Chapter 186 CHAPTER 186
The Proof That Broke Ares
Ares had woken that morning feeling strangely hollow. Not angry or restless. He was just empty. He had been living in that numbness for weeks, ever since his parents died, ever since the footage of the masquerade hit the internet, ever since the whispers began circling Tokyo like a storm searching for where to strike. He told himself he didn’t care. He told Ayisha, coldly and without wavering, that he would never take a DNA test, never acknowledge anything tied to Tessa.
He had convinced himself of that lie so cleanly that even he believed it. But lies had short legs and truth had a longer memory than any man.
It was just after nine when his phone buzzed. A soft notification. Not dramatic. Not suspicious. Just a normal vibrating hum on the far end of his desk.
Ares barely glanced up from the document he was pretending to read. He wasn’t processing a single word. His mind had been drifting since dawn, circling unhelpful places, Ayisha’s shocked expression, Julian’s distance, the strange silence that had grown between him and the world.
The phone vibrated again, he exhaled and reached for it. It was an unknown Number with 1 Attachment. His brows tightened. He opened the message.
There was no text. No greeting.
Just files—four PDFs and one photograph.
He tapped the first PDF.
PATERNITY RESULTS — Jamal Langford
The air left his lungs. For a moment, his brain refused the information. He blinked, blinked again. The heading didn’t change.
He scrolled.
Putative Father: Ares Langford
Probability of Paternity: 99.8%
A faint ringing started in his ears. His thumb trembled as he opened the second PDF.
PATERNITY RESULTS — Kamal Langford
Probability of Paternity: 99.8%
His breathing faltered. He opened the third, ninety-nine point eight.
The fourth, ninety-nine point eight.
There was no margin of error, no ambiguity, no room for denial. His throat tightened so painfully it felt like someone had clenched a fist around it. He dropped the phone. It hit the carpet with a soft thud, but the sound echoed through the room like thunder.
Ares stood there, frozen, his heart thundering against his ribs with wild, terrified force. He felt his vision shake, the edges blurring, the solid world around him tilting like the deck of a ship in a storm.
“No…”The word slipped out, raw and broken. He staggered back a step. Then another.
He bent down, hands on his knees, sucking in breath that refused to come. His chest felt tight, too small for the hurricane tearing through it.
He sank slowly to the floor, knees hitting it harder than he meant. His palms pressed to the cold tiles, as though grounding himself could stop the panic rising inside him. But nothing stopped it.
Not even the silence in the room. Ares bowed his head, breathing short and sharp. Emotions crashed into him with the violence of an avalanche.
He was in denial. This couldn’t be real. Someone must have doctored the files. Someone hacked a hospital system. Someone wanted to break him. Someone wanted to…But hospital systems didn’t lie. The stamps didn’t lie. The numbers didn’t lie. And deep inside him, in the quietest place of his heart, he knew.
He always knew. His hands curled into fists in anger. It ripped through him like lightning. He was angry at Tessa, at himself, at the past. At the twisted fate that had brought them to a night he couldn’t forget and a truth he rejected before it was even spoken. He slammed his fist against the floor. The pain shot through him, but it didn’t calm him. It only made the grief fiercer.
His mind flashed to Tessa, her silence, her eyes that softened when she looked at the children, her voice when she talked about them. Ares inhaled sharply in fear. It crawled up his spine, cold and relentless. Fear of what this meant, fear of what had already been destroyed. Fear that he had waited too long to even try to fix it.
The panic pressed harder against his ribs. But almost immediately, equally strong, equally violent came the desire to get them back. He wanted to hold them again, see them. Learn their favorite music properly again, touch their tiny hands, hear their voices, know the children he had been cruel enough to send away. His heart clenched.
He wanted them fiercely, desperately, painfully.
“God…” he whispered, voice cracking.
He let out a sound that was low, guttural, wounded. His chest caved inward and for the first time in his adult life, Ares who was the pillar of strength, unshakable leader, the man who survived everything, fell apart. His body folded forward, he pressed his forehead to the cold floor and he sobbed.
Not silent tears, not restrained grief. He cried like a man whose entire world had broken open and spilled everything he thought he knew onto the ground. Why hadn’t Tessa told him? Wy didn’t she try again? Why did he believe the worst of her? Why did he let anger blind him? Did Tessa really kill his father?
The questions came in waves, each one deadlier than the last. He cried until his throat burned, until his chest ached, until his hands shook. He reached blindly for his phone again. There was one person he trusted enough to call.
He called Julian but no one picked. He called again, still no answer. Ares wiped his face with the back of his trembling hand.
The third time, Julian finally responded but not with a call, a text came through.
Julian:
At the doctor with Dorcas. It’s important. I’ll call you later.
Ares stared at the message through tear blurred vision. His hand went limp. He wasn’t alone but he had never felt more alone in his life. He let the phone fall beside him again as another wave of grief took his breath. The room felt too quiet, the world felt too big, the truth felt too loud.
Ares curled his fingers into the floor and let it swallow him. Tonight, he wasn’t the strong one, tonight, there was no armor, no pride, no cold distance. Tonight, he was just a man discovering that the children he pushed away, the children he ignored, the children he resented…the children he took care of were actually his!
His heart that he guarded for weeks now shattered open under the weight of that truth and once the truth entered there was no closing it again. He breathed shakily, face wet, chest aching, and whisp
ered into the silence:
“They’re mine…”
The words broke him all over again.