The pregnancy test sits on my desk like a loaded gun. Three months ago, I would've laughed if someone told me I'd be staring at two pink lines that could destroy everything I've built. But here I am—Marcus Kane, youngest CEO in the Fortune 500, looking at the evidence of the biggest mistake of my life. Or maybe not a mistake. Maybe this was her plan all along. I built Kane Industries from nothing. Ten years of eighty-hour weeks, cutthroat deals, and stepping on throats to climb from the mailroom to the executive suite. I crushed competitors, fired friends, and sacrificed everything for this empire. And I'd do it all again. But then Victoria Ashford walked into my office six months ago. She was supposed to be just another junior analyst. Beautiful, smart, ambitious—but so were a dozen others. What made her different was how she looked at me during that first meeting. Like she saw something worth saving underneath the ruthless bastard everyone else feared. I should've known better. Her father, Richard Ashford, has been trying to destroy me for five years. Our companies have been locked in a war that's cost both of us millions. He's old money, legacy wealth, everything I'm not. He hates that I'm winning. Last month, I found the emails. Victoria had been feeding her father inside information from day one. Product launches, merger plans, client lists—everything. She'd played me perfectly, and I'd been too distracted by the way she looked in that black dress to see the knife aimed at my back. I fired her immediately. Told security to escort her out. Watched her cry and swear it wasn't what it looked like. I almost believed her until she said she loved me. In my world, love is just another weapon. But she left something behind. The pregnancy test appeared this morning, delivered by courier with a simple note: "We need to talk. The baby is yours. —V" I have my assistant run the timeline. The dates match up with that weekend in Miami. The conference where we stayed up until dawn, where she told me about her childhood, where I let my guard down for the first time in a decade. Where I made the mistake of thinking someone could actually want me for more than my money or my power. My phone buzzes. It's a text from an unknown number. "Congratulations, Kane. You're going to be a father. Come to the Ashford estate tonight at eight, or I'm going public with everything—the affair, the baby, and the insider trading charges I've been building against you. Your choice: marriage or prison. —Richard Ashford" I stare at the message as my blood turns to ice. He didn't just send his daughter to spy on me. He sent her to trap me. And now he's holding my entire empire hostage with a child I'm not even sure is real. But as I look at that pregnancy test again, I realize something that changes everything. If that baby exists, it's mine. My heir. My blood. And I'll burn Richard Ashford's entire world to ash before I let him control what belongs to me. I text back: "I'll be there. But tell Victoria to prepare for war." Because Richard Ashford just made his biggest mistake. He gave me something worth fighting for. ##