“My startup…” Preston whispered, tears of sheer terror welling in his eyes as he looked at my father. “My entire logistics company relies on Blackwood shipping lanes. He literally owns the ocean we sail on.”
Damian ignored Preston’s pathetic realization. He kept one arm firmly wrapped around my waist, pulling me and Mia tightly against his side. He stepped forward, facing the crowd that had just laughed at us drowning in the mud, preparing to deliver the execution.
“Five years ago,” Damian began, his voice a low, terrifying rumble that carried perfectly over the silent harbor. “I met a brilliant, beautiful woman working at a maritime charity. We fell in love. Because of the dangerous nature of my business, and the ruthless enemies I have acquired globally, we agreed to keep our marriage and the birth of our daughter a complete, absolute secret to protect them.”
He looked directly at my parents, who were now standing frozen at the top of the ramp.
“I watched from the shadows as you disowned her,” Damian said, his voice dripping with absolute venom. “I watched you treat the woman I love like garbage because you thought she was a poor, abandoned single mother. I allowed her to maintain a relationship with you, against my better judgment, because her heart is far too pure for this toxic family.”
Damian raised his free hand, gesturing to the dark, muddy water below the yacht.
“Tonight, you laid hands on my wife,” Damian stated, the lethal calm in his voice shattering into pure rage. “You physically pushed the woman I love, and the sole billionaire heir to the Blackwood empire, into freezing, polluted mud.”
He turned his dark, unforgiving eyes to Preston, who was actively shaking.
“And you,” Damian sneered, his lip curling in disgust. “You mocked my family from the deck of a ship you do not even own.”
The entire marina was paralyzed by a suffocating, terrifying silence. My mother gasped, her hands flying to cover her mouth, her eyes bulging as she looked at me—the “disappointment” who was suddenly standing protected by a god among men.
My father took a stumbling step backward down the ramp, his face a mask of absolute, paralyzing horror as he realized the magnitude of what he had just done.
“It’s… it’s a misunderstanding, Mr. Blackwood!” my father choked out, trying to force a sickly, terrified smile. He rubbed his trembling hands together, bowing slightly. “I swear to you! Serena never told us! She’s my daughter! This was just a family joke! We had a little too much to drink, she slipped!”
Damian looked at my father as if he were looking at a cockroach he was about to crush under his expensive leather shoe.
“A family joke?” Damian repeated softly. He tilted his head. “You lost the right to call her family the second you shoved her into that harbor. But since you enjoy maritime jokes so much, Arthur…”
Damian pulled a sleek, black encrypted satellite phone from his pocket. He pressed a single button and put it on speaker.
“Yes, Mr. CEO,” a crisp, professional voice echoed from the device.
