Chapter Fourteen #2
“I will get the truth.”
The line ended.
I sat in my office with the phone against my ear long after the call died.
Then I stood.
There was no more room for shock.
Shock was a luxury.
I opened my door.
Martin was waiting outside like he had known I would need him.
“Serena claims she is pregnant,” I said.
His face did not change, but his eyes sharpened.
“Understood.”
“I want no direct contact unless counsel is present. Call Ewan. Call Audrey. Medical confirmation only. No private meetings. No hotel visits. No messages that don’t go through lawyers.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And Martin?”
“Yes?”
“If this gets to Theo before Madeleine tells him, I will consider that a personal failure by every person around me.”
“Understood.”
Peter stepped out of the boardroom behind Martin. “Tell me I misheard.”
“You didn’t.”
He swore.
“Is it true?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
Peter rubbed his forehead. “The board will panic.”
“Let them.”
“Bennett, an affair scandal is one thing. A possible pregnancy with the woman involved in a corporate leak is another.”
“I said let them panic. I’m done doing moral math with people’s lives.”
My phone buzzed.
Serena.
Of course.
I let it ring.
Peter looked at the screen. “You should not answer.”
“I know.”
It stopped.
Then a message appeared.
You cannot ignore me now.
Another came.
This baby changes everything.
Another.
Or should I call Madeleine again?
My hands curled.
Martin reached for the phone. “Sir.”
I handed it to him before I could do something stupid.
He photographed the messages and forwarded them to Ewan and Audrey.
Then another message came.
This one had a video attached.
Serena sat on the edge of a bed, hair loose, face pale, one hand pressed low on her stomach.
“I did not want to tell you like this,” she said in the video. “But you left me no choice. You keep protecting her while I am carrying your child.”
Peter looked away.
I watched the video to the end because I deserved to see every weapon I had helped place in her hand.
Serena’s voice trembled.
“I have the test. I have dates. You know the night, Bennett. You know what happened. You can call me a liar, but you cannot call the baby a lie.”
The video ended.
I felt sick.
Martin said, “This has not been posted publicly yet. She sent it directly.”
“She will post it,” Peter said.
“Yes,” I said.
Unless I gave her what she wanted.
Attention.
Fear.
A private conversation.
Control.
I looked at Martin. “Send this to counsel. Then draft one sentence.”
“What sentence?”
“Mr. Rourke will respond to any medical or legal matter through counsel and will not engage in public discussion concerning a possible minor child.”
Peter nodded slowly. “That is good.”
“It is not good. It is just the first clean thing.”
My office phone rang.
Internal line.
My assistant’s voice came through. “Mr. Rourke, your father is here.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course he was.
Peter muttered, “Not now.”
“Send him in,” I said.
Peter looked at me. “Bennett.”
“Stay.”
The door opened.
Victor Rourke entered like a man walking into a room he owned, though every person inside now knew he was under investigation.
He wore a dark suit, perfect as always. His silver hair was smooth. His face showed no shame.
His eyes moved from me to Peter, then to Martin.
“Quite the gathering,” he said.
I said nothing.
He looked at my phone in Martin’s hand. “I assume you have heard Serena’s news.”
Peter went still.
Martin’s gaze sharpened.
I stepped closer to my father.
“How did you know?”
Victor’s expression did not change.
“She called me.”
“When?”
“Recently.”
“Before or after she sent Madeleine the test?”
His mouth tightened. “Do not speak to me like an enemy.”
“Then stop standing on the other side.”
Victor looked at Peter. “You see what guilt has done to him.”
Peter folded his arms. “I see a man asking a direct question.”
My father’s eyes cooled.
“Careful, Peter.”
I laughed.
The sound was dead and sharp.
“There it is,” I said. “The family prayer.”
Victor ignored me. “A child changes things.”
“No,” I said. “A child deserves better than being called a strategy.”
“If it is yours, the press will not leave this alone.”
“I know.”
“Madeleine’s position weakens.”
My hands went still.
Peter said, “Victor.”
My father kept his eyes on me.
“Think, Bennett. The betrayed wife narrative changes when there is an innocent child involved.”
I stared at him.
There he was.
Not a father.
Not a grandfather.
Not even a businessman.
A man who could see a possible baby and think: leverage.
“You are disgusting,” I said.
He looked almost bored. “I am realistic.”
“You knew Serena was going to send this.”
“I knew she was upset.”
“You knew.”
His eyes moved away.
That was enough.
I stepped toward him.
Martin shifted, ready.
I stopped myself.
Not because Victor did not deserve it.
Because Madeleine had asked me to prove it without making her bleed.
“You will not contact Serena again,” I said.
Victor smiled faintly. “You do not give me orders.”
“I will when your contact affects a company investigation.”
