The city of lights sprawled out hundreds of feet below them, oblivious to the suffocating tension inside the penthouse.
Evelyn's breath hitched as Alexander leaned in closer. The scent of sharp cedarwood and cold rain practically drowned her senses. His broad shoulders blocked out everything else in the room.
"I asked you a question, Evelyn," Alexander repeated, his voice dropping an octave, vibrating with a dark, terrifying patience. His thumb lightly traced the pulse point at her neck, feeling the frantic, fluttering rhythm beneath her skin. "Why did you run?"
Evelyn forced her chin up, refusing to break eye contact. She pushed her trembling hands flat against the immaculate fabric of his dress shirt, trying to create even a millimeter of distance between them. It was like pushing against solid granite.
"Because it was a mistake," she lied smoothly, her voice laced with ice. "I was drunk, you were there. It was a one-night stand, Mr. Sterling. I didn't want your money, and I certainly didn't want to become another notch on a billionaire's bedpost. So, I left."
Alexander's eyes darkened into a tempest. His jaw clenched so hard a muscle feathered in his cheek.
He didn't believe a single word.
"A mistake," he murmured, stepping even closer until the heat of his body seeped through her clothes. He leaned down, his lips brushing against the shell of her ear. "A woman looking for a casual one-night stand doesn't tremble like a leaf in my arms. She doesn't cry out in her sleep. And she certainly doesn't flee the country the very next morning."
Evelyn's breath caught in her throat. Her meticulously constructed armor cracked for a fraction of a second. He remembered. He remembered how terrified she was that night when her stepsister had drugged her.
Alexander caught that microscopic flicker of vulnerability. "You didn't run from me, Evelyn," he stated, his voice a low, absolute command. "You were running from someone else. Who was it?"
"It's none of your business," Evelyn snapped, her eyes flashing with sudden, defensive anger. "What happened five years ago is dead and buried. I am not that same helpless girl anymore. You have no right to interrogate me."
"I have every right," Alexander fired back, his hand slamming against the glass beside her head, his icy composure finally cracking. "If that boy sitting on my rug is my blood, I own every single second of your life from this moment forward."
"You don't own me!" Evelyn shoved hard against his chest, her temper finally exploding. "And you don't own Leo! You are nothing but a sperm donor who happened to be in the wrong room at the wrong time!"
The sheer audacity of her words hung in the air. No one in the entire hemisphere dared to speak to Alexander Sterling like that. His eyes flared with a lethal, possessive fire. He grabbed her wrists, pinning them effortlessly to the glass above her head, his face inches from hers.
"We will see about that," Alexander snarled softly, his gaze dropping to her lips. The sexual tension between them was so thick it could be cut with a knife. "Once the lab results hit my server, you and I are going to have a very long—"
"Actually, Mr. Sterling, those results will not be hitting your server."
The cold, robotic voice sliced through the heavy, heated atmosphere like a scalpel.
Alexander froze. He slowly turned his head.
Leo was still sitting cross-legged on the expensive rug, closing his laptop with a soft click. He adjusted his miniature glasses, looking entirely unbothered by the fact that he had just interrupted a highly volatile moment between his parents.
"What did you just say?" Alexander asked, his voice dangerously low, slowly releasing Evelyn's wrists.
"The twelve minutes are up," Leo announced. He took a sip of his apple juice. "I successfully audited Dr. Harris's clinical database. Their backend architecture is appalling. They were transmitting genomic sequence data via an unencrypted REST API endpoint."
Evelyn rubbed her wrists, her heart pounding frantically, but she couldn't help but look at her son. What did he do now?
Leo looked directly at the billionaire CEO. "Since your clinic failed to comply with basic data security protocols, I intercepted the DNA sequencer's output stream. I then wrapped the raw data packet in an asymmetric 2048-bit RSA encryption."
Alexander's eyes narrowed. He knew exactly what that meant. "You encrypted the paternity test results."
"Correct," Leo nodded solemnly. "The encrypted file is currently sitting on your server, but it is completely unreadable. I hold the only private key capable of decryption. Without it, you will never know the biological truth."
Alexander stared at the five-year-old. For a second, he looked like he wanted to strangle the boy, but then, a dark, genuine smirk spread across his face. The kid was a tactical genius. He was literally holding his own paternity results hostage.
"And what is your ransom, little ghost?" Alexander asked, crossing his arms over his chest, genuinely fascinated by his son's ruthless negotiation tactics.
Leo pushed his glasses up his nose. "My mother came back to this country to destroy the people who hurt her five years ago. I require you to draft a legally binding contract. You will provide her with absolute immunity, unlimited capital resources, and your complete cooperation in her revenge. You will act as her sword."
Leo paused, his ice-blue eyes mirroring Alexander's exact predatory gaze.
"Sign a marriage contract with her to form a strategic alliance, Mr. Sterling. Only then will I execute the decryption algorithm."