Dominic Ashford's POV
I smashed my fist into the punching bag at 3 AM, blood from my cut hand staining the leather.
Gray eyes. My son has my eyes.
Another punch. The bag swung wildly.
Seventy-two hours until someone hurts him.
I'd been in my private gym for six hours, trying to exhaust myself enough to stop thinking. It wasn't working. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw that little boy—Ethan—staring up at me with curiosity instead of fear.
My son didn't even know I existed.
Worse—someone wanted to hurt him, and I had no idea who or why.
The warning message kept playing in my mind: "Ask Sophia about the emails. Someone's been watching your son. Someone wants him dead. You have 72 hours before they strike."
I grabbed my phone and dialed Marcus for the fifth time that night.
"Boss, it's three in the morning—"
"I don't care. Get to my office. Now. Bring everything you can find on Sophia Chen, Adrian Cross, and Victoria Chen. Everything from the past six years."
"Dominic, you need sleep—"
"My son might be in danger!" I shouted, then caught myself. Marcus didn't deserve my anger. "Please. I need answers."
There was a pause. "Your son?"
"Just get here."
I hung up and stared at my reflection in the gym mirror. Dark circles under my eyes. Blood on my knuckles. Looking more like a desperate man than a billionaire CEO.
Good. Maybe that's what I need to be.
By the time the sun rose, I was in my office, surrounded by files, coffee cups, and the growing realization that I'd destroyed an innocent woman's life.
Marcus arrived at six, carrying his laptop and three large folders. He dropped them on my desk with a heavy thud.
"You look terrible," he said bluntly.
"Tell me what you found."
Marcus opened the first folder. "Sophia Chen—now Sophia Lin—disappeared six years ago, one day after you had her escorted from your office. No money was withdrawn from any settlement account because there was never a settlement. Your lawyers drew up the papers, but she never showed up to sign them."
My stomach twisted. "What?"
"She vanished completely. No credit card usage, no bank activity, nothing. It's like she became a ghost." Marcus pulled out a document. "Then, nine months later, a birth certificate appears in Singapore. Ethan Lin, born to Sophia Lin. Father listed as unknown."
Nine months. The timeline was perfect and damning.
"Keep going."
"For three years, she worked three jobs—teaching coding at a community center, doing freelance web design, and waiting tables at night. She lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Singapore's cheapest district." Marcus showed me photos that made my chest hurt. A tiny apartment. Peeling paint. Barely any furniture.
My son had grown up there while I lived in luxury.
"Then three years ago, she started NexusTech Solutions—a tech company from her apartment. Within two years, she'd developed the AI platform that's now threatening to destroy our market share. That's when Adrian Cross found her at a tech conference and offered her everything—funding, resources, and a fake engagement to help her re-enter society."
"Fake?" I leaned forward.
"According to my sources, they have separate bedrooms and no physical relationship. It's purely business. He wanted her technology and a weapon against you. She wanted protection and funding." Marcus paused. "Boss, she built an empire from nothing while raising a child alone. She's not the gold-digger Victoria made her out to be. She's brilliant and strong and—"
"And I destroyed her." My voice was hollow. "I called our son a bastard and threw her out."
The words tasted like poison.
Marcus's expression softened. "You didn't know—"
"I should have known! I should have investigated! I should have—" I stopped, forcing myself to breathe. Falling apart wouldn't help Ethan. "What else?"
"Victoria Chen has been your Director of Acquisitions for six years. In that time, she's embezzled over two million dollars from various company accounts. Small amounts, hidden cleverly, but my forensic accountant found the pattern." Marcus pulled out bank statements. "She's also been feeding information to Adrian Cross about your business strategies."
Betrayal burned through my veins. "Victoria's been working with Adrian?"
"Not exactly. She's been selling him information, but he's been using it to help Sophia compete against you. Victoria doesn't know she's been helping her own stepsister." Marcus smiled grimly. "There's poetry in that."
I thought about Victoria's face last night when she saw Sophia and Ethan. The shock. The fear. The lies.
"That's impossible. Sophia lost the baby."
"Marcus, I need the security footage from six years ago. The hotel where Sophia and I—" I couldn't finish the sentence.
"Already got it." He opened his laptop and pressed play.
The video showed the hotel bar. I watched a younger, tired-looking Sophia sit down, clearly exhausted. Then Victoria appeared—smiling, friendly, handing Sophia a drink.
"Watch closely," Marcus said.
Victoria's hand moved so quickly I almost missed it. Something dropped into the glass. Then she walked away, and minutes later, I appeared on screen. Victoria approached me with another drink, chatting and laughing.
I took the drink.
Fifteen minutes later, the video showed Sophia stumbling toward the elevator, barely able to walk. I appeared moments after, equally unsteady. Victoria watched from across the lobby, a satisfied smile on her face.
"She drugged us both," I whispered. "Why?"
