Ch. paid to leave pregnant with the vampire king heirs 9 paid to leave pregnant with the vampire king heirs 9

Chapter 9 

Chapter 9 

On camera, he looked like himself again. 

+45 Coins 

Black suit. Burns healed. Vale Capital’s silver logo glowing behind him. For twenty minutes he took apart six market questions like a surgeon. Sharp, funny once, absolutely in control. 

My mother, grudgingly: “He is very good at this” 

Then the host tilted her head. 

“Mr. Vale, there’s been real investor anxiety about the stability of the Vale family this quarter. Your stock has had a brutal month. How do you respond?” 

The studio went quiet. 

I braced for the PR answer. Family matters are private. We remain focused on shareholder value. I could have written it myself. 

He was silent for three seconds. 

Then he turned and looked directly into the camera. 

“The anxiety is justified,” he said. 

The host blinked. 

“Because I destroyed my own marriage. And I hurt the most important person 

Nobody in the studio moved. 

in 

my life.” 

“I was arrogant,” he said. “I treated my bond like a contract and my bride like a line on a balance sheet. I kept her in a house with black windows for a year. I spent every night building an empire and not one night building a home. She built one anyway. And I didn’t notice until she carried it out the door.” 

My mother’s hand found mine. 

“There’s a version of this where I blame the woman who forged my seal. She will answer for it. But she only had the chance because I wasn’t paying attention to my own life. That is mine. That is on me.” 

He breathed. 

Chapter 9 

“Sloane If you’re watching.” 

My whole body went cold, then hot. 

+45 Coins 

“I need you to hear this clearly, in public, on the record, where I can never take it back.” His voice dropped, raw, nothing like the man I’d married. “I love you. I loved you before I knew about the children. I would love you if there were never any children at all 

Something in my ribs tore straight down the middle. 

“This is not about heirs. It’s not about the Court or my father or a thousand-year prophecy. If you never came back, if you married someone else ten years from now, I would still be the man who lost the only warm thing that ever walked into his house. It has only ever been you.” 

He looked down. When he looked up, his eyes were wet and red. 

“I’ve lived four hundred years and I got the only one that mattered wrong. I’m going to spend the rest of my life getting it right, whether or not you’re standing beside me. Take as long as you need. I have time. I’m not going anywhere.” 

Then, quietly: “I’m sorry.” 

The host said nothing for four full seconds of dead air, which in live television is a geological era. 

I was crying so hard I couldn’t see the screen. 

My mother handed me a tissue and said, in a voice 1 had never heard her use about him, “Well. The boy knows what he did. If you want to forgive him, I won’t stand in your way.” 

My father, from the doorway: “He still talks about his feelings Nke a quarterly report.” 

My phone buzzed. 

Did I pass? 

I stared at it for a long time. Then typed: 

A little dramatic. 

The reply came in under two seconds. 

1722 

+45 Coins 

Chapter 9 

I’ve been alive four hundred years. I’m allowed one dramatic night. It’s yours. 

My heart did something embarrassing. I held the phone to my chest and laughed at the ceiling like a 

teenager. 

I thought that was the turn. The good part. 

I woke the next morning to nineteen missed calls and my mother standing at the foot of my bed, white-faced, holding her tablet. 

“Don’t look at your phone,” she said. 

I looked at my phone. 

Fourteen gossip sites. All published within the same forty minutes. All with the same headline. 

VAMPIRES CAN’T FATHER CHILDREN. SO WHOSE BABIES IS THE RUNAWAY BRIDE CARRYING? 

Chapter 10