Chapter 7 - THE NIGHT DAMON CHOSE HIS FAMILY OVER HIS EMPIRE
Julian Cross was not finished.
Men like Julian rarely believed consequences applied to them until the handcuffs closed.
Two weeks after his removal, Prescott Systems received an acquisition offer from Northlake Capital.
It was aggressive.
Public.
Designed to exploit the company’s temporary instability.
The board panicked.
Damon was expected to fix it.
For forty-eight hours, he disappeared into conference rooms.
Old Cassandra would have recognized the pattern immediately.
Phone calls during breakfast.
Emails during dinner.
Promises that the crisis would end soon.
Only this time, Damon did something different.
At six every evening, he stopped.
No matter who was calling.
No matter how many millions were moving.
He went home.
Cassandra and the twins were temporarily staying at his Seattle penthouse while the legal investigation continued.
At 6:03 on Thursday, Damon entered carrying two pizzas.
Luke ran toward him.
“Daddy!”
The word still made Damon stop.
Every time.
He crouched and caught Luke.
“Hi.”
Violet appeared.
“You’re late.”
He checked his watch.
“Three minutes.”
“That’s late.”
Cassandra smiled from the kitchen.
“She gets that from you.”
Damon removed his coat.
“I reject that allegation.”
For the first time, they almost looked like a normal family.
Then Damon’s phone rang.
Board member Thomas Reed.
He declined it.
It rang again.
Declined.
A third time.
Cassandra frowned.
“You should answer.”
“No.”
“Damon.”
“I said dinner.”
“You could lose control of your company.”
He looked at her.
“I already know what happens when I treat everything as more important than this.”
Her chest tightened.
“You’re allowed to work.”
“I know.”
“That sounded painful for you.”
“It was.”
He answered on the fourth call only after putting Luke in his chair.
Thomas’s voice exploded through speakerphone.
“Northlake accelerated the tender offer. We need you downtown tonight.”
“No.”
Silence.
“What?”
“I’ll be there at seven tomorrow.”
“Damon, this is your company.”
“My children are eating pizza.”
Cassandra stared.
Thomas clearly thought he had misheard.
“You’re risking billions.”
Damon looked at Violet, who was separating pepperoni from cheese with surgical concentration.
“I’ve risked more for less.”
He ended the call.
Cassandra stood quietly.
Later, after the twins slept, she found him on the balcony.
“You meant that.”
“What?”
“You’d let the company go.”
“If necessary.”
“Damon Prescott would walk away from Prescott Systems?”
He looked toward the city.
“Three years ago, I would have said no.”
“And now?”
“Now I know the difference between losing something I built and losing people I love.”
Cassandra’s breathing changed.
He turned.
“I love them.”
“I know.”
“I don’t expect them to love me because biology says they should.”
“They already do.”
His throat tightened.
“I know.”
She moved beside him.
“And me?”
The question escaped before she could stop it.
Damon looked at her.
“What about you?”
“You keep talking about them.”
“Because I’m afraid if I talk about you, you’ll run.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Snow drifted across the balcony railing.
Damon stepped closer.
“I never stopped loving you.”
Cassandra closed her eyes.
“Don’t.”
“It’s true.”
“We were miserable.”
“We were young.”
“We hurt each other.”
“Yes.”
“You left.”
“Yes.”
“I threw my ring at you.”
“Yes.”
“You became married to work.”
“Yes.”
She glared.
“You’re supposed to defend yourself at some point.”
“No.”
That made her laugh despite herself.
Damon’s expression softened.
“I loved you badly.”
The sentence silenced her.
“I thought providing was the same as being present. I thought if I could build enough, earn enough, prove enough, eventually I would become the husband you deserved.”
His voice lowered.
“But I was so busy preparing to become him that I stopped being your husband at all.”
Tears burned her eyes.
“Julian didn’t create every problem.”
“I know.”
“He exploited the ones we already had.”
“I know.”
“If we try again, we cannot pretend he was the only reason we failed.”
“I don’t want to try again the old way.”
“What does that mean?”
Damon took a breath.
“It means therapy.”
Cassandra blinked.
He looked physically uncomfortable.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Voluntarily?”
“Don’t ruin the moment.”
She smiled.
“Continue.”
“It means boundaries. I don’t take calls at dinner unless someone is actively on fire.”
“That standard may need clarification.”
“It means I show up.”
“And if the company needs you?”
“I decide whether it actually needs me or whether my ego enjoys being needed.”
Cassandra stared.
“That sounded like therapy already.”
“I had one session.”
“You had one session?”
“Yesterday.”
She laughed.
He smiled.
Then he reached for her hand.
“Cassie.”
This time she did not tell him not to call her that.
“I am not asking you to remarry me.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking if I can take you to dinner.”
She blinked.
“A date?”
“Yes.”
“We have two children.”
“I noticed.”
“We used to be married.”
“I also noticed.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“Probably.”
Cassandra looked down at their hands.
“What restaurant?”
His eyes brightened.
“I know a place.”
“If you say somewhere with a tasting menu and fourteen forks, I’m leaving.”
“Burger place.”
She looked suspicious.
“You hate burgers.”
“I loved a woman who loved burgers.”
Her heart betrayed her.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“One date.”
Damon smiled.
Then every light in the penthouse went out.
Cassandra froze.
Security alarms began screaming.
Damon immediately pulled her behind him.
Emergency lights activated.
His phone rang.
Chief security officer.
“Sir, someone breached the garage network. We’ve locked the residential elevators.”
“The children.”
“Rosa is with them. Safe room protocol activated.”
Damon grabbed Cassandra’s hand.
They ran inside.
Then his phone displayed a message from an unknown number.
He opened it.
A photograph.
Luke and Violet leaving preschool that afternoon.
Taken from across the street.
Beneath it:
DROP THE CASE AGAINST JULIAN OR NEXT TIME I GET CLOSER.
Cassandra stopped breathing.
Damon went completely still.
This was no longer about money.
May you like
Someone was threatening his children.
And whoever it was had just made the worst possible mistake.
