He maintained the posture that trapped me in his embrace, not even glancing at Sally or Finch. Those deep black eyes were fixed solely on my face, which had turned pale from fear. His arms were as hard as steel, firmly enclosing me in his world. Then, with an unyielding demeanor, he turned around, carrying me, and strode back to the small cabin that was supposed to be my safe haven but had now become a courtroom.

Sally and Finch instinctively followed, their faces filled with heavy worry and confusion. The pale light inside the cabin cast a cold frost-like layer on everyone's faces. Damian did not place me on the sofa but directly seated me on the only seemingly sturdy single chair. He stood before me like a mountain, his massive shadow completely enveloping me.


The two subdued thugs were dragged in by Damian's bodyguards like dead dogs and roughly thrown onto the floor. They trembled, their faces covered in snot and tears, with none of their previous arrogance remaining. "Speak," one of the black-clad bodyguards said, his voice as cold as ice. "Who told you to do this?"

One of the thugs was so terrified he nearly fainted, his teeth chattering as he babbled incoherently, "It was… it was Miss Victoria! Miss Sterling! She gave us money, told us to… to create an accident, to make the lady slip… She said… it would be best if she miscarried…"

Victoria Sterling.


The name slithered like a venomous snake into my ears, instantly injecting ice-cold poison throughout my body. I jerked my head up, glaring fiercely at the man still trembling on the floor, my nails digging deeply into my palms. It was her. It was actually her. The woman who had humiliated me in the gallery, the one who played the role of the perfect fiancée in front of Damian—she actually wanted to kill my child. A mix of nausea and fury surged within me, threatening to consume me entirely.

The room fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the muffled sobs of the thug. Sally and Finch’s faces turned ashen, their gazes filled with a mix of fear and rage—rage that wasn’t solely directed at Victoria but seemed to carry a deeper, more complex emotion as well.


Yet, none of their reactions could compare to the man standing in front of me.

The moment I heard the word "abortion," I clearly felt the air pressure around Damian plummet to freezing point. It was a tangible, suffocating aura of terror, as if even the air had congealed. Slowly, ever so slowly, he lowered his eyelids. Those black eyes, which had just been flashing with arrogance and disdain, now resembled two bottomless icy pools, churning with a black storm capable of destroying everything in its path.

He didn’t utter a single word to the thug, nor did he glance at the two men who were already completely petrified. His gaze, piercing through the layers of air like the sharpest surgical knives, meticulously dissected me piece by piece. My pretense, my strength, my lies—under his bone-chilling scrutiny, they were stripped bare, leaving me utterly exposed and defenseless.

Time seemed to stretch infinitely at that moment. I could hear my own heart pounding like a drum and feel the icy rush of blood through my veins. The room was eerily quiet, so quiet that I could even hear the sound of my own nervous swallow.

Then, he moved. He leaned slightly forward, his breathtakingly handsome face drawing closer to mine. The scent of tobacco and cold intensity that surrounded him enveloped me once again. He raised his hand, his calloused fingertips gently, almost tenderly, brushing against my cheek. The cold touch made me shiver uncontrollably.

"Child…"

His voice came from above me, hoarse as if it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper. Each word carried a heavy, irresistible force, striking my heart with brutal weight.

"Is it mine?"

This question, the one I had evaded for countless days and nights, the one that had startled me awake in my dreams time and time again, was finally voiced by him. It was like a bolt of black lightning, tearing through all pretenses and tranquility, laying the most gruesome reality bare before everyone's eyes.

My mind instantly went blank. I could feel the intense gazes of two others fall upon me simultaneously—one from Sally, filled with shock and disbelief, and the other from Professor Finch, piercingly sharp as if trying to see through me. Three pairs of eyes, six piercing gazes, like three impenetrable walls, trapped me firmly in the center, leaving me with no escape.

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. My throat felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand. All my excuses, all my lies, seemed so pale and feeble in the face of Damian’s all-knowing eyes.

My body trembled more and more violently, tears rolling uncontrollably from my eyes like broken beads. Despair, shame, fear... All these emotions intertwined into a huge web, tightly binding me. I looked at him, at the man who had given me the darkest night of my life, at the man whose eyes now churned with a destructive storm.

There was no escape.

No escape at all.

Under the gaze of three pairs of eyes, amidst the wailing of my heart repeatedly tortured by shame, I slowly, with all my strength, nodded.

That tiny movement, however, was like a detonated nuclear bomb, instantly shattering the tension in the room that had been stretched to its limit.

"Bella..." Sally's voice was filled with indescribable pain and hurt. His deep blue eyes stared at me intently, as if looking at a stranger he had never known before. He shook his head and took a step back, as if the answer had struck him hard in the chest.

Professor Finch abruptly closed his eyes. Supporting his forehead with his hand, his body swayed slightly. For the first time, his face, always so elegant and composed, showed such obvious disappointment and confusion. He no longer looked at me but turned his gaze to the endless darkness outside the window.

The shock and hurt in their eyes felt like two scorching knives, deeply piercing my heart. I had let them down, turning everything they had done into a joke. Yet, I couldn't even bring myself to say "I'm sorry."

However, all this commotion, all this emotional storm, seemed to have no effect on the center of the room—Damian Blackwood.

At the moment he received that affirmative answer, I noticed his dark pupils constrict sharply. His body stiffened for an instant, as if his heart had truly been struck by an invisible, heavy hammer. The coldness and rage on his face faded in an instant, replaced by a look of extreme complexity that I had never seen before.

In that look, there was shock, fury, jealousy… but more than anything, there was an emotion I couldn’t comprehend—a mix of bewilderment and something akin to… ecstasy. It was as though a traveler lost in the desert, on the brink of dying of thirst, had suddenly stumbled upon an oasis.

His gaze slowly shifted from my face and settled on my flat belly, which cradled a tiny life within. That gaze was so intense, so focused, as if it could pierce through my skin and flesh to witness firsthand the existence that belonged to him, flowing with his bloodline.

In that moment, I saw all the possessiveness, all the jealousy and anger in his eyes melt away instantly, transforming into an unprecedented, surging protectiveness. It was a force stronger and more undeniable than any aura he had ever exuded. It was the primal, domineering instinct of a male animal guarding its own bloodline.

He slowly straightened up, and that immense sense of oppression once again enveloped the entire room. But he didn’t look at me again, nor did he pay attention to the two other men who had been plunged into shock and agony. He pulled out his phone from his pocket, his movements smooth and decisive, and dialed a number without hesitation.

The call was answered almost immediately.

"It's me." His voice regained its usual coldness and composure, but beneath that calm lay a force of thunderous power. Without the slightest pause, he spoke swiftly in an authoritative, monarch-like tone:

"Mobilize all resources. I want Victoria Sterling's company bankrupt within twenty-four hours. Freeze all her private accounts and seize all the real estate under her name. Deliver every single one of her dirty deeds straight to the media and the prosecutors' desks. Finally, tell the head of the Sterling family that if he still wants to save his crumbling family, he should immediately pack up his precious daughter and personally deliver her to my people... to apologize."

He paused, a glint of cruel coldness flickering in his dark eyes.

"I want her to have nothing."