Claimed by Three Billionaires

Chapter 2 — Julian’s POV

I don’t usually lose my temper. It’s a silent rule I learned as a child, surrounded by men who punished the smallest mistake. They trained me to lead, to command, to endure. But when I saw her standing in the doorway of that shabby shelter, her image hit me like a bullet to the chest.

Selene.

I hadn’t seen her since her parents’ funeral. Back then she was fragile — too elegant for her age, too quiet not to be broken. But today… today was different. It no longer hurt just to look at her. It hurt to imagine everything she must have endured to end up like this.

“Did my cousin send you?” she asked as she stepped toward me.

She wore a gray sweatshirt that hung off her like it wasn’t hers, worn jeans, and poorly applied makeup that couldn’t hide the small scar by her left eye. And yet she was still beautiful — as if even misery refused to erase her completely.

“Did Nathan send you?” she insisted. Her voice wasn’t steady; it was tight and dry.

I lied without hesitation.

“Yes. He asked me to come for you.”

He hadn’t. He wouldn’t. Nathan didn’t want to see her, and try as I might, I never understood why.

Selene looked at me as if unsure whether to run or stay. Her distrust was as strong as her surprise. Finally, she nodded.

“We should go,” I said.

She didn’t answer. She held her son with that silent desperation of someone who has lost everything but that. Her body seemed to be kept upright only by the force with which she pressed him to her chest. I couldn’t stop looking at her. Her gaze was empty, as if her soul had cracked and only the instinct to be a mother remained.

Once in the car, she spoke.

“Can we come back later? I want to say goodbye to Roxy… she’s the one who helped me get here.”

“Of course,” I said, lying again. I had no intention of allowing her to return to that place.

She settled into the seat, exhausted.

“Thank you for coming,” she murmured in a voice so low I barely heard it. “I knew Nathan still cared.”

I tightened my grip on the wheel. The truth rose in me, but I swallowed it.

You don’t know anything.

“Are you hungry? We can stop for something to eat.”

“I don’t want to trouble you. I can make do with whatever’s at Nathan’s place. As a thank you.”

“Nathan isn’t in the United States,” I said. “He traveled to Japan.”

She looked down — nervous, hurt — and didn’t press the matter. The truth was crueler than any explanation: Nathan had erased her from his life without giving reasons. And I… I had tired of waiting for him to act.

“What’s his name?” I asked, even though I already knew.

“Theo. He’s nine months. He’s… my whole life.”

I looked at the baby. He had Edmund Ravenshire’s eyes — that bastard’s eyes. But the hair… the hair was Selene’s. Dark brown, soft, the same hair I used to tug when I teased her as a child. It was a trivial detail, but it disarmed me.

“He looks like you,” I murmured.

She nodded but didn’t smile. Sadness filled her face again, and jealousy swelled in me. That baby, that place by her side… they should have been mine. I was the one who saw her first. Who wanted her first. But we made a foolish pact — Grayson, Ethan, and I: none of the three of us would touch Selene. None would get close. Out of respect, out of loyalty, out of friendship. Now I hated myself for keeping that pact.

“Shall we pick up diapers and milk for him?” I asked, trying to shake my thoughts.

“Just diapers. Theo breastfeeds.”

The air left my lungs. I hadn’t expected that. I hadn’t imagined… that.

“Are you going to… breastfeed him here?”

“Only if I have to. It’ll be a few minutes, and I have something to cover with,” she said, showing a blanket with the same calm someone uses to talk about the weather.

“You don’t have to explain.”

But she did. Inside me, I was losing clarity. I couldn’t stop imagining her skin, her chest, her mouth soothing that child. It wasn’t desire that ran through me; it was a knot of tenderness, rage, and something deeper I couldn’t name.

“I know some men feel uncomfortable,” she added, glancing at me. “But if I don’t feed him when he needs it, he gets out of control. And believe me, it’s not a show. It’s just… what he needs.”

I nodded without saying anything. I felt clumsy and out of place — a state I never experienced.

We entered the store. Barely through the door, Theo began to cry. I tensed; I wasn’t prepared for that sound. It was foreign to my world of offices, contracts, and decisions, but when Selene cradled him and soothed him with that serene patience that seemed otherworldly, something inside me shifted. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

Back in the car, she asked for a moment.

She arranged herself carefully, took out the blanket, and began to feed Theo. I stayed still. It wasn’t the thought of her bare chest that left me breathless this time. It was her expression — the peace, the tenderness, the strength of their bond.

The image of a woman who had survived hell… and still found the capacity to love.

When she finished, Theo slept soundly. Selene held him gently and looked at me.

“Thank you for coming,” she whispered. “And thank you for paying for the things. I don’t know what I would have done if—”

“You’re safe now,” I interrupted. I couldn’t bear to hear her finish that sentence.

I started the engine but didn’t move. I stared at the road, feeling the weight of what needed to be done settle on me. There was much to arrange: a crib, tiny clothes, a stroller, a baby bath, maybe one of those mobiles that spin above a crib. None of those were in my knowledge, but I would learn.

I would be a better father to Theo than his biological father. That I was sure of.

I just had to convince his mother that she belonged to me.

How hard could that be?