"I have a theory." Marcus pulled out old documents. "Six years ago, Chen Technologies was failing. Eleanor Chen, Sophia's stepmother, was embezzling money and needed someone to blame for the company's problems. Victoria was in on it. They needed Sophia gone—disgraced and disappeared."
"So they used me." Rage built in my chest. "They knew I was acquiring Chen Technologies. They knew I'd assume the worst. They set up the perfect trap, and I—"
The office door slammed open.
Victoria stood there, breathing hard, her perfectly styled hair messy. "Dominic, we need to talk. Now."
"Get out," I said coldly.
"Please, you don't understand—"
"I understand perfectly." I stood, and Marcus quickly positioned himself between us. "You drugged your own stepsister. You ruined her life. You made me ruin her life. And you've been lying to me for six years."
Victoria's face crumpled. "I did it because I love you! Sophia had everything—our father's attention, the company shares, everyone's respect. She didn't deserve you too!"
"So you destroyed her?" My voice was deadly quiet. "You drugged her, set her up, got her pregnant by me, and then made sure I'd reject her and the baby?"
"The baby wasn't supposed to happen!" Victoria was crying now. "The drug was just supposed to make you two sleep together so I could take pictures and blackmail her into leaving. But then she got pregnant, and everything went wrong—"
"Everything went wrong?" I laughed, but there was no humor in it. "You created a child and then ensured he'd grow up without a father. You destroyed two innocent people because you were jealous."
"I can fix this!" Victoria grabbed my arm. "We can get rid of them—pay Sophia to disappear again. The kid too. We can—"
I yanked my arm away so hard she stumbled. "Get out of my building. Security is already erasing your access. If you come near me, Sophia, or my son ever again, I'll have you arrested for drugging, fraud, and corporate espionage. Do you understand?"
Victoria's face turned ugly. "You'll regret this. I'll tell everyone about your bastard son. I'll destroy what's left of Sophia's reputation. I'll—"
"Try it," I said softly. "And I'll release the hotel security footage showing you drugging both of us. Then I'll release the financial records proving you've been embezzling. Then I'll personally make sure you spend the next decade in prison. Your choice, Victoria."
She stared at me with pure hatred, then fled.
The door slammed behind her, and I collapsed into my chair, suddenly exhausted.
"Boss?" Marcus touched my shoulder. "You okay?"
"I have a son who doesn't know me. His mother hates me. Someone's threatening to kill him in—" I checked my watch, "—sixty-eight hours. And the woman I—" I stopped.
The woman I what? Loved? I'd spent one night with her six years ago. But even then, even in those few hours before reality crashed in, I'd felt something I'd never felt before or since.
Connection. Peace. Like maybe I wasn't completely broken.
"We need to warn Sophia about the threat," Marcus said practically.
"She won't believe me. Why would she?"
Marcus pulled out his phone. "Then we don't give her a choice. I'm calling my contact at the police—"
My office phone rang. Unknown number.
I answered. "Ashford."
Heavy breathing. Then a distorted voice—clearly using a voice changer: "Did you enjoy meeting your son last night, Mr. Ashford?"
My blood ran cold. "Who is this?"
"Someone who's been waiting six years for this moment. Someone who knows all your dirty secrets. You destroyed Sophia Chen. You abandoned your son. And now—" The voice laughed. "—now you're going to watch as I take everything from you, just like you took everything from her."
"If you hurt them—"
"Sixty-seven hours, Mr. Ashford. Sixty-seven hours until little Ethan learns what happens to bastard children of cold-hearted billionaires. Unless—"
"Unless what?" I was gripping the phone so hard my knuckles were white.
"Unless you give me what I want. Fifty million dollars. Transferred to an offshore account. And you walk away from Sophia and Ethan forever. Never contact them. Never acknowledge the boy. Pretend they don't exist."
"That's—"
"Non-negotiable. I'll send the account information within the hour. Pay up and disappear, or your son dies. And trust me—" The voice turned colder. "—I'll make sure Sophia knows it was your fault. That Daddy's enemies killed her baby."
The line went dead.
I stared at the phone, my mind racing.
Someone wasn't just threatening Ethan.
They were trying to make sure I could never be part of his life.
Which meant this wasn't about money at all.
This was about keeping me and Sophia apart forever.
But why? Who benefited from that?
Marcus's face was pale. "What did they say?"
Before I could answer, my email pinged. A message from the same unknown sender:
"Just to prove I'm serious. Look outside."
I walked to the window overlooking the street below.
A black car was parked across from my building. And standing next to it, pointing a camera up at my office, was someone in a hooded jacket.
They waved.
Then they held up a sign large enough for me to read:
"TICK TOCK, DADDY."
My blood turned to ice.
Because I recognized that jacket. I'd seen it before, in the background of dozens of photos from last night's gala.
This person had been watching us all night.
Watching Ethan.
And I'd been too focused on Sophia to notice the predator circling my son.