Chapter 4 ACCUSATIONS

Elena opened the door just wide enough to sneak through, walking onto the narrow concrete porch with her arms crossed tightly across her breast. Behind her, the dim illumination of the living room lamp danced through the drapes. She pushed the door almost shut behind her, leaving barely an inch of space enough to hear if Lily called, but not enough for anybody to look inside.

Damian stood like a shadow etched in stone, too tall, too controlled, and too cold.

He didn't flinch at the sight of her.

"What do you want?" she questioned, her voice shaking from the effort it required not to shake. She hated that he could see it. Hated even more that she cared.

Damian didn't waste a second. "I want to know what the hell is going on."

Elena held his look, but it cost her. Her stomach wrenched with sickness and wrath. "I don't owe you an explanation."

"You ran," he remarked plainly. "At the school. You spotted me, and you grabbed her and bolted like a criminal. That's hardly the behavior of an innocent woman."

"No," Elena muttered. "It's the behavior of a terrified mother."

His eyes narrowed. Just slightly. But enough to register.

Damian's jaw tightened as he stepped closer. "Then tell me. Tell me why my son was holding hands with a female that looks exactly like him. Tell me why she looks just like you."

Her breath caught. The way he said it. It wasn't a question. It was an allegation already wrapped in certainty.

"You were the surrogate," he whispered, studying her like a hawk.

"Yes," she answered, her voice scarcely louder than the wind around them.

His stare sank into her, examining her features like they held a code he'd been trying to break for years. "You were only supposed to carry one child."

"That's what you were told," she replied gently, folding her arms tighter, pressing her fingertips into her ribs like she could hold herself together that way.

Damian's eyes darkened. "Are you telling me the agency lied?"

"I'm telling you..." Her throat constricted. She blinked quickly, but it didn't stop the sting behind her eyes. "They told me one of the babies died. I held Lily, but they told the boy didn't make it. I pleaded to see him. I wasn't even conscious for most of it. There was blood everywhere. I thought" She broke off, voice cracking. "I thought he was gone."

Damian said nothing.

He didn't even blink.

The hush weighed in on her, thicker than the concrete under their feet.

"Do you think I'm making this up?" She snapped, rage rising like a defense. "You think I took one of the babies and disappeared for fun?"

"You took a child that legally wasn't yours," he said, each syllable like ice shattering across a frozen lake. "You broke the contract."

"I didn't take anyone!" Elena's voice raised with wrath and dismay. "I was lied to. I almost died giving birth to them. They gave me Lily because she was weak. They worried she wouldn't live. They didn't want her. They let me walk out of that hospital and never looked back."

His stare didn't budge. "So you admit she's mine."

The words struck between them like a bomb. The air moved. Quieter. Thinner.

Elena inhaled shakily, like the truth had been rotting inside her lungs for five years.

"Yes," she whispered. "She's yours. And she's mine. Just like Caleb."

His breath hitched, slightly. For the first time, his gaze faltered, glancing away for the briefest second. A crack in all that steel.

When he looked back at her, something behind his eyes had moved. Not softened. But flickered.

Then he straightened again, all business. All power. "You're going to take a DNA test. Immediately."

No," Elena responded hastily, shaking her head. "I won't let you put her through that without a court order."

His eyes blazed. "Then I'll get one."

"She's sick," Elena snapped. "She's had open-heart surgery. You have no idea what she's been through. Stress is bad for her. I won't allow you turn this into a circus."

Damian's lip twisted. "It's already a war, Elena. You simply fired the first shot."

"I'm protecting my daughter," she continued, fists shaking at her sides.

"And I'm protecting my son."

That hit strangely.

A sharp, unseen line snapped taut between them.

Her. Him. Lily. Caleb.

Two children. One hidden life.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. They just stood there. Breathing hard, stuck in place, strangers joined by a betrayal neither of them caused... but both were living in the aftermath of.

Elena gazed at him. Really looked.

Behind his pristine blazer and thousand-dollar shoes was a guy unraveling. His control wasn't as absolute as he pretended. There was wrath in him but also pain.

And she felt the exact same storm inside her.

"I don't know what you think you'll get out of this," she added, her voice lower now. "But I will not let you take her from me."

Damian didn't answer.

Instead, he reached inside the inside pocket of his coat and drew out a folded sheet.

"Then I suggest you find a lawyer," he urged, shoving the document into her hand like it hurt him. "You're going to need one."

She stared at it, frozen, unwilling to open it at first.

He turned and went away.

Long, deliberate steps.

Straight-backed, accurate, like he hadn't just destroyed the ground beneath her feet.

But her hands were already shaking before she unfurled the page.

The seal at the top was unmistakable.

Family Court of Manhattan.

Her vision swam as she read the heading: Petition for Emergency Custody Review and Court-Ordered Paternity Test.

Filed this morning.

He hadn't only come here to obtain answers.

He'd already chosen to take her to battle.

When she looked up again, Damian was at the edge of the walkway, getting into a black SUV, the door locking behind him with a final, ruthless click.

She stood transfixed in the chilly wind, paper crumpling in her fist, her kid just outside the door, coloring magnificent castles with pink crayons and no idea that her entire existence was on the edge of being torn apart.

And still, somehow, Elena knew:

This wasn't the end.

It was just the beginning.