Chapter 30
“I want Creed Tech,” Amara said.
The words fell like heavy stones into a deep well. The room went silent. The smiles on the faces of the Creed family didn’t just fade; they froze.
“The company?” Seb stammered, his face turning a sickly shade of grey. “Why would you want my company? Ask for money. Ask for the house, the cars… anything else. Why the company p>
It was the only thing Seb truly worshipped. It was the source of his pride, the throne that allowed him to look down on the world. For ten years, Amara had been the silent engine behind that success, working in the shadows to make him a giant. She had built his empire with her own hands while he was busy building a house of lies.
“It’s the price of her freedom,” Amara said, her voice smooth as silk and cold as ice.
She knew Seb better than he knew himself. She knew that behind the talk of “family” and “love,” Seb was a man who loved power above all things. She wanted Elara to see it, too. She wanted the wife he married to realize that in Seb’s world, everyone was a pawn and the king would never sacrifice his crown for a knight.
“Choose, Seb,” Amara leaned in, her eyes boring into his. “Is the woman you love and the child she carries worth more than the desk you sit at? Is your ’family’ worth the name on the front of that building p>
Elara’s breath hitched. She looked at Seb, her eyes pleading, waiting for him to laugh and tell Amara she was crazy. She waited for him to say that she was worth more than any business.
But Seb didn’t look at Elara. He looked at the floor. He looked at his hands. He was calculating. He was weighing the woman in the sack against the stock options in his bank account.
The silence stretched, long and thin, until Elara’s triumphant smile finally shattered into a mask of pure terror.
“Just answer. Will you give it, or not p>
Seb stepped back, his hands shaking. “I can give you anything else, Amara. Anything. But Creed Corp… that’s my life’s work. You know that. It’s my name. It’s my legacy.” He even tried the old pet name, his voice trembling. “Baby, you know what that company means to me p>
Amara simply nodded, a ghost of a smile touching her lips. She didn’t feel pity; she felt a cold satisfaction. She looked over at Elara, whose face was beginning to pale. Amara wanted her to see it, to see that even she was just another item on a balance sheet. To Seb, people were replaceable. Power was not.
“I only have eyes on the company,” Amara said. “What’s the matter, Seb? Can’t let it go? You want the girl, the secret family, the unborn heir, and the crown? You can’t have it all and still expect me to grant her mercy p>
“Stop pressuring him!” Madam Creed snapped, stepping forward to shield her son. “Seb didn’t mean for you to lose that child. It was an accident of fate. You’re being cruel p>
“And my only goal,” Amara replied, ignoring the older woman, “is to see Elara behind bars. The choice isn’t mine anymore. It’s his p>
Elara felt the shift in the room. She felt Seb’s hesitation like a physical blow. She threw herself at his feet again, her voice a ragged sob. “Seb, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ll go. I’ll go to prison if that’s what it takes to save your dream. But… I’m carrying our child. How will our baby survive a cell p>
“Daddy!” Seren wailed, clutching Seb’s leg, her face wet with tears. “Please save Mommy! I need her! Don’t let the mean lady take her p>
Seb stood paralyzed. He looked at the daughter he adored, then at the woman carrying his next legacy, and finally at the company that defined his soul. The silence was a suffocating shroud. He was a man who had built a world on lies, and now, the truth was asking him to pay the ultimate price.
The words hung in the air, heavy and jagged.
“Consider Creed Corp yours,” Seb said.
The silence that followed was louder than the screams from before. Seb looked at Amara, and for a fleeting second, he saw the ghost of the woman who had once been his whole world.
He knew this wasn’t about money. He knew she was digging a hole in his chest to match the one he had carved in hers. He thought he was being a hero, paying a debt of blood with a tower of glass and steel.
“Seb! Have you lost your mind?” Madam Creed’s voice was a shrill blade, cutting through the shock. “Without that company, we are nothing! Our name, our home, our life, you are throwing us into the dirt for her p>
“I’ve decided,” Seb snapped, his voice hollow and tired. He didn’t look at his mother. He didn’t look at Elara, whose face was a mask of twisted relief and lingering greed. “I owe her this. It’s done p>
Amara stood perfectly still. She watched him play the martyr, watched him pretend that giving up a company could ever pay for the life of a child or the years of a stolen soul. She saw Elara’s hand slip back into Seb’s, her fingers tightening on the man she had managed to keep, even if he was now a man with nothing.
“You think this makes us even?” Amara asked, her voice a low, terrifying hum.
She looked at the paperwork Julian was already pulling from his leather case, the documents that would strip the Creed name from the skyline. She looked at Seren, who was still clinging to Seb, and at Elara, who was already imagining how to spend a fortune that was no longer hers.
“You gave me a pile of bricks, Seb,” Amara whispered, leaning close enough for only him to hear. “But you kept the woman who killed our baby. Do you think you saved your family today? Look at them p>
She gestured to the room, where the guests were already turning their backs, where the lights of the gala seemed to be dimming.
“You didn’t save anything. You just bought a front-row seat to see how long ’love’ lasts when the money runs out p>
Madam Creed’s face twisted into a mask of pure venom. She spat the words out like they were poisoned.
“My son owes you nothing! Men get tempted, Amara. That’s just the way of the world. If you weren’t woman enough to keep him home, that’s on you p>
She stepped closer, her expensive perfume clashing with the smell of the storm outside.
“So what if you’re filthy rich now? Listen to me. You’ve been used by my son for years. You’re second-hand. You’re broken. Who in their right mind would ever want to marry you now? Whoever takes you on will regret it for every day of their life p>
The room went cold. The whispers died.
“Stop p>
The word didn’t come from Amara. It came from Madam Pedro. Amara’s mother stepped out of the shadows, her eyes burning with a fire that made Madam Creed’s petty anger look like a flickering candle.
She stood in front of her daughter, her shadow long and sharp on the marble floor.
“Say that again,” Madam Pedro whispered, her voice trembling with the weight of twenty-eight years of love. “Say one more word about my daughter and see what happens to you. You talk of regret? You have no idea what the word means yet p>
She turned her gaze to Seb, then back to his mother.
“You think you’ve seen Amara’s power because she took your company? You haven’t seen anything. You’ve spent a decade insulting a lioness, thinking she was a house cat because she loved your son. But the love is gone now. And all that’s left is the lion p>