Chapter 5

Augustus Winters POV:

The world spun. My meticulously ordered universe imploded. My granddaughter. Aisha. The girl I had just seen crumpled on a hospital bed, abandoned and forgotten, was my son' s child. My blood.

The doctor' s words hammered in my head, echoing the conversation I had just had. "Mr. Winters, our preliminary paternity tests on Christopher and Kaylee Phillips show no biological relation. Further, medical records from Deborrah Rose' s hospital stay five years ago confirmed that Christopher Winters was effectively sterile due to a childhood illness... We had an old blood sample from your son on file. And the full genetic profile of Aisha Henderson, taken just yesterday... it' s an undeniable match, Mr. Winters. Aisha is Christopher' s biological daughter."

No. It couldn't be. All those years. All the effort to distance Christopher from Deborrah' s "trailer trash" past, to make sure he had a proper heir with a proper woman. And all along, the rightful heir, my own granddaughter, had been suffering under our roof, treated worse than a stray animal.

"Turn the car around!" I roared at my driver, my voice shaking with a tremor I couldn't control.

My assistant, sitting beside me, looked confused. "Sir? The gala begins in an hour. Doria is expecting us."

"Damn the gala!" I snapped, my eyes fixed on the retreating form of Aisha, being led into an unmarked social services vehicle. My granddaughter. My blood. "Find her! Find Aisha! Get me her location, now!"

The driver, startled by my ferocity, executed a sharp U-turn, tires squealing. We sped back towards the hospital, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs.

We burst into the emergency room. "Where is she? Where is Aisha Henderson?" I demanded of the first nurse I saw.

The kind nurse from earlier, her face now etched with concern, recognized me. "Mr. Winters! I tried to contact your family. Aisha was discharged. The social worker just took her. To foster care."

My stomach dropped. Foster care. Because of us. Because of Doria' s cruel rejection. A wave of gut-wrenching regret washed over me, so potent it stole my breath. I had been so blind. So utterly foolish.

"Find her," I choked out, turning to my assistant. "Use every resource. Whatever it takes. Find my granddaughter."

My phone buzzed. It was Kaylee. Her shrill voice grated on my nerves. "Grandpa! Where are you? The party' s starting! And Christopher said you were bringing me my special present!"

My assistant, ever practical, gently reminded me. "Sir, Doria is already upset... and the investors are all present. It could be detrimental to the company if you don't show up."

My fists clenched. The party. The gilded cage of my own making. I had to go. But I would not forget. "Fine," I bit out. "But get me updates every five minutes. And tell that social worker Aisha is not to be moved without my explicit instruction. Not an inch."

The mansion was ablaze with light. Music drifted lazily from the grand ballroom. Guests mingled, their laughter tinkling like crystal. Doria met me at the entrance, her face a mask of disapproval.

"Augustus, you' re late," she chided, her voice sharp. "And looking like you' ve just wrestled a bear. This is a celebration, not a funeral."

Before I could reply, Kaylee darted forward, her face alight. "Grandpa! My present! Where is it?" She held up a small, velvet box. "Christopher said you picked it out! Is it the diamond pendant?"

My eyes, still reeling from the revelation about Aisha, flickered to the box. Then to Kaylee' s greedy, expectant face. It was the ancestral pendant. The one passed down through generations of Winters women. My mother' s, then Doria' s. It was meant for my rightful heir. For Aisha.

A cold rage, unlike anything I had ever felt, simmered within me. This gilded prison. These shallow, grasping creatures. They had stolen my granddaughter' s birthright, her love, her very identity, and given it to this... this pretender.

Kaylee, oblivious, chattered on. "And Aisha, that awful girl, she' s gone, right? Christopher said she tried to make Mom sick again. She' s such a nuisance. Always interfering. I told her she' s just trash."

The words, so casually cruel, hit me with the force of a physical blow. Trash. My granddaughter. Treated as trash. While this parasitic child reaped the rewards. A wave of nausea, sharper than any I had felt in years, swept over me. The opulent ballroom, with its glittering chandeliers and smiling faces, suddenly felt suffocating. Every laugh, every clink of crystal, a mockery.

Kaylee, noticing my silence, continued to prattle, tearing open the velvet box with gusto. She gasped in delight as the diamonds glittered. "Oh, it' s beautiful! Thank you, Grandpa! You always get me the best things!"

Doria beamed. "Such a perfect fit for our little princess. A true Winters, through and through."

My vision blurred. Augustus's face was pale, his jaw tight. He watched as Kaylee, preening, turned to a passing servant. "Take this dog bowl away immediately! It's been near... her. I don't want it in my sight. Disgusting."

The young servant, flustered, stammered, "But, Miss Kaylee, this is for Zeus, not-"

"I said take it!" Kaylee shrieked, her face contorting with petulant rage. "And everything she touched! Burn it! Destroy it! I don't want any of her filth here! She ruined everything!"

A low growl rumbled in my chest. It wasn't the sound of a man. It was the sound of a patriarch, pushed to his absolute breaking point.

"ENOUGH!" I roared. The single word sliced through the laughter, the music, the polite hum of conversation. Silence fell, thick and immediate, like a velvet curtain dropping. Every head in the ballroom turned. Every eye was on me.