Chapter Twenty: Bloodlines and Bombshells
Damien
His mother never requested meetings.
She summoned them.
So when Damien stepped into the private Wolfe Holdings boardroom and found Veronica already seated—legs crossed, phone in hand, pearl earrings sharp against her black suit—he braced himself.
"You're late," she said without looking up.
"I wasn't aware we were playing by your schedule."
She glanced at him. Cool. Amused. Dangerous. "Let's not waste time. You're risking everything we've built—on a woman you divorced and a child you never even met until a few weeks ago."
Damien's jaw flexed.
"You mean my son," he said.
Veronica's lips thinned. "Don't be sentimental. It's unattractive in men who run billion-dollar companies."
He stepped forward slowly, voice low and hard. "You knew, didn't you? You knew Ava was pregnant when she left."
Veronica didn't blink.
"I had a suspicion," she admitted. "But it wasn't my business to raise her child—or yours."
"Your business?" Damien repeated. "He's my family."
Veronica stood, straightening her coat with surgical grace. "And that's exactly the problem. You're about to destroy your standing in the Wolfe dynasty by handing the press a secret child scandal on a silver platter."
"I don't care."
"You will," she snapped. "Once they tear him apart. Once Ava is hounded by tabloids. Once investors question your judgment."
Silence stretched between them.
Then Veronica dropped the bomb.
"I have a journalist on hold. If you don't issue a controlled press statement—one that frames this narrative our way—I'll leak it myself."
---
Ava
She was in Liam's room when her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
But the voice on the other end was painfully familiar.
"Hello, Ava. It's Veronica Wolfe."
Her blood ran cold.
"I assume you know by now that this… situation with Damien and Liam is becoming uncontainable. So I'm going to give you a choice."
"I don't need your choices," Ava said tightly.
"Oh, but you do," Veronica replied sweetly. "Because if you don't cooperate, I'll ensure your son's name is splashed across every business column, gossip blog, and courtroom record in the next 48 hours."
A pause.
"Of course," she added, "a quiet departure would prevent all that. You walk away, Ava. You take the boy and disappear—again. Clean. Simple. Safe."
Ava's voice dropped. Steel beneath fire.
"If you threaten my son again, I swear to God, Veronica—"
But the line went dead.
---
Damien
When Ava stormed into his office hours later, her eyes blazing, her words cut through him before he could speak.
"She called me."
"I know."
"She threatened Liam."
"I'll handle it."
"No," Ava said. "We handle it. Together."
He looked at her, and for the first time, she wasn't running.
She was fighting.
With him.
And that changed everything.