Chapter 8 - PROTECTING WHAT MATTERS
He carried Noah into the bedroom, gently tucked the heavy superhero blankets around his shoulders, and turned on the star-shaped nightlight.
He pressed a lingering, gentle kiss to his son’s forehead, making a silent vow to protect him forever.
When Ethan walked back into the dimly lit living room, Hannah was standing by the window.
She had heard the quiet exchange in the hallway, and she was wiping a tear from her own eye.
"He loves you," Hannah said quietly, her voice full of a complex mix of relief and lingering fear.
"I love him more than my own life," Ethan whispered fiercely, stepping closer to her.
He stopped just a few inches away, his dark eyes searching hers for any sign of rejection.
"And I love you, Hannah, I never stopped loving you for a single second of those seven years."
Hannah looked down at her hands, her fingers twisting nervously as she fought her own walls.
"You broke my heart into a million pieces, Ethan, and it took me years of pure survival to put it back together."
"Then please let me spend the rest of my life protecting it," he promised, his voice raw with emotion.
Before she could answer, his phone buzzed violently in his pocket, shattering the intimate moment.
Ethan answered it, and his face instantly darkened into a mask of pure, lethal fury.
The fragile peace they had built was under attack, because a sleazy tabloid magazine had just published a massive hit piece.
Photos of Ethan, Hannah, and Noah playing at the park were plastered aggressively across the internet.
The headline was vicious and clearly funded by Victoria's angry family.
"Billionaire Blackwood Trapped by Scheming Waitress and Her Illegitimate Child!"
Hannah gasped as she read the headline over his shoulder, terrified that this chaos would ruin Noah’s innocent childhood.
She rushed to lock the front door and pulled the living room curtains tightly shut against the imaginary eyes of the world.
By noon the next day, a swarm of aggressive paparazzi had surrounded their private apartment building, flashing cameras at the windows.
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Hannah sat on the floor of the bedroom with Noah, holding his ears covered as he cried from the loud shouting outside.
Suddenly, a fleet of menacing black SUVs roared onto the quiet street, tires screeching against the pavement.
