Chapter 193
No.1
Inside the warm, glowing dining room of Le Bernardin, a cellist played a low, mournful suite in the corner.
Allena leaned across the table, her white lace gown brushing the Ecuadorian roses. She giggled,tapping a velvet box on the table to show off a massive Cartier diamond necklace.
August didn't hear a single word she said.
His eyes were locked onto the dark street outside the floor-to-ceiling glass. The streetlamps cast long,distorted shadows, but his vision cut through the gloom with predatory focus.
He saw a group of four people walking toward a black Maybach.
Even from the back, even in the dim light, the rigid,perfect posture of the woman in the black cashmere coat sent a violent electrical shock straight up his spine. Beneath the hem of the coat,a flash of deep burgundy silk caught the light.
It was the exact shade of the dress he had once told Elisa he hated because it drew too much attention.
His chest tightened. He watched as Alastair Cromwell-the billionaire tech CEO who was currently bleeding August's company dry-stepped
No.2
up behind Elisa. Alastair raised his arm, using his own coat to shield her from the biting wind. It was an act of casual, intimate protection.
August's hand gripped his crystal water glass. The muscles in his forearm bunched into thick, hard cords.
Then,he saw the child.
Alastair was holding a little girl in a trench coat. The girl's face was buried in Alastair's shoulder.
Elisa reached the door of the Maybach. She turned around to face Alastair and the child.
Through the thick, soundproof glass, August saw Elisa smile. It was not the tight, nervous smile she had worn for seven years in his penthouse. It was a radiant, breathtaking, entirely unguarded smile of pure love.
The sight of it hit August like a physical blow to the sternum. The air left his lungs in a violent rush.She had never looked at him like that. Never.
Right at that exact second, the little girl in Alastair's arms shifted. She lifted her head from his shoulder and turned her face toward the restaurant window.
No.3
The streetlamp outside flickered, casting a beam of harsh white light directly across the child's face.
August's eyes met the little girl's.
They were stormy grey-the exact,haunting shade of his own.
Boom.
A catastrophic, deafening roar exploded inside August's skull. The world around him vanished. The cello music, Allena's voice, the smell of the roses -it all ceased to exist. A cold sweat broke out across his forehead, and his blood felt like it was boiling and freezing at the same time.
A sharp, agonizing pain spiked directly in the center of his heart. It wasn't a medical anomaly.It was a violent, primal vibration in his blood. It was the terrifying, undeniable sensation of his own soul being violently yanked by an invisible, ancient tether.
Blood recognition.
It was her. Not a grainy photo, not a file on a screen, but the living, breathing mirror of his own soul.
No.4
August shot up from his chair.
His knee slammed into the heavy oak table. The impact sent his crystal wine glass tipping over.The dark red Bordeaux spilled across the pristine white tablecloth, spreading rapidly like a fresh,bleeding wound.
"August!" Allena shrieked, jumping back to save her dress.
Cyprian and Devon stopped talking, their mouths hanging open in shock as they stared at him.
August didn't look at the spilled wine. He didn't look at Allena. His chest was heaving, his breath
coming in ragged, shallow gasps. His eyes were wide, completely dilated, locked onto the window.
The child he had been investigating, the one Simon claimed was "encrypted"-she was right there.Why does seeing her in the flesh make my hands shake?
He shoved his chair back so violently it crashed to the floor. He ignored the maître d', ignored his friends, and broke into adead sprint toward the restaurant's front doors. He had to see that face up close. He had to know.
No.5
Outside on the street, Elisa felt the sudden, violent shift in the atmosphere.
She glanced at the window and saw August's massive frame charging through the restaurant like a rabid animal, his eyes wild and fixed directly on Kayden.
Pure,icy terror injected straight into Elisa's veins.
"Get in!" Elisa hissed.
Leaning heavily on the car door to compensate for her braced spine, she guided Kayden into the backseat with stiff, desperate haste. Every movement sent a flare of agony through her L4/L5vertebrae, but adrenaline overrode the doctor's warnings. She threw herself in right behind the child and slammed the heavy armored door shut.The thick steel clicked, instantly severing the line of sight.
Alastair didn't need to be told twice. He saw August bursting through the restaurant doors.
Alastair dove into the driver's seat, slammed the car into drive, and stomped on the accelerator.
The Maybach's V12 engine roared. The heavy car shot forward,merging violently into the Manhattan traffic just as August hit the sidewalk.
No.6
August stood on the curb, the freezing wind whipping his hair. He stared at the red taillights of the Maybach disappearing into the sea of cars.
His chest was rising and falling rapidly. His hands were clenched into fists so tight his fingernails cut into his palms.
A wave of toxic, acidic jealousy burned the back of his throat. She was gone. She had left him, and she was already playing house with another man.
He knew that face. He had seen the name "Kayden Gilmore" on the reports, but seeing her in Alastair's arms-playing house with the man destroying his company-was a different kind of torture.Whose child was that legally? Had she falsified the records he'd seen? Or was she using his own flesh and blood to mock him?
The rapid click-clack of heels sounded behind him.Allena rushed out into the cold, wrapping her arms around his rigid bicep.
"August, what is wrong with you?" Allena cried,her voice trembling with genuine panic.
August looked down at her. He saw the heavy makeup, the fake tears, the desperate,clinging hands. And then his mind flashed back to the pure,
stormy grey eyes of the child in the street.
No.7
A surge of absolute revulsion washed over him.
He violently ripped his arm out of Allena's grasp.
"Don't touch me," August snarled, his voice a low vibrating growl of pure menace.
Allena stumbled backward, her high heels slipping on the wet pavement. She barely caught her balance,her face flushing with extreme humiliation and shock.
August reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his encrypted phone. He hit the speed dial for Simon,his chief of staff.
Theline connected.
"I want the truth," August barked, his voice echoing with lethal intent. "I don't care about the encryption anymore. I want the definitive proof of that girl's paternity-the actual DNA results Alastair is hiding. I want them on my desk before midnight.Tear the city apart if you have to."