Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cool December air bit at my cheeks as Penny and I stepped out of Dr. Westfield’s office, but I barely noticed the cold. My fingers traced the edge of the ultrasound photo tucked safely in my jacket pocket—our baby’s first picture, grainy and indistinct but absolutely perfect.
“Six weeks,” I murmured, still marveling at the words. “She said everything looks exactly right.”
“I can’t believe how clear the little bean looked on that screen,” Penny said as we walked toward where Marcus waited with the car. “Dominic’s going to lose his mind when he sees that picture.”
My chest warmed at the thought. Tonight, after dinner, I’d take Dominic into our nest and show him the photo. Maybe I'd press his hand to my belly first, let him feel the place where our child was growing. The pregnancy wasn’t showing yet, but knowing it was there made every moment feel precious.
“I keep thinking about his face when I tell him,” I admitted, pulling my coat tighter against the wind. “He’s going to be such a good father.”
“Are you kidding? He’s already in full protective alpha mode and he doesn’t even know yet.” Penny grinned, his cheeks pink from the cold. “Once he finds out you’re carrying his baby, he’ll probably want to wrap you in bubble wrap.”
I laughed, the sound carrying on the crisp air. “He’s been bringing me tea every morning without me asking. And yesterday he rearranged my entire work area because he thought the lighting wasn’t good enough.”
“Alpha instincts,” Penny said knowingly. “My Dam said my Sire knew on an instinctual level before she told her. Something about pheromone changes.”
My phone buzzed insistently, cutting through my contented thoughts. I reached into a jacket pocket, pulling it out. Sarah’s name flashed on the screen, then immediately started buzzing again before I could answer.
“Seems urgent,” I said, accepting the call as we reached the car.
“Leo!” Sarah’s voice was sharp with a mixture of excitement and distress. “Have you heard what’s happened? Did you know about it?”
“Know about what?” I asked.
“They’ve withdrawn their offers on almost everything. Gate’s Hardware, Tang’s Tea House, Wilson’s Bakery, your shop, Vintage Vogue—all of it. Just… gone. Like they suddenly lost interest in the entire district.”
I stared at Marcus through the windshield, not quite processing what I was hearing. “Vertex gave up?”
“On everything except the pharmacy,” Sarah said. “Paula folded right before they withdrew the other offers. They’ve called for immediate demolition of the pharmacy. Like they’re furious about losing everything else and taking it out on the one property they can still get.”
“When did this happen?” My voice sounded distant to my own ears, something cold and terrible beginning to spread through my chest.
“The withdrawal notices were filed this morning. Paula got the increased offer yesterday, along with a demand for immediate closure. They want her out by end of this week so demolition can start Monday.”
I felt ice-cold dread settle in my stomach, mixing sickeningly with the warm joy I’d been feeling moments before. The timing was too convenient, too surgical. Vertex wouldn’t just randomly abandon acquisition campaigns worth millions of dollars.
“Sarah,” I said slowly, “has anyone figured out why they suddenly lost interest in the rest of the district?”
“Nobody knows anything,” she said with a shrug in her voice. “It’s like they just… decided to cut their losses.”
But I was starting to have a very clear idea of what might have happened. The evasive conversations between Dominic and Blake. Their mysterious confidence about having “news to share soon.” Their carefully neutral reactions to community concerns at the town hall meeting.
Through our bond, I could feel Dominic’s satisfaction, that same poignant contentment that had been radiating from him for days. I’d thought it was happiness about our relationship, about being free and building our life together.
Now I wondered if it was something else entirely.
“Where’s Paula now?”
“At the pharmacy, trying to pack up a century of her family’s work,” Sarah said. “Adelaide’s with her, but… Paula looks broken. Like she’s given up completely.”
The image of Paula—exhausted and defeated at the town hall meeting, now having to dismantle her family’s legacy in less than a week—made my chest tighten with fury.
She was suffering, her life’s work was being destroyed, while I’d been celebrating medical appointments and planning romantic revelations.
“I have to go,” I told Sarah, ending the call with shaking hands.
“Leo?” Penny was studying my expression with growing concern. “What’s wrong?”
I didn’t answer, just slid into the back seat of the car where Marcus was already holding the door. “Blake’s penthouse,” I said, my voice hollow. “Now.”
