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Home / Mafia / Divorce Clause: Heir Included / Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

All Chapters of Divorce Clause: Heir Included: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

129 Chapters

51

The high-pitched squeal of Leo’s laughter cut through the park, a sharp, jagged sound that pulled Madeline back twenty years. For a split second, the concrete jungle of Havenfall blurred. She wasn't a widow watching the clock; she was a young mother again, her husband’s heavy hand on her shoulder as they watched their own son claim his territory in the sandbox.Madeline’s chest tightened with a dull, familiar ache, but it wasn't grief that made her knuckles whiten against the park bench. It was the math.At first, she’d written it off as a grandmother’s desperate hope—seeing Nathan’s ghost in the way the boy tilted his head. Now, it was a cold, hard fact. Leo might have Zack’s eyes, but he had Nathan’s blood in his soul. The way he squared his shoulders, that arrogant smirk when he outran the other kids—it was a carbon copy of the Durand heir."DNA doesn't lie, but people do," Madeline muttered to herself.The pieces of the puzzle were finally clicking into place, jagged and ill-fitti

52

The air in the suite didn't just turn cold; it vanished.Nathan stood like a statue carved from obsidian, his knuckles white as he gripped the edge of the mahogany table. His chest heaved, a jagged, broken rhythm. Beside him, Zack looked like he’d been struck. His skin went the color of ash, his lower lip trembling as he looked at Madeline."What do you mean 'taken'?" Zack’s voice was a choked rasp. "Madeline, how? You were with him. You were right there.""I’m so sorry, Zack." Madeline’s voice was thick with a mother's grief. "I turned my back for one second. One second to speak to Diana, and he was gone. No sound. No struggle. Just... empty space."Zack backed away, shaking his head. His eyes were wide, swimming with a frantic, localized madness. When Nathan moved toward him, arms outstretched to anchor him, Zack lashed out. He swiped at Nathan’s hands, his breath coming in sharp, panicked hitches."Don't!" Zack hissed. "Don't touch me. Don't comfort me. I want my son, Nathan. I wan

53

"Nate, please," Zack's voice was a ragged scrape against the silence of the basement. "It’s too tight."Nathan didn't loosen his grip. Not an inch. His arms were a jagged vise around Zack, a desperate, physical barricade. As long as he could feel the frantic thrum of Zack’s pulse against his own skin, he wasn't letting go.The shack was a rotting tooth in the jaw of the hills outside Havenfall. After the boat hit the shore, Marcus had shoved them through the brush for twenty minutes, his pistol barrel cold against Zack’s neck. Now, they were crated in the dark—Zack, Leo, and Ivy. Ivy sat in the corner, her face a map of purple bruises and leaked mascara, a prisoner of the brother she’d tried to please.When Marcus first snatched them, Zack had prayed for a slip-up. He’d hoped they’d be taken to the Wright estate, somewhere Ethan Cole’s men could find them by scent and steel. But Marcus was a different kind of animal. He’d played the water, cutting off the trail. Unless Nathan and Etha

54

The world was a blurred streak of gray and neon. Zack's head felt like it had been packed with wet wool, his thoughts moving with the agonizing slowness of thick syrup."Nate?" he croaked, his voice cracking like dry parchment.He realized he was in the back of a blacked-out SUV, the engine roaring as it ate the pavement. Nathan’s face was a mask of cold, hard granite, his eyes fixed on the road ahead while one arm remained a protective bar across Zack’s chest."I’ve got you," Nathan said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. He shifted his weight, revealing the smaller bundle tucked against his side. "And I’ve got Leo."Zack’s eyes landed on his son. The boy was waxy, his skin a terrifying shade of translucent blue."Why is he... Nate, why does he look like that?""Marcus played a desperate hand," Nathan explained, his jaw tight enough to snap. "He dosed you both with Starlight. We're five minutes from the trauma center."The name of the drug hit Zack like a physical blow, punching thr

55

Nathan’s face didn't just crack; it disintegrated. The cold, aristocratic mask he wore like armor shattered, leaving behind something raw, jagged, and terrifying. He stared at Zack as if the man had just transformed into a ghost."Nate, they need it now," Ethan Cole snapped. His voice was a whip-crack in the silent trauma bay.Nathan didn't look at him. He didn't look at the doctor. His pupils were blown wide, his chest heaving as his lungs struggled to pull air through a throat constricted by pure, unadulterated shock. He shoved his arm toward the lab tech."Take it," Nathan ordered. His voice wasn't a roar; it was a dead, hollow chill that made the tech’s hands shake so violently the tray rattled.The needle went in. Nathan didn't flinch. He didn't even blink. He just stared at Zack, his gaze heavy with the weight of four years of stolen moments and a legacy he’d thought was ash. Every man in the room—enforcers, doctors, the tech—shrank back. The air around Nathan felt heavy, charge

