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CHAPTER SIX
The Quiet Before the Unraveling
Mia sat in the sunroom the next morning, tracing light with her pencil across the edges of a new sketch. It was an abstract rendering of the villa's garden-twisting vines, shadowed paths, an open gate. She didn't know why she kept drawing gates lately. Maybe because she couldn't decide if she was trying to walk through one or close it behind her.
The room was still. Too still.
Damian hadn't shown up for breakfast. Elena hadn't either.
Mia had grown used to the silence of Villa Serena, but this-this absence-felt weighted. As if something had been stirred and left to settle in places it didn't belong.
Sophie's voice buzzed faintly in her ear from her phone on speaker. "Tell me you ate something. Or at least kicked someone."
"I ate," Mia said. "No kicks."
"You sound... not fine."
Mia glanced out at the mist gathering at the edges of the garden. "I feel like I'm in a snow globe someone keeps shaking."
Sophie's silence was brief. "Are you okay, though? Like, is your heart okay?"
Mia hesitated. "It's trying to be."
Before Sophie could press further, the soft shuffle of footsteps made Mia look up. A housekeeper-quiet and tense-stood in the doorway.
"Miss Carter," she said with a nod. "Mrs. Voss has requested your presence in the greenhouse."
Mia blinked. "The greenhouse?"
"Yes. She's waiting."
The call ended without a goodbye. Mia stood, breath hitching, and followed.
---
The Greenhouse of Ghosts
Elena stood amid blooming orchids and glistening ivy, wearing a pale linen dress and no makeup. She looked almost translucent in the dappled light-like a ghost rooted to the soil.
"You came," she said without turning.
Mia clasped her hands in front of her. "I was told you wanted to see me."
Elena reached out and touched the delicate petals of a white orchid. "These flowers are strange, aren't they? They thrive on neglect. Give them too much, they die. But if you ignore them-leave them in the right kind of solitude-they bloom."
Mia wasn't sure if she was supposed to reply.
"I used to come here all the time," Elena continued. "Before all of this. When I still believed beauty could heal the ache inside me."
Mia swallowed. "Why did you stop?"
Elena looked at her, her eyes sharp despite the fragility in her face. "Because I realized nothing blooming here was mine."
A silence stretched between them.
"I'm not trying to take anything from you," Mia said quietly.
Elena studied her. "Aren't you?"
Mia shook her head. "I didn't ask for this... shift. Whatever it is. I came here to do one thing-give you and Damian the family you've waited for. Nothing more."
"But that's just it," Elena said, voice barely above a whisper. "You're giving us a child, yes. But do you know what else you've done, Mia?"
Mia's heart pounded.
"You've given him someone to see again."
Elena's hands trembled as she clasped them around herself. "He doesn't look at me anymore. He hasn't for years. And I thought... I thought if I could just hold us together long enough, this child would fix it. That it would fix me."
Mia stepped forward. "Elena-"
"I know he's falling for you."
Mia froze.
The words hung between them like an axe.
Elena didn't cry. Her voice didn't even break. It was the steadiness that made it more devastating.
"And I can't hate you for it. Because you're kind. Because you make people feel safe. Because you didn't come here to seduce him. But you're here. And he's... gone."
Mia's throat tightened.
"I'll still raise this child," Elena said. "I'll love them. I do love them. But I needed you to know-I see you. I see what's happening. Even if Damian won't admit it."
Mia could only whisper, "I'm sorry."
Elena's mouth lifted in something between a smile and surrender.
"Don't be," she said. "Just... be careful with what you carry. It's not just a life inside you. It's the weight of ours."
---
Victor Hayes Knows
Elsewhere in Eldoria, inside a penthouse layered with glass and malice, Victor Hayes tapped through a photo on his phone.
A grainy image.
Mia. On the villa balcony. Damian behind her, too close to be professional. A frame from a distance, but the energy between them was unmistakable.
Beside him, a younger assistant waited for instructions.
Victor smiled.
"Leak it. Just the image," he said. "No caption. Let the sharks write their own headlines."
---
The Call
Lucas barged into Damian's office without knocking. His face was pale. He slapped his phone onto the desk.
"You need to see this."
Damian blinked, then lifted the screen.
The photo.
His jaw clenched. "Where did this come from?"
"It's already viral on business forums and gossip columns. Someone sold this to the press."
Damian exhaled sharply through his nose. "Victor."
Lucas nodded grimly. "And that's not all. The Voss board is panicking. Investors are calling. And Dr. Shaw is being pulled into this-there's talk of reopening the old surrogacy scandal."
Damian stood. "Where's Mia?"
"In her room. For now. But if this spreads-"
"I'll handle it."
Lucas grabbed his arm. "You can't just storm out. You need to think like a CEO right now."
"I'm not just a CEO," Damian growled. "Not this time."
---
Truth or Consequence
Mia sat in her room, trembling fingers holding her phone. Sophie had texted, frantic.
"It's everywhere, Mia. The photo. The story. Damian. You. What the hell is happening?"
A knock.
Damian entered before she could answer.
His eyes were wild, his tie half-loosened. "Are you okay?"
"I don't know," she said honestly. "Are you?"
He came closer but didn't touch her.
"I'm going to fix this," he said. "I'll issue a statement. I'll protect you."
"And what will you say?" she asked, rising. "That I'm just the surrogate? That you've been professional this whole time? That what's in that photo doesn't mean anything?"
He was silent.
Mia laughed bitterly. "Exactly."