The car ride felt endless, my anger crystallizing into bitter certainty with each passing block.
Penny sat beside me in tense silence, occasionally shooting worried glances in my direction but wisely not pressing for details.
The ultrasound photo in my pocket felt like a mockery now—evidence of the future I’d been planning with someone who might have been playing a completely different game.
By the time we reached Blake’s building, my suspicions had hardened into accusations I was ready to voice.
When Penny and I entered the penthouse, I found Dominic and Blake in the living room, documents spread across the coffee table as if they were conducting business as usual. They looked up as we entered, and I could see they’d been discussing something serious.
“Leo,” Dominic said, immediately standing and moving toward me with a smile. “You’re back early. How did the appointment—”
“Vertex withdrew their offers,” I said without preamble. “On everything except the pharmacy.”
Blake and Dominic exchanged one of their meaningful looks, and I felt my patience snap entirely.
“Don’t,” I said sharply. “Don’t you dare look at each other like that while I’m standing here demanding answers. What did you do?”
“Leo,” Blake said carefully, “perhaps you should sit down—”
“I don’t want to sit down. I want to know what you two did to make Vertex suddenly lose interest in an acquisition campaign worth millions of dollars.”
Dominic’s expression shifted to something more cautious. “We’ve been working on a solution to the Vertex problem. You knew that. I mentioned it.”
“What kind of solution?” I crossed my arms.
Blake set his tablet down, the device clicking against the glass surface of the coffee table. “We played the same game Vertex has been playing.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Corporate warfare. Hostile takeovers,” Dominic said, his voice colder than I’d ever heard it.
“We identified Vertex’s major financial backers and systematically undermined their positions.
Leveraged insider information to manipulate stock prices.
Forced three smaller companies into bankruptcy to create pressure points. ”
I stared at them, my mind struggling to process what he was telling me. Corporate warfare. Financial manipulation. These were the methods they’d used to “help” my community.
“The information Jake provided against Mayor Holloway and Cretch proved quite helpful,” Dominic added matter-of-factly.
I felt sick, but at least they were trying to protect us, right? At least their hearts were in the right place, even if their methods were questionable.
But something in Blake’s expression suggested there was more.
“You destroyed careers,” I said slowly, the full implications sinking in. “Ruined retirement funds. Put people out of work. That’s what you did, right?”
Blake’s brows drew together. “We did whatever it took to make Vertex’s continued presence in this district financially unviable.”
“And it worked,” Dominic added with satisfaction. “Cobblers’ Corner is safe. So is Vintage Vogue, your friend's bakery, and at least ten other district businesses. Vertex can’t touch them now.”
“But not the pharmacy,” I said slowly.
“Paula was always the wild card,” Blake admitted. “We couldn’t protect someone who was determined to give up.”
The full scope of what they were telling me was starting to sink in, and I felt sick. My chest tightened, and a wave of nausea crashed over me—whether from pregnancy hormones or moral horror, I couldn’t tell.
“You’re telling me that you two… what? Destroyed people’s lives? Do you have no conscience?”
The contrast was sickening. While they sat with me in the community center, nodding sympathetically at everyone’s concerns, these two had been conducting their own shadow war. People I didn’t even know had lost their jobs, their security, their futures...
I didn’t want that.
“We saved your community,” Dominic said firmly.
“And I guess you want a gold star for a job well done?” I snapped. “All you two did was become criminals yourselves!”
“We used the system the same way they were using it against you,” Blake corrected, his tone defensive now. “Everything we did was technically legal. Morally questionable, maybe, but legal.”
“How many people lost their jobs because of what you did?” I demanded, pacing now as the energy of my fury needed an outlet. The stress was making my hands shake, and I could feel my omega instincts screaming in distress—not just at the conflict, but at what this meant for my unborn child.
What kind of life was I bringing a baby into if this was how his or her Sire solved problems?
“I want numbers, Blake. You’re good with numbers.”
Blake’s expression was carefully neutral. “The exact figures are—”
“Ballpark,” I demanded. “How much collateral damage did you cause?”
“Approximately three hundred job losses across four companies,” Blake said quietly. “Seventeen executive terminations. Five forced retirements.”
“Three hundred families,” I said, the number hitting me like a physical blow.