56

The air in the safehouse basement was a stagnant soup of mildew and motor oil. Madeline’s teeth wouldn’t stop their rhythmic clicking—a frantic, skeletal sound that echoed off the damp concrete. She pulled her knees to her chest, trying to tuck her chin into the collar of her jacket.Marcus was gone. He’d dragged Zack and the boy, Leo, out an hour ago, leaving her locked behind a reinforced steel door that didn't even have a handle on the inside.She stared at the single, flickering bulb hanging from the ceiling. By now, Ethan Cole would have seen the security footage. He would know she’d been the one to disable the perimeter alarms. He would know she was the reason his sanctuary had been breached.A dull ache throbbed in her stomach. She hadn't eaten since the previous night, but the hunger was nothing compared to the cold, oily slick of dread coating her throat.If I get out of here, I’m dead anyway, she thought. Marcus would break her bones if she tried to run, and Ethan... Ethan w

57

The board was a graveyard of wasted millions and broken alliances.Logan’s hands tightened around the edge of the mahogany desk until the wood groaned. Every move he’d made to bury the truth, every offshore account drained to keep the past silenced—all of it had vaporized. Nathan hadn’t just survived; he’d claimed the boy. He’d branded Zack.The power dynamic in the city had shifted on its axis. Nathan wouldn’t be a grieving widower anymore. He had a bloodline to cement. He had a reason to burn the world down.To make matters worse, Madeline had burned her phone and vanished into Ivy’s territory, leaving Logan exposed. His only asset now was his mother, a woman who operated like a ghost but held the garrote wire. She was the one who had whispered the poison into his ear after Julian Wright executed his father. She had funded his training, sent him to the elite academies, and carved him into a weapon designed to penetrate the Durand inner circle."You should have gutted the boy in the

58

Nathan didn’t look back as he pushed into the café. The place was a tomb on Mondays, but the kitchen hummed, the heavy scent of seared ribeye cutting through the stale air of the dining room. Zack followed, his boots clicking hollowly on the polished floor. He stopped, nostrils flaring as the savory aroma hit him."You gave someone my keys?" Zack’s voice was thin, eyes darting to the silhouette moving behind the kitchen’s swinging doors.Nathan’s mouth twitched. "Just Marcus."The tension in Zack’s shoulders didn’t vanish, but it softened. Marcus was the only one in the Cocolink hierarchy who knew his way around a sauté pan better than a Glock."Dinner’s almost up," Marcus shouted from the back, his salt-and-pepper ponytail swaying as he glanced over the counter. "Ten minutes, then I’m out of your hair."Zack shifted, a familiar guilt gnawing at him. He hated having the older man play waiter. Nathan caught the look and squeezed Zack’s nape, a brief, grounding pressure. "He volunteered

59

The neon signs of the empty cafe buzzed, a sharp, artificial hum that grated on Zack’s raw nerves. He leaned against the cold industrial fridge in the kitchen, his breath hitching as Nathan’s heavy boots thudded against the linoleum."What did I just do?" Zack whispered, the words catching in his dry throat.It had felt like a survival tactic in the dining room—hurling the truth at Nathan like a grenade to stop the interrogation. He’d watched the muscle in Nathan’s jaw jump, seen the silver in his eyes turn to liquid mercury. Zack had challenged the Don of Havenfall, basically telling him he hadn’t been man enough to keep his own family."You pushed him," Zack’s internal voice hissed. "He was already a live wire, and you just dropped a wrench in the works."Nathan didn’t just walk toward him; he stalked. The air in the kitchen grew heavy, thick with the scent of expensive tobacco and the iron tang of Nathan’s suppressed violence. Zack didn't move. He needed this. He needed Nathan to s

60

Nathan stood in the center of the mahogany-clad office, the air thick with the scent of expensive cigars and old money. Zack sat beside him, their thighs brushing, a constant physical reminder of the claim Nathan had re-established in the kitchen. Between them, Leo fidgeted, his small hands tugging at the hem of Zack’s shirt. Across the desk, Ethan Cole, the head of the Eros syndicate, watched them with a stillness that made the hair on Nathan’s neck rise.Nathan had walked in expecting a bloodbath. When Ethan first discovered that Nathan had snatched Zack back, the man had nearly leveled a city block. Now, the shift was jarring. The possessive hunger that usually defined Ethan’s gaze when he looked at Zack was gone, replaced by a weary, fraternal warmth.Nathan tightened his jaw. He knew the catalyst. It was the girl, Madeline. Even though Nathan still wanted to break every bone in the body of the woman who’d helped kidnap his son, he could recognize a man caught in the teeth of a fa

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