Ch. paid to leave pregnant with the vampire king heirs 7 paid to leave pregnant with the vampire king heirs 7

Chapter 7 

Chapter 7 

The room went dim. The gel was cold. The wand pressed down. 

The screen lit up gray and grainy, and then- 

There. There. And there. 

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Three tiny flickers, fast as hummingbirds. 

“They’re perfect,” the doctor said warmly. “All three measuring on target. Strong hearts. Very strong. Honestly, they’re overachievers.” 

Beside me, I heard a sound. 

I turned my head. 

Dorian Vale, who had once ended a hostile takeover by simply staring at the opposing CEO until he resigned, who had survived three Court wars and one guillotine, was standing in the dark with his hand over his mouth. 

And he was crying. 

Vampires cry blood. I’d read that somewhere and never believed it. 

Thin red tracks ran down his face, and he didn’t even try to hide them. 

“That’s-” His voice came out shredded. “That’s three.” 

“Three,” I said. 

“Three.” He stared at the screen like it was scripture. “Sloane. They have heartbeats. I haven’t had a heartbeat in four hundred years, and they have three.” 

The doctor, sensing the room, slipped out and closed the door. 

He came down on his knees beside the table. Not gracefully. Like his legs quit. 

He took my hand in both of his, and they were shaking. 

“I’m sorry.” Into my knuckles. Over and over. “You were alone. You found out alone, you got on a plane 

Chapter 7 

alone. you bought a house alone, while I was signing papers in Geneva-” 

“Dorian.” 

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“I don’t know anything about you.” His head stayed bowed. “Do you know what I realized on that plane? I know your blood type to the antigen. I don’t know your favorite song. I know your family’s debts to the penny. I don’t know if you like the ocean. A wet, awful laugh. “You bought a house full of sunlight. You must have been starving for it. I kept you in the dark for a year and never once asked.” 

Something in my chest cracked, very quietly, in a place I’d welded shut. 

I put my free hand on his head. I don’t know why. It just happened. 

He went completely still, like a man afraid to scare off a bird. 

“Don’t make me regret this,” I said. 

“Never.” 

We drove home in silence, but a different kind. 

At my gate I said, “Dinner. Tomorrow. One hour. On the terrace, after sunset. Not inside.” 

He nodded once, very seriously, like I’d approved a merger. 

I was actually smiling as I walked up my own path. 

Which is when I saw the cars. 

Four black Escalades with mirrored windows idling in front of my house, blocking half the road. Dusk was falling fast. 

My mother was standing in my front doorway holding a casserole dish, staring at them the way you stare at a raccoon in the garbage. 

My parents had flown in that afternoon. I’d forgotten. 

And at my gate, flanked by two lawyers and four enforcers whose cold hit my skin like frost, stood Augustus Vale. 

He didn’t knock. He didn’t ring. 

+45 Coins 

Chapter 7 

He folded his hands behind his back and used the voice he used on servants. 

“Sloane. Come here.” 

Felix came down from the studio, took one look, and walked to the gate with his arms crossed. 

“Lower your voice. This is a residential street, not your crypt.” 

Augustus didn’t even glance at him. 

“The girl carries Vale blood. Three trueborn heirs. They will be born on Court territory and raised under Court law. She returns with us tonight.” 

Felix laughed, one sharp, delighted bark. 

“Oh, now you remember the babies? That wasn’t the tune when you wired her fifty million dollars to disappear.” 

Augustus’s eyes bled red at the edges. His fangs showed. “That is my bloodline. It is not negotiable.” 

“That isn’t your decision.” 

The new voice came from behind me. Calm. Unhurried. Not loud at all. 

And every vampire on that street, including four enforcers built like refrigerators, went absolutely silent. 

Because they had smelled what I never had. 

My father had stepped out of my house. 

Still holding his teacup.