Chapter 23: The Gilded Bait
The sound of the Patriarch’s voice through the speakerphone felt like a physical weight pressing down on the room.
Chloe held her breath, watching Damian’s reaction. His expression didn't shatter; it hardened into granite. The veins in his neck tightened as he stared at the glowing screen of his phone.
"She is not a maid, Grandfather," Damian said, his voice dropping into a dangerously calm register. "She is the mother of my child. And the engagement with Cassandra was a business transaction that no longer serves my interests."
"Your interests?!" Arthur Rossi’s laugh through the line was dry and humorless. "The Rossi empire is your interest, Damian. You threw a public grenade into a multi-billion-dollar shipping merger because of a lapse in judgment at a mas
