel him. His voice lingered in the air like smoke after a fire, clinging to me, crawling under my skin.

“You’ll open the door yourself.”

The words echoed until my stomach twisted.

I pressed a shaking hand against my chest, forcing myself to breathe.

Lucas.

The thought steadied me, like a rope thrown into a storm.

I turned toward his room, my heart squeezing when I saw him curled up in his bed, clutching that worn-out stuffed wolf he’d carried since he was a baby. His little chest rose and fell in steady rhythm, blissfully unaware that the man who haunted my nightmares had been just a wall away.

I crouched beside him, brushing a strand of dark hair from his forehead. My beautiful boy. My reason.

If Damian ever found out the truth—

No. I couldn’t let myself think that far.

I had built this fragile life brick by brick, lie by lie, and all it would take was one crack for him to destroy everything.

My mind spun through every possibility, every escape route. Could we run again? Pack bags, disappear before dawn? But where would we go? How long before he found us? Damian Vale didn’t chase. He hunted. And hunters always found their prey.

My throat tightened.

Leaving wasn’t enough anymore.

I had to fight.

The thought chilled me, because I wasn’t a fighter. I had never been one. But motherhood does strange things—it hardens your bones, sharpens your claws. And if Damian wanted to play his twisted games, then he would learn that I wasn’t the same girl who once believed his promises.

I was a mother now.

And a mother with nothing left to lose is the most dangerous creature of all.

I leaned down, kissing Lucas’s temple. “I’ll keep you safe,” I whispered into the dark. “I swear it.”

Even if it meant facing Damian head-on.

Even if it meant tearing open wounds I had spent years trying to stitch closed.

Because no lock, no wall, no lie would hold forever.

He had made that clear tonight.

And the only way to survive… was to stop running.