Chapter 17
My mind completely emptied. I just sat there, my knees still tucked tight against my chest, staring at him.
The air between us felt thick, charged with sothing I couldn’t quite na, and my mouth opened slightly but no sound ca out.
Ren didn’t even look smug about the chaotic ss he’d just made of my heart rate.
He simply stood up from the armchair, his massive fra unfolding with that slow, predatory grace. He looked down at for one last beat, the heavy lines of his face softening just a fraction.
"You should always smile," he said, his voice a low, gravelly command that felt more like a shield than an order. "Never let anyone take that away from you."
Before I could find my voice, he turned and walked out, the heavy click of the door shutting into the quiet darkness once again.
The next morning, I walked out of the hotel lobby expecting the usual damp chill of a London morning while trying to flag down a black cab. Instead, I found Ren leaning against the side of a sleek, dark SUV parked right at the curb.
I stopped on the pavent, blinking at the vehicle. "Where did you get this?"
"Rented it," he said simply, tossing a small travel mug of hot coffee into my hands. "I didn’t want you moving from one taxi to another all day. It’s too cold, and you’ve got enough on your mind."
I stared at the coffee, then at the car, a strange warmth blooming behind my ribs. He rented a car just so I wouldn’t have to wait in the rain.
The consideration of it hit harder than any grand gesture ever could. He was treating with a protective, unhurried care that felt dangerously like... well, like we were lovers.
I stopped that thought imdiately, cutting it off before it could take root.
He’s Neve’s younger brother, I reminded myself firmly as I climbed into the passenger seat. He’s just being decent.
We reached the office near Regent’s Park in less than twenty minutes.
The lawyer, a sharp-eyed woman nad Eleanor Vance, welcod us into a room lined with heavy bookshelves.
She looked precisely like the kind of woman who tore cheating husbands to shreds for breakfast.
"Alright, let’s get straight to business," Eleanor said, pulling out a legal pad and clicking her pen.
"Ren gave a brief overview, but I need the specifics from you. First, are there any children involved in this marriage?"
"No," I said automatically, shaking my head.
From the corner of my eye, I caught the sudden, sharp shift in Ren’s posture. I didn’t have to look at him to know the confusion on his face.
I knew Neve had told him everything about my life back ho... including the fact that I had a son.
But Ren stayed completely silent. He didn’t interrupt, didn’t question , didn’t demand an explanation in front of the lawyer. He just let speak.
Eleanor nodded, her pen writing over the paper. "Perfect. A clean break makes things significantly faster in the UK system, especially since we’re pushing for an expedited tiline based on..."
"Actually," I cut in, my voice cracking slightly before I forced it to steady. "There is a child involved." Her pen suspended in the air. She looked up at , her sharp brows furrowing in surprise.
"I thought you just said no?"
"It’s... complicated," I whispered.
Eleanor lowered her pen, her expression shifting from a professional lawyer to a human being.
"Lumi, if I’m going to help you bypass the standard waiting periods and protect your assets, you need to tell everything. You have to trust ." I nodded slowly, my throat tight.
Beside , Ren shifted his heavy weight. "I can excuse myself," he rumbled softly, already preparing to stand. "Give you so privacy."
"No," I said quickly. Before I could stop myself, I reached out and caught his hand.
His knuckles were massive, rough, and warm. Holding onto him was like anchoring myself to a mountain in the middle of a storm.
I needed him here. Reliving this was going to tear open a wound I had spent days trying to heal from, and I knew I wouldn’t survive the telling without his quiet strength in the room.
Ren froze for a fraction of a second, his dark eyes dropping to where my small fingers were clamped around his hand.
Then, without a word, he turned his hand over, wrapping his thick fingers securely around mine. He didn’t let go.
"Callum and I adopted a son a few years ago," I began, taking a deep, shuddering breath. "His na is Theo. He’s three."
Eleanor nodded, writing it down. "Go on."
"On the day I walked into Callum and caught him with my best friend, Sienna... I found out the truth." I swallowed hard, forcing my voice to co out clear, sharp, and entirely devoid of tears.
I was past the point of crying like a victim. I wanted my sanity back, and I wanted my life back.
"Theo isn’t a stranger’s child. He belongs to them." Eleanor’s eyes fell for a split second, a flash of pity crossing her face before she instantly masked it with her professional deanor.
I didn’t need her pity. I didn’t want it. I was done being the tragic woman in the story. I was in a completely different stage now, the stage where I take back every single one of my lost years.
