Chapter Eight #3
"There is no obligation," Cameron swore fiercely.
"There is only you. But listen to me. I know you are frightened.
I know this is overwhelming. I am not going to force you into anything.
I will wait. I will spend every day proving my devotion to you, proving that I am worthy of you, until you trust me enough to say yes. "
Aurelia stared at him. She was carrying the child of a billionaire. Her life was fundamentally, irreversibly altered. She should have been terrified of his power, terrified of the gilded cage Harper always warned her about.
But as Cameron looked at her, his walls shattered, his soul laid bare before her, Aurelia felt an unexplainable warmth spread through her chest. She felt cherished. She felt unequivocally safe.
***
By nine o'clock that evening, the Langsford corporate apartment was deathly quiet.
Harper had just closed the door to the bedroom. She had spent the last three hours holding Aurelia as her friend cried tears of shock, fear, and a strange, hesitant joy. Harper had drawn her a bath, made her tea, and sat by the mattress until Aurelia had finally fallen into a deep, exhausted sleep.
The moment the bedroom door clicked shut, the mask of the supportive best friend vanished.
Harper’s face hardened into a mask of pure fury. She grabbed her coat, bypassing the elevator and taking the emergency stairs, her boots hammering a violent rhythm against the concrete.
She marched past the security detail on the top floor, ignoring their protests, and kicked the double doors of the executive boardroom open with enough force to crack the wood paneling.
Inside, the atmosphere was a stark contrast to the violence of her entrance.
Cameron, Julian, and Sebastian were standing near the floor-to-ceiling windows.
There was an open bottle of Macallan on the table, and three crystal glasses.
The brothers weren't plotting. They were celebrating.
The oppressive guilt that had haunted them since they woke up in this timeline had lifted, replaced by a fierce, protective triumph.
They turned as Harper stormed into the room.
"Pregnant?" Harper shrieked, the word tearing from her throat like a physical weapon. "Are you out of your minds?! How does this even happen? This timeline is wrong! There was no baby in the previous life! She suffered for five years in that house and there was never a child!"
Sebastian stepped forward, holding his hands up in a placating gesture, a broad, genuine smile on his face. "Harper, calm down. It’s a miracle. We have a bloodline. We have a future."
"It is a deviation!" Harper fired back, her anxiety spiking wildly.
She paced the length of the boardroom, her hands pulling at her own hair.
She was thrilled for Aurelia—she loved her friend fiercely—but the unpredictability terrified her.
"Don't you understand? If this is different, what else is different?
What else is coming that we can't predict?
Elena is still out there! Your mother is still out there! "
Julian set his glass down, his legal mind analyzing his sister’s panic. He understood her fear. Harper relied on her knowledge of the past to protect Aurelia. The pregnancy had erased her map.
"Harper, look at me," Julian said, his voice a steady, grounding force. "The variables have changed, yes. But the defense strategy remains. Elena will be dealt with. Mother will be neutralized. We have the perimeter locked down."
Harper spun around, glaring at the eldest brother. "And you! You swore to me you would keep your distance! You swore you wouldn't trap her again!"
Cameron stepped out of the shadows of the glass. The imposing CEO was radiating an aura of such unshakeable resolve that Harper felt her breath catch. He didn't look guilty. He looked like a man who had conquered death itself.
"I didn't trap her, Harper," Cameron said, his voice dropping into a low rumbling timbre that commanded the very air in the room. "I offered her my name, and I told her I would wait until she was ready to accept it. I am giving her the choice I stole from her in our last life."
"And what if she chooses to walk away?" Harper challenged, her eyes narrowing. "What if she decides she doesn't want to raise a child in the shadow of this empire?"
Cameron’s gray eyes darkened, the fierce, protective devotion burning like a star in his soul. He closed the distance between them, looking down at his sister with a truth so deep, it could not be argued.
"She can take my wealth. She can take my titles.
She can take every building with my name on it," Cameron vowed, the finality of his words echoing in the silent boardroom.
"But the timeline shifting changes nothing about my endgame.
She is the mother of my child. She is the only woman I have ever loved across two lifetimes.
I will follow her to the ends of the earth.
I will prove my devotion every single day until my last breath. But make no mistake, Harper."
Cameron’s jaw set into stone.
"I am never, ever letting her go."