Chapter 5 - The Promise
He took my cracked phone, walked to his study, and made a single, two-minute phone call.
When he walked back out, he handed the phone back to me. "Ray Maddox will never speak your name again," Damian said smoothly. "His debt to me was much larger than yours was to him. It's been handled."
I stared at him, my mind unable to process the magnitude of what he had just done. "You... you paid it?"
"I erased it," Damian corrected, stepping closer. The terrifying aura that surrounded him seemed to soften as he looked down at me. "But you still have a debt here."
Before I could ask what he meant, small footsteps padded down the hallway.
Noah walked up to us, clutching Captain Buttons. He looked at my duffel bag, his lower lip trembling. He dropped his bear. He reached out, grabbed my hand, and looked up at his father.
Noah took a deep breath, opening his mouth.
"Stay," Noah whispered.
It was raspy. It was quiet. But it was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.
Damian froze. The breath hitched in his chest as he stared at his son, hearing the voice he had spent four million dollars trying to buy back. Then, Damian looked up at me, his stormy gray eyes burning with a fierce, unbreakable intensity.
"I made a promise in front of forty-two men," Damian said quietly, his voice thick with emotion. "Half my empire. And my hand in marriage."
I shook my head, overwhelmed. "I didn't do this for your money, Damian. I did it for him."
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"I know," Damian murmured, reaching out to gently brush a tear from my cheek. "That's exactly why you're the only woman who will ever wear my ring. You saved my son. Now, let me save you."
He didn't ask me to clean his house again. He took my bag, threw it aside, and pulled me and Noah into his arms, finally filling the beautiful mausoleum with the one thing it had been missing: a family.
