Chapter 5 - The Lullaby in the Dark
"Damian," Dr. Harrison said, his voice trembling as he looked between the paper and me. "I’ve run the sample twice. I checked the probability indexes against the national database."
Damian stepped forward, taking the paper directly out of the doctor's hands. His eyes scanned the bold numbers printed at the bottom of the page.
I couldn't breathe. The room spun around me. The sound of the crackling fire sounded like a distant roaring waterfall.
"Read it to me," I whispered, rising from the chair, my hands shaking so violently I couldn't keep them still. "Please... read it to me."
Damian raised his head. His storm-gray eyes were wet with unshed tears.
"The probability of maternity," Damian read aloud, his voice thick and broken, "is 99.998 percent. Maya... Leah is your daughter."
A loud, painful sob burst from my chest. I fell to my knees on the oriental rug, burying my face in my hands, two years of suffocating, crushing grief finally breaking free.
She wasn't dead.
My baby girl hadn't stopped breathing in a cold, dark hospital room. She was alive. She had been living in this castle, sleeping in silk sheets, holding a velvet rabbit, waiting for her mother to come find her.
"My baby..." I cried, my body shaking with uncontrollable sobs. "My little bird... she’s alive..."
Suddenly, a pair of warm, strong arms wrapped around my shoulders. Damian knelt down beside me on the floor, pulling me into his chest, holding me firm while I wept. For all his ruthless reputation, for all his power and money, he held me with a profound, quiet respect, absorbing the shock of the truth that had just ripped both of our worlds apart.
"I'm sorry," Damian whispered into my hair, his own voice cracking with deep pain. "I'm so sorry, Maya. I didn't know. I swear to God I didn't know."
"I know," I sobbed, clutching at his suit jacket. "I know you didn't."
From the doorway, a tiny voice cut through the heavy emotional storm.
"Mama?"
We both turned our heads instantly.
Leah was standing at the entrance of the study, wearing her pink pajamas, clutching her velvet rabbit in one hand. Her big brown eyes were wide as she looked at me kneeling on the floor.
I wiped my tears frantically, sitting up and holding my arms open wide. "Leah... sweetie..."
Without a moment of hesitation, her tiny feet pitter-patter-pattered across the hardwood floor. She threw herself into my arms, wrapping her small limbs around my neck, burying her face into the crook of my shoulder where the scent of lavender was strongest.
"Mama stay," she whispered clearly, her voice as sweet and bright as a bell ringing in the dark. "Don't go away."
"I'm never going away again," I whispered into her soft hair, pressing a hundred kisses to her forehead, her cheeks, her tiny nose. "Mama’s right here. I’m never leaving you."
Damian watched us from the floor, a single tear slipping down his cheek. But as he looked at his daughter laughing and babbling against my chest, his expression turned dark, cold, and predatory.
May you like
He stood up slowly, stepping over to Marcus, who was standing in the hallway.
"Find Dr. Arthur Sterling," Damian commanded, his voice dropping into a register of pure, unadulterated murder. "Drag him back to Chicago. And find out who else in Vanessa’s family signed off on buying my daughter."