He closed the gap between them. "It does mean something."
Her breath caught.
"I know I'm not supposed to feel this," he said. "But I do. And I won't deny it. Not anymore."
Mia's chest ached. "Then say it. Not with a press release. Not with a scandal. Say it to me."
Damian met her eyes.
"I'm falling in love with you."
Mia's knees weakened.
"And it terrifies me," he whispered. "Because I didn't want this. I didn't plan it. But from the moment you stepped into this house, you've been undoing me."
Tears stung her eyes. "Then why does it feel like we're on opposite sides of a war neither of us started?"
"Because we are," he said.
And then, finally, he touched her.
Not with desire, but with devastation. A hand on her cheek. A thumb brushing a tear.
"I don't know how this ends," he said.
Mia whispered, "Neither do I."
But the baby kicked then-hard enough for them both to feel it.
And for the first time in days, they both smiled.
Even as the world outside turned its knives toward them.
Here is the closing section of Chapter Six of The Other Woman Was "ME", tying together the emotional arc with a storm quietly gathering outside the characters' control.
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The Storm Brews
That night, the villa didn't sleep.
Mia couldn't. Damian didn't. Even Elena's wing, usually still by ten, hummed faintly with quiet pacing and muffled voices.
Mia lay in bed, one hand on her belly, the other gripping the soft hem of her robe. The baby was restless-stirring more than usual, as if sensing the tension coursing through the air like static.
She finally rose and wandered through the dim hallways until she reached the gallery overlooking the atrium. Lights from the chandeliers flickered against the marble, and for a moment, she felt like a ghost in someone else's life.
Down below, she saw Damian.
He stood alone, gazing at a framed oil painting-something old and abstract. He didn't move when she stepped into view. Didn't flinch when her voice broke the silence.
"You're not going to sleep tonight, are you?"
He turned his head slowly. "Not if the world's planning to burn by morning."
She descended the stairs, barefoot, her robe flowing behind her like wings. When she reached him, he didn't touch her-but his presence pressed against her like heat.
"I should be angry," she said softly. "That you told me how you feel... and then walked away like it was a confession you regret."
He turned to her, shadows under his eyes. "I don't regret it."
"But you'll deny it," she said. "For Elena. For the child. For the press. For the business."
"For everything but you," he said.
She blinked.
"I can't protect you from all of it," he admitted. "But I will stand between you and the fire."
Mia looked away, jaw clenched. "Even if you're the match?"
Damian's expression darkened with something that wasn't quite guilt-but came close. "I didn't plan this."
"No one does," she whispered. "That's what makes it dangerous."
They stood in the quiet until he broke it again.
"There's going to be a board meeting tomorrow. Emergency. I'll say it's a smear campaign. I'll deny everything that isn't public record."
Mia nodded. "And me?"
His throat worked. "You stay here. You stay safe. Let them say what they want. As long as they don't touch you or the baby, they can drown in their own lies."
She studied him. "And Elena?"
He hesitated.
"She knows," Mia said. "About how you feel."
Damian's breath hitched faintly. "Did she say anything?"
"Only that she still loves you. Even if she's hurting."
Silence again. He didn't ask what else Elena had said. Maybe he didn't want to know.
"She's a good woman," Mia said quietly.
"She is," Damian replied. "But we've been pretending at marriage for so long, we forgot how to actually be in one."
Mia looked down. "So what happens now?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he did the only thing he could-he offered her his hand. Not as a billionaire, not as a married man, but as someone standing on the edge of a crumbling cliff and asking if she'd stand beside him anyway.
She took it.
Not because it made sense.
But because something inside her already had.
---
A Final Blow
By morning, every major outlet had the story.
The surrogate. The billionaire. The scandal.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The real blow came not from Victor Hayes, nor the tabloids, but from someone Mia never expected.
An anonymous leak of her contract.
Not just the basics. The full agreement. Names. Dates. Her salary. The non-disclosure clause. Even private medical details about her first trimester.
Mia's heart slammed against her ribs as she read it in the article Sophie forwarded.
"An 'unusual surrogacy' arrangement raises questions about boundaries, legality, and manipulation of vulnerable women for profit..."
And below that, the byline:
"Submitted by a source inside Villa Serena."
---
The Breaking Point
When Damian stormed into the drawing room that afternoon, Mia stood, trembling with fury.
"It was Elena," she said. "It had to be."
"She wouldn't," Damian said, but the doubt in his voice betrayed him.
"I told her everything. Trusted her," Mia said. "And now the world knows the cost of my womb. They're calling me desperate. A gold-digger. A homewrecker."
Damian's fists clenched at his sides. "I'll shut it all down. Every article. Every outlet."
Mia's eyes burned. "You can't fix this with money, Damian."
"I can try."
"But at what cost?" she whispered. "This... this isn't a love story anymore. It's a battlefield."
Damian looked at her then, his expression raw.
"Then let's stop pretending," he said. "Tell me what you want, Mia."
She shook her head, tears streaking her cheeks. "I don't know anymore. All I know is this child deserves better than two people drowning in everything they weren't supposed to feel."
A beat passed.
And then, she said the one thing he wasn't prepared for.
"I want to leave. Just for a while. Until the birth."
He paled. "You're running."
"No," she said. "I'm protecting myself. And the baby."
His voice broke. "Don't go."
Mia stepped back. "If this is real... if what we feel means anything... then let it survive a little distance."
He didn't argue.
Because deep down, he knew-if he held her back now, it would never be love. Only possession.
So he let her go.
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