Chapter 5 Chapter 5 The Hidden Relative
Ava Duval
By the time I recovered, it had been close to three weeks. Not once did Damian call to check on me or ask where I was. Not until today. And his voice was suddenly soft.
"Ava…" He sounded broken. "I've been so worried about you. The children miss you. Where are you?"
I almost scoffed because he knew I had sent him countless messages that I was in a car crash and he should come get me. He was acting, but since my kids were mentioned, I played along.
"I'm in the hospital, Damian. I've told you that a thousand times in the texts I've been sending you."
"Texts?" The shock in his voice was evident.
"I haven't received any texts in three weeks. I thought you were still angry. Serena told me you would pretend to be in pain so I'd come rushing… I didn't…"
He breathed heavily. "I didn't know, baby. Which hospital? I'll be on my way at once."
I heard shuffling, keys jingling, and hurried footsteps. And then the small voices in the background, which made my heart ache.
My Isla and Leo.
Thirty minutes later, Damian burst into the hospital room, drenched in sweat. Behind him, Isla and Leo stood hesitantly in the doorway, clutching each other's hands.
"Babe… Oh my goodness!" His eyes were wet. He rushed to my side and fell to his knees.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I mean…" He paused, blinking hard. "You did tell me, but Serena poisoned my mind. She deleted all your texts. She was the one who was wrong this whole time, and I kept blaming you."
But he wasn't the one that caught my attention. It was my children...
"Mommy…" Isla's voice cracked as she ran to me, tears filling her eyes, and Leo followed behind.
I caught them both, pulling them onto the hospital bed and holding them really close. Isla's thin arms wrapped around my neck while Leo buried his face in my chest.
The children looked underfed, shallow and fragile, and I couldn't understand.
What happened? Weren't they eating well? Was Serena starving them? Damian was still talking, begging, crying, and promising.
I heard him, but I didn't listen. I held the children. That was the only thing that moved me.
"Please, come home, baby." He lifted his face, eyes red. "I'll spend the rest of my life blaming myself. I'm sorry for raising my hands on you because of that witch!"
Witch? Was he calling Serena a witch now? What changed? Did they fight?
"You've been the better woman, the better wife, the better mother. I was blind. My love. My heart. I'm sorry." He sniffed hard.
"Serena was hurting them all this while…"
I finally looked at him when he mentioned that word. "Where is she?" I felt the rage building in my chest, temporarily forgetting that he had abandoned me here.
"She fled." He cried harder. "She abandoned them in a park and left. Please, come home, Ava. I swear on my entire existence never to hurt you again."
It was only because of the children...
The drive back home was filled with Damian's apologies. I sat in the backseat with Isla, and Leo pressed against me, their small bodies warm but too still.
Then he cursed under his breath, and my eyes snapped up, following his eyes. A group of men stood by the intersection, blocking our way.
"Who are they?" I sat up straighter, instinctively pulling the children closer.
"Highway robbers?"
"I don't know…" Damian murmured, slowing the car. "It's broad daylight. It can't be… Let's just listen to what they say, but keep 911 on speed dial."
Isla whimpered, and I held her even closer. "It's okay," I whispered. "Stay close to me."
Six heavily armed men stepped out of the expensive car in front of us, escorting a frail old man with graying hair and blue eyes.
They came toward Damian's car. One of them opened the backseat door, right where the children and I sat.
I pulled Isla and Leo into me, using my body as a shield. "Stay back," I said, my voice sharp.
The old man ignored me. He leaned in and scanned the car. His cold gaze passed over Damian, settled on me, then flickered down to the children behind me.
A faint smirk crossed his lips, but he said nothing to them. He got in and sat beside Damian. The armed men closed the door and stood outside as protection.
"No way…" Damian gasped, recognition flooding his face.
"Mr. Marcus Vance…" His eyes shone with greed, no longer the crying man from moments ago. "It's an honour to have you in my car, and..."
"Ava Duval." The man dismissed Damian entirely. He twisted in his seat to face me. His voice was stern and cold.
My eyes dropped to the chain around his neck. A silver locket, identical to mine.
A.V. Arthur Vance. The name from the letter. The name I had carried on a chain since I was a child. My stomach turned to ice.
I kept my hands on the children. "Do I know you?"
"You don't have to know me." His smile was thin, cruel.
"I am your biological father. I'm aware that your grandfather, Arthur Vance, left you his entire inheritance…including ownership of several companies I toiled years to build."
He paused, his eyes darting briefly to the children again.
"I'm sure the lawyer has contacted you. I want you to forfeit everything. In return, I'll settle you accordingly. I'll even invest in your husband's company."
He didn't wait for my answer as he knocked on the window. The security outside opened the door.
"You have one week," he said before he stepped out of the car, leaving every single one of us in the car shaken.
What??
That night, Damian was all over me. Doing everything to make me comfortable, just like the old days.
He knelt in front of me in the living room and held my chin.
"You don't have to make a choice if you don't want to," he said softly. "Fight for your inheritance? I'm here. Forfeit it? I'm here. Neither? I'm still here." He kissed me. "You are everything to me."
I forced a smile on my face to excuse myself from his body, using checking up on the children as an excuse.
I felt uncomfortable around him... I still couldn't fathom his betrayal and silence for three weeks of staying in the hospital.
Even as he tried to convince me that he had changed, I was still skeptical.
"Let me tuck the children in; I'll be in the bedroom with you in a moment," I said slowly.
He came up behind me and hugged me, giving me a peck on my neck, and it was all I could do but freeze. When was the last time he had touched me this closely?
I made my way to the children's room as fast as I could, and they were already asleep.
Isla was curled up by Leo's side, and I almost smiled remembering when she made a lot of fuss about sleeping in her own room.
I sat on the edge of the mattress, and I reached out to brush a strand of hair from his face, and my thumb paused on his jaw. The "bruise" from the hospital looked smudged.
Makeup?
I froze and pressed harder. Brown and purple pigment flaked onto my fingers. It wasn't a bruise but contour cream and eyeshadow, which was professionally blended.
I turned to Isla too, maybe I was seeing things, and gently touched her collarbone.
The sharp "bone" indents were shadowed with contour powder. Her cheekbones, the same. She wasn't starving. She had been painted to look starved.
I pulled my hand back. I stared at the pigment on my fingertips.
So... Damian was playing me all along? Even going as far as using the children as bait? What exactly did he want from me that he had to come back?
I found myself slipping into his study for the first time in years. His computer screen still glowed, and I made sure to take pictures of everything and anything that could point me to whatever Damian was trying to do with me back.
When I saw my name on one of his files, I felt my entire back go still. He had everything about me detailed, down to my father, the man who stopped us this afternoon on our way back.
The more I read, the more I realised that my supposed grandfather had left me everything in his will. Estates, companies and offshore accounts. Every single thing. I now understood why my supposed father had made that threat.
I scrolled further down and saw an unsent email that told me exactly what Damian was planning. Even though it didn't concern my inheritance, it was still something I toiled and sweated for.
"I will get her back under my roof and make sure she trusts me completely. Once she signs the Blackwood Tech shares over, we will push for another agenda to have her out of the company."
That night, I took notes of all his passwords and passcodes of his safes, company computers, and everything else. I didn't know why, but I believed it would come in handy.