“The company investigation you started to punish your own father?”
“The company investigation you earned.”
He looked at Peter. “And the board supports this madness?”
Peter’s voice was quiet. “The board supports evidence.”
Victor’s smile thinned.
My phone buzzed again in Martin’s hand.
Martin looked down.
Then at me.
“It’s public,” he said.
Peter swore.
I did not need to ask what he meant.
Serena had posted the video.
Within seconds, alerts hit every screen.
Serena Mallory claims pregnancy.
Bennett Rourke mistress speaks.
Betrayed wife faces new heartbreak.
I turned away from the screens.
Not because I could not bear my own shame.
Because I could see Theo’s face when the world told him he might have a sibling through the woman who destroyed his mother.
Victor’s voice came behind me.
“You see? Now you have no choice.”
I turned back slowly.
“You are wrong.”
He lifted a brow. “Am I?”
“Yes.” I took my phone from Martin and set it on the desk. “I have a choice. I choose legal process. Medical proof. No private contact. No public fight. No blaming Madeleine. No using Theo. No hiding.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“And no merger,” I added.
The room went silent.
Peter looked at me.
Victor went very still.
“What did you say?”
“I said no merger. Not with Northstar. Not with any group tied to this mess. Not while my wife’s name sits on a forged document. Not while Serena is being used as a weapon. Not while you think a possible child is a bargaining chip.”
Victor’s voice dropped. “You do not have the authority.”
“Maybe not alone.”
I looked at Peter.
Peter held my gaze.
Then he nodded once.
Victor saw it.
For the first time, real anger broke through his face.
“You would burn billions over a woman who is already in another man’s house?”
I stepped closer until only a few feet stood between us.
“I would burn every dollar before I let you use her pain as fuel.”
Victor stared at me.
For one second, I saw something like fear.
Then it vanished.
“You have become useless,” he said.
“No,” I said. “I have become late.”
My phone rang again.
Audrey.
I answered at once.
“I saw,” I said.
“Everyone saw,” she replied.
“Is Madeleine—”
“She is with Theo.”
My stomach dropped.
“He knows?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
The punishment never ended.
Audrey’s voice softened, but only slightly. “He asked if the baby is real.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she does not know.”
I pressed my hand to the desk.
“She told the truth,” I whispered.
“Yes. You should try to deserve that one day.”
I took the hit.
“I will send my statement through counsel. Medical proof only. No public fight.”
“Good.”
“Audrey.”
“What?”
“Tell her I am sorry.”
“No.”
I closed my eyes.
“Right.”
“Not because you are not sorry,” Audrey said. “Because she knows. And right now, knowing is not helping.”
The line ended.
I stood with the dead phone in my hand.
Victor watched me with cold eyes.
Peter watched me with tired ones.
Martin waited like a guard at the edge of war.
On my screen, the headline refreshed again and again.
Serena Mallory: “I Am Carrying Bennett Rourke’s Child.”
I looked at it until the words stopped moving.
Then I turned to Martin.
“Find the clinic,” I said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Find the test source. Find the dates. Find every person who helped her prepare this.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And find out why my father knew before I did.”
Victor’s mouth tightened.
I looked at him.
“If Serena is pregnant, I will face it. If she is lying, I will expose it. And if you helped her turn a possible child into a weapon against Madeleine, I will not protect you because you share my blood.”
Victor stepped toward the door.
At the threshold, he paused.
“You still do not understand,” he said. “Madeleine was never the real target.”
I went cold.
“What does that mean?”
He looked back at me.
“The boy was.”
Then he walked out.
For one second, no one moved.
Then I grabbed my phone.
“Theo,” I said.
Peter stepped forward. “Bennett—”
“No.” My voice sounded nothing like my own. “If my father just threatened my son, I am done staying away.”
Martin blocked the door again.
His face was hard.
“Sir,” he said, “then we do this the right way.”
I stared at him.
Every part of me wanted to run.
Every part of me wanted to break promises.
Every part of me wanted to be the man who could still reach his family by force of will.
Then I heard Madeleine’s voice.
Prove it without making me bleed.
I stepped back.
Barely.
“Call Audrey,” I said.
Martin nodded.
But as he reached for his phone, mine buzzed again.
A message from Theo.
Is it true? Is she having your baby?
I stared at the words.
My son was asking me for the truth.
And for once, I had to give it before the world gave him a lie.
I typed with shaking hands.
I don’t know yet. I am going to find out the right way. I love you. None of this is your fault.
The reply came fast.
It feels like it is.
I could not stand after that.
I sat down hard in my chair, my phone in both hands, and understood my father’s last words with a fear colder than shame.
Victor did not need to destroy Madeleine to win.
He only needed to make Theo believe every wound in this family began with him.