"Turns out, Sienna got pregnant right before my wedding," I continued, the words tasting like ash but delivered with a cold, steady precision.
"She gave birth in secret, brought the baby to under the guise of an open adoption, and told she was helping a young mother who couldn’t afford to raise him.
She handed her own child to so I could raise him, feed him, and love him, while she and my husband ssed behind my back."
Eleanor let out a sharp, quiet breath. "Good God."
"Did you adopt the child legally?" She asked, her legal instincts kicking right back in.
"Yes. We went through the full legal process. My na is on the adoption certificate as his mother." I looked Eleanor dead in the eye, my grip tightening on Ren’s hand. "Can I fight for my son?"
Eleanor didn’t hesitate. "If the adoption was finalized legally and you are registered as his mother, absolutely. In the eyes of the law, you are his legal parent. His biological origin doesn’t void a legal adoption decree unless fraud can be proven against you... which it can’t. You didn’t know."
"Can I win?" I pressed.
"Yes," Eleanor said, a fierce, protective edge entering her voice. "We will file for sole custody based on marital misconduct, emotional distress, and the unstable environnt the father created. I will make sure he doesn’t take that boy from you."
A heavy, suffocating silence filled the room.
Ren hadn’t said a single word, but I would have been entirely stupid to say I couldn’t feel the raw anger radiating off his massive body.
The air around him practically vibrated with it. I could hear the sharp, controlled way he was forcing air into his lungs, his chest rising and falling in tight, rigid movents.
His jaw was clenched so hard the muscles in his neck looked like cables.
A few minutes later, while Eleanor was looking up a specific statute on her computer, Ren cleared his throat.
"I need to use the restroom," he said, his voice dangerously low.
He squeezed my hand once, a brief, reassuring pressure, before releasing it and stepping out of the office.
By the ti he ca back, Eleanor and I were nearly finished going over the paperwork. We signed the initial retainer, shook hands, and walked out into the crisp afternoon air.
The weight in my chest felt lighter, replaced by a cold, sharp determination. I was going to fight, and I was going to win.
We walked back to the rented SUV. The clouds had cleared slightly, leaving a pale, weak sunlight over the London streets.
"Are we still going to the park?" I asked, looking up at him as he unlocked the doors. "To see the rose gardens?"
"Yeah," Ren muttered. He didn’t look at as he climbed into the driver’s seat.
He reached for the steering wheel, his large hands gripping the leather. As he shifted the car into gear, the sleeve of his jacket rode up, and my breath hitched sharply in my throat.
My blood completely froze.
"Ren," I breathed, my hand darting out to catch his forearm. "Stop."
He stopped, keeping his eyes glued to the windshield. "What?"
"Your hands."
His right knuckle was split wide open. Raw, jagged cuts tore across the skin, bleeding slowly.
He had clearly tried to wash it but the deep gashes were still oozing blood down his fingers.
He tried to pull his hand away, tucking it closer to his thigh. "It’s nothing."
"It is not nothing!" I scolded, a sudden, fierce panic flaring up inside . I grabbed his wrist, my voice leaving no room for argunt. "Give your hand. Your right hand." I specified when he tried to give his left hand instead.
He resisted for a long, stubborn second before letting out a defeated growl and extending his right hand toward .
I took it in mine, completely petrified as I stared at the damage. The skin was completely battered, the knuckle swollen and torn.
Who did he have a fight with?
"What happened to you?" I whispered, my thumbs gently brushing the uninjured skin near his wrists. My heart was aching so intensely I could barely breathe.
Ren didn’t pull away this ti. Instead, he just sat there, watching tend to his bleeding knuckles with a look I had never seen on him before.
"How is it that you’re still standing so strong after a betrayal like that?" The words ca out of him in a rough whisper.
I looked up, my eyes locking onto his.
The expression on his face completely floored . He was looking at with awe.
It was the look of a man who couldn’t comprehend how a woman so small could carry a weight so devastating without shattering into a thousand pieces.
"How painful would it have been?" he asked softly, his dark eyes searching mine, filled with a deep, aching pain that mirrored my own.
My throat tightened, a lump forming so fast it choked .
He had literally bloodied his own hands against solid brick because he couldn’t bear the thought of what they had done to .
He hadn’t used the restroom. He had gone into the hallway and smashed his bare fist into the wall of the building just to keep himself from exploding in that office.
"Ren..." I whispered, my heart racing as the silence stretched between us.
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