Chapter 5 - The War Room
By 3:00 PM, the ground-floor library of the Bellevue estate had been transformed into a command center for Lucian’s elite legal team.
Four senior partners from Blackwood, Vance & Hastings—the most feared corporate litigation firm on the West Coast—sat around a long mahogany conference table covered with financial ledgers, land deeds, and corporate tax returns.
I lay on a plush leather daybed near the window, wrapped in a warm cashmere blanket, an fetal heart monitor attached discreetly to my waist, sending real-time heart rate data to a quiet display screen in the corner.
Lucian stood at the head of the table, turning pages in a thick blue binder.
"The divorce agreement she signed on the fortieth floor," Lucian said, pointing to a specific clause on page twelve. "Is it legally binding?"
The lead attorney—a sharp-eyed woman named Eleanor Vance—shook her head with an authoritative smile.
"Under Washington state law, Mr. Blackwood," Eleanor explained, "a marital dissolution agreement executed under extreme emotional duress without independent legal counsel for the pregnant spouse is instantly voidable upon petition. Furthermore, Nathan Drake failed to declare twenty-two million dollars in offshore liquid assets on his mandatory financial disclosure forms."
"Which constitutes perjury and fraud in the inducement," Lucian concluded cleanly.
"Exactly," Eleanor agreed. "When we file our counter-petition tomorrow morning, we won't just be contesting the divorce terms—we will be petitioning the court to freeze all of Nathan Drake’s corporate assets under a receivership order."
I leaned forward on my daybed, my heart hammering against my ribs. "Wait... you’re going to freeze his entire company?"
Lucian turned to look at me, stepping away from the conference table and walking over to my side.
"Nathan Drake believed he could throw you onto the street with a few hundred dollars because he held all the financial power, Ava," Lucian said softly, leaning down to adjust the blanket over my shoulders. "He used his wealth as a hammer to crush you. I am simply removing the hammer from his hands."
"He’ll fight back, Lucian," I worried, my fingers clutching his sleeve. "He has Chloe’s family connections. Her father is a major political donor in the state."
Lucian let out a low, dry laugh that sent a pleasant shiver down my spine.
"Chloe Matthews’ father owns a chain of regional auto dealerships that rely on my logistics firm for transport, Ava," Lucian said, his eyes burning with supreme confidence. "I called her father thirty minutes ago. By five o'clock today, Chloe Matthews will be pulled from her modeling contracts, and her father will personally instruct her to break off her relationship with Nathan Drake."
I stared at him in complete disbelief. "You... you dismantled her family’s support in thirty minutes?"
"I don't play games with people who hurt my family, Ava," Lucian said, his voice dropping into a low, intense register.
He froze for a fraction of a second, as if realizing the word he had just used.
My family.
My breath caught in my throat. I looked into his dark eyes, seeing a sudden, raw depth of emotion that went far beyond an old debt owed to my late father.
Before either of us could speak, my phone on the side table chimed with a incoming video call notification.
The caller ID displayed a number I knew by heart.
Nathan.
May you like
Lucian reached out, picking up the phone. He didn't answer it immediately. He looked at me, raising a eyebrow in unspoken question.
"Answer it," I said, my voice suddenly finding a core of strength I hadn't felt in five years. "Put him on speaker."
