It was a morning colder than any winter she had known.
The thick velvet curtains of Amelia's estate fluttered gently in the sea breeze, but the atmosphere inside was suffocating.
She sat by the window, her fingers absently tracing circles over her swollen belly, the life within her kicking gently as if sensing the approaching storm.
Her lips pressed into a thin, bloodless line.
Her heartbeat echoed in her ears, drowning out even the sound of Damian pacing the marble floor behind her.
Without a word, Damian placed a thick, ominous envelope onto the table before her.
Amelia's hands froze mid-motion.
Her heart clenched.
That seal.
The Blake family insignia, embossed in blood-red wax.
Her fingers trembled as she broke it open, every movement slow and deliberate, as if delaying the inevitable could somehow change what lay inside.
Her eyes scanned the document.
Line after line.
Sentence after sentence.
And with each word, her chest tightened until she could barely breathe.
"Petition for Full Custody.""Filed by: Ethan Blake."
The paper slipped from her numb fingers, floating to the marble floor like a fallen leaf in a silent storm.
Her throat tightened painfully, a wave of nausea washing over her as the final blow landed hard.
He wasn't just trying to hurt her.
He was trying to take her child.
The one thing she lived for.
The one thing she had left.
Damian crouched before her, his strong hands gently cupping her pale, ice-cold fingers.
His voice was low, rough from restrained fury.
"He won't win, Amelia. I swear to you—over my dead body."
But Amelia…
She wasn't the same woman who begged for mercy in the rain.
Her eyes lifted, burning with a quiet, deadly resolve.
Her voice was soft, but every word rang out like a battle cry.
"If it's war he wants… then war he shall have."
Somewhere across the city, Ethan Blake stood in his penthouse office, staring at the final court summons prepared by his legal team.
His eyes were hollow, his jaw clenched so tightly it hurt.
If she won't let me back into her life… then I'll take the one thing she can't live without.