Chapter 28 – The Quiet Between Heartbeats
The days in Corsica passed like pages in a forgotten book—soft, weather-worn, deeply treasured.
Damian had never known this kind of life.
No calendars. No deals. No headlines.
Just the scent of Elara's skin in the morning, the way her laugh filled the kitchen when he burnt the toast, the brush of her fingers in the evening as they shared wine and silence.
And for the first time in his entire life, he felt something he never knew he was chasing.
Stillness.
One rainy morning, Elara sat curled on the window bench, a knit blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Damian brought her tea—no sugar, just a splash of lemon, the way she liked it.
She stared out at the olive trees, thoughtful.
"What is it?" he asked.
She didn't answer at first. Just held the cup, unmoving.
"Elara."
She turned to him, and there was something—different—in her eyes.
"I'm late," she said softly.
Damian blinked. "For what?"
She held his gaze.
Realization dawned slowly, like a sunrise breaking over dark mountains.
"Oh," he said.
"I took a test yesterday," she added, voice quiet. "It was positive."
The silence between them swelled.
Then broke.
"I… I didn't think this would ever happen," he said, stunned. "I thought you didn't want—"
"I didn't know what I wanted," Elara admitted. "I spent so many years surviving that I never let myself imagine. But now…"
She placed a hand on her stomach.
"I'm not scared, Damian. I'm—happy. Truly happy."
He sat beside her, gently pulling her into his arms.
"Me too," he whispered. "Terrified, but happy."
She chuckled against his chest. "We're going to be such dysfunctional parents."
He kissed her hair. "We'll build something real. Raw. Imperfect. Just like us."
The news settled between them slowly, like snow. They didn't rush to announce it. Didn't share it with the world.
They kept it theirs.
For a while.
But peace, they both knew, was never permanent.
Three weeks later, a man arrived at the villa gate—suit sharp, eyes sharp, voice soft.
A lawyer.
With papers.
Damian stepped out to meet him.
"Elara Vale Voss," the man said, "has been named in a claim involving the remaining equity rights of Vale Innovations. Her name is being added to an international arbitration case. There's talk of millions in intellectual property value being re-evaluated—and someone is contesting her legal ownership."
Damian stiffened. "Who?"
The man glanced at his notes.
"A woman named Cynthia Vale."
Elara's estranged aunt.
A woman who had walked away from the Vale family decades ago.
Now returned—for the money.
Elara didn't cry when she heard the name.
She didn't flinch.
She simply nodded and said, "Let her come."
Damian studied her carefully. "You don't have to fight again. We can pay her off. End this quietly."
"No," Elara said calmly. "She doesn't get to rewrite my father's legacy with a pen and a greed suit."
He stared at her with a soft smile. "You've changed."
She looked down at her stomach. "I had to. I'm about to be someone's mother."
They returned to New York a week later.
Not with fanfare.
Not to reclaim thrones.
But to defend the truth.
Elara took the stand in a private arbitration hearing, her voice measured and unshaken as she walked through the history of Vale Innovations—its birth, its death, and its legacy.
She didn't blame VossTech.
She didn't blame Damian.
She didn't even speak Lena's name.
She simply told her story. The real one.
When the arbitration closed, the panel ruled in her favor.
Cynthia Vale left with nothing but an angry glare.
And Elara? She left with her father's memory finally cleared.
That night, Damian waited on the rooftop of the penthouse. Not the cold tower of their past—but the home they had made from its ashes.
She joined him in silence, curling beside him in the night breeze.
"We've done it all backward, haven't we?" she whispered.
He smiled. "Backwards. Sideways. Inside out."
"And yet…"
"We still found our way."
A pause.
Then Elara looked at him, a secret smile blooming. "You know what I want?"
"Tell me."
"A small wedding. On the beach. Just us. This time, real vows. Nothing binding us but love."
Damian's eyes gleamed.
"Then I'll marry you for the third time. And every time after that."