The Billionaire’s Secret Baby

4

The boardroom was suffocatingly silent, everyone seated at the long glass table held their breath and at the head of it stood Raven Fox.

His gaze was fixed on the quarterly projections displayed on the screen, his expression was flat, but the tension in the room said everything.

“This…” he said slowly, “is pathetic.”

No one moved.

The head of finance shifted uncomfortably, and another director avoided eye contact. No one dared speak.

“You were given clear direction,” Raven continued, his voice calm but cutting. “And this,” he gestured toward the screen, “….is what you came back with?”

His eyes swept across the room. “Do I look like someone who entertains failure?” “N-no, sir,” one of them stammered.

Raven raised a brow. The man immediately shrank back into his chair. “You have forty-eight hours,” Raven said flatly. “Fix it. Or I will replace you with someone who can.”

The meeting was over.

He turned and walked out, the room practically parting for him. No one spoke until the door shut behind him. Only then did they breathe again.

Out on the office floor, it was a different kind of tension.

And yet. As he passed by the office floor, whispers followed, admiring glances trailed him, mostly from women…interns, assistants, even senior managers. They stared, mouth slightly parted, lips bitten.

Raven didn't just walk, he owed the place he entered. Like a god or a demon in a good suit, but behind the sharp jawline and steel gaze was a man, clearly bored.

He stepped into the elevator alone, pressed the first floor and exhaled slowly. His reflection stared back at him from the gold-trimmed doors.

Only now, there was nothing left in his eyes.

When he walked through the lobby, the security stood straighter as he passed. He didn't even glance their way.

Inside the sleek Aston Martin, he tossed his phone onto the passenger seat and gripped the wheel. The leather creaked under his fingers. He just wanted the day to end.

His phone buzzed.

Aaron came on the screen, he stared at the screen for a second before answering.

“Yeah?”

“Yo! You sound like you just killed someone, ” Aaron joked.

“ Maybe I did. ”

A small chuckle from the other end, “Anyway, I was calling to see if you're coming to the old reunion next weekend. You know…. High school nostalgia, same dumb faces.”

“ I'm not interested. ”

“ Come on, man… ”

“Don’t call me about things like this again,” he said flatly.

His voice was still calm, not rude, but distant enough to close the door. “Aaron cleared his throat, "I mean... I just thought, since she's back.”

He paused, Raven blinked slowly.

“What do you mean?”

“ I heard she is back in town. Hazel,” Aaron continued. “And there is something else you need to know…” He paused.

“Speak!” Raven ordered impatiently.

“She’s back with a child!”

The sentence rang in his chest like a bullet, but despite that, there was no change in his tone when he replied… Just one sentence.

“I'll be there. ” Then he hung up. For a minute he sat still, a child? Could it be?… His lips curled into a dark, humorless chuckle, it was the laugh of a man whose pain had festered long enough to become something dangerous.