Chapter 10 - The Threshold of Legacy
"Lily is your daughter, Vivienne," Damian stated, his voice ringing with absolute, crushing finality.
The words hung in the air like an executioner’s axe. Vivienne collapsed entirely, curling into a ball on the floor in her expensive crimson gown, weeping hysterically. The girl she had bullied, the child she had shoved into the mud, the target she had sent armed men to kidnap... was her own flesh and blood. The baby she had abandoned eight years ago because it offered no tactical advantage to her ambition.
"You threw away your only real treasure because you were too blind by greed to see it," Damian said, standing back up and adjusting his cufflinks. "And when you threatened her today, you signed your own exile."
"Damian," Vivienne sobbed, reaching out a trembling hand to grab his pant leg. "Please. She's my daughter. Let me see her. Let me make it right."
Damian stepped back, pulling his leg from her grasp in utter disgust.
"You don't get to be her mother," Damian said coldly. "You forfeited that right the day you walked out of the hospital without her. I am her father. I have raised her, protected her, and loved her. She will never know your name, Vivienne. She will never know the poison that runs in your veins."
He turned and walked toward the mahogany doors.
"I changed the inheritance the day I brought her home," Damian said without looking back. "Everything I own—the empire, the trust, the estate—belongs entirely to Lily. She is the true heir. And you will spend the rest of your life knowing that the girl you treated like dirt now owns the ground you walk on."
Damian opened the doors and stepped out into the bright light of the hallway, leaving Vivienne screaming in the dark, surrounded by priceless art she could never afford to buy, locked in a prison of her own making.
Later that night, the sprawling Russo estate was quiet once more. The broken glass from the party had been completely swept away, the lawn immaculate once again under the moonlight.
Damian walked slowly into Lily’s bedroom. The little girl was fast asleep, her breathing steady and peaceful. A fresh, beautiful pink ribbon had been carefully laid across the foot of her bed, waiting for her when she woke up.
Damian sat on the edge of the mattress, his rugged, hardened face softening entirely. He reached out and gently brushed a stray lock of hair from his daughter's fair cheek. He had dismantled an empire to protect her today, and he would do it a thousand times over.
But as he stood up to leave, his secure phone vibrated silently in his pocket. He pulled it out, looking at the glowing screen in the dark room.
It was a message from an unknown number.
May you like
You handled Vivienne beautifully. But Lily still has her father's eyes, Damian. I'm coming to claim what's mine.
Damian’s jaw tightened, his eyes narrowing into cold, terrifying slits as he looked out the window into the dark trees. The true war hadn't ended. It had only just begun.
