Chapter 50 CHAPTER 50
Act as instructed
The restaurant wasn’t one of those glittering, high- profile places that screamed wealth and power. Instead, it was tucked away at the corner of an old street, half hidden by overgrown bougainvillea that spilled red blossoms across its cracked signboard. The world outside bustled with traffic and hurried footsteps, but inside, the lights were dim, the tables were sparsely occupied, and the air smelled faintly of roasted garlic and warm bread.
Tessa sat in the farthest corner, fingers drumming against her glass of water, eyes flicking toward the entrance every few seconds. She had chosen this table deliberately, the shadows offered cover, the angle offered sight of both doorways, and the hum of quiet conversations around her blurred the edge of her nerves.
Her phone lay on the table, screen black but heavy with unspoken pressure. Ares’s last call still pulsed in her memory, his voice steady but laced with something unusual: hope. He wanted to meet. He wanted to talk about the children. About the possibility of making things right.
For a fleeting moment, Tessa had considered going. Her heart had leapt at the thought of hearing him speak of Jamal, Kamal, Beauty, and Pretty without bitterness, of him recognizing her role as their mother. But that fragile hope had crumbled the moment Lady Bianca’s number flashed on her phone, followed by the sharp, commanding whisper: “See me. Tonight. No delays.”
Now, as the restaurant’s wooden door creaked open, Tessa’s chest tightened. Lady Bianca entered, veiled in elegance as always. She wore a flowing ivory blouse, soft silk that shimmered with her every step, and wide-legged black trousers that lengthened her tall frame. Her hair was swept into a sleek bun, her makeup understated but flawless.
The room seemed to tilt around her. Heads turned, not just because of her beauty but because of the aura she carried…the cool, commanding presence of a woman who knew she could bend the world.
Lady Bianca spotted Tessa instantly and walked over without hesitation.
“You picked well,” she said as she slid into the seat opposite, setting down her clutch. Her voice was low, smooth, threaded with steel. “Discreet. Quiet. Almost as though you’ve finally learned the value of secrecy.”
Tessa swallowed. “I didn’t want anyone to see us. If Ares…”
“If Ares what?” Lady Bianca cut in with a cool smile. “If he suspects? If he finds out you’re sitting here, with me, instead of running eagerly into his arms like the desperate mother he thinks you are?” She leaned forward, her perfume—an intoxicating mix of jasmine and musk drifting between them. “You were right to come. But you mustn’t let him tug at your strings. Men like Ares thrive on guilt and manipulation. He dangles the children in front of you like bait. You…” her eyes flickered with amusement, “you’re tempted to bite.”
Tessa’s hands tightened around her glass. “He said he wanted to talk about the kids. He…he sounded different. Not angry. Not dismissive. Almost…”
“Almost in love?” Lady Bianca supplied dryly. “Do not be fooled, Tessa. That man has a heart carved from stone, and every beat it takes is for Chloe, not for you, not for those children, and certainly not for any fragile reconciliation you imagine.”
The words sliced deeper than Tessa expected. She had told herself this meeting was about strategy, about making the smartest choice for her children, but hearing Bianca say it aloud. Hearts and stones and Chloe stirred a raw ache.
“Why would he call me, then?” Tessa whispered. “Why ask to meet if he didn’t mean it?”
Lady Bianca’s laugh was soft but sharp-edged. “Because he wants to test you. To see if you’ll crawl back, beg him for crumbs, prove to him that you’re still the same vulnerable girl he once dismissed. It’s not about reconciliation, darling it’s about control.”
Tessa bit her lip, torn between denial and reluctant agreement.
Bianca’s gaze sharpened. “Do not go. Cancel the meeting. Tell him you’re not interested in the children. It will unsettle him, confuse him. And more importantly, it will show him that you are no longer the pawn he believes you to be.”
The words landed like stones in Tessa’s stomach. Cancel? Tell Ares she wasn’t interested in her own children? The very thought scraped against every maternal instinct inside her. She wanted her children, she needed them. The thought of abandoning that possibility, even as pretense, felt like betrayal of the deepest kind.
Bianca seemed to read the hesitation in her face. Her voice softened, though her eyes remained sharp. “Listen to me. You and I both know that Ares will never willingly give you those children. Not while Chloe breathes beside him. But there are other ways. Smarter ways. If you want your children back, you must think beyond your emotions. Let him believe you no longer care. Lower his guard. And when the moment comes…” She leaned closer, lips curling into a cold smile. “…we strike.”
The word strike sent a shiver racing down Tessa’s spine. Yet it also ignited something dark, something that whispered of victory after years of loss. She wanted her children back desperately. And if deception was the price, could she afford not to pay it?
Her phone buzzed suddenly against the table. Ares’s name lit up the screen.
Tessa froze, pulse quickening. Lady Bianca’s eyes narrowed, her hand darting across the table to still Tessa’s trembling fingers.
“Answer,” Bianca ordered softly. “Put it on speaker. Let me hear his little performance.”
Tessa hesitated, but something in Bianca’s unwavering gaze compelled obedience. She slid her thumb across the screen.
“Hello?” Ares’s voice came, deep, steady, threaded with something raw. “Tessa. I was hoping you’d pick up. Did you think about what I said? About meeting? About the kids?”
Tessa’s throat tightened. Her eyes flicked to Bianca, who gave a sharp nod, mouthing: Do it.
“I…” Tessa began, her voice quivering. “I thought about it, yes.”
“And?” Ares pressed, his tone eager. “Tessa, this could be the beginning of something better for all of us. For Jamal, Kamal, Beauty, and Pretty. They deserve peace and love, don’t you think?”
Her heart ached at the sound of their names on his lips. Her children. Their laughter, their tiny hands, the way Beauty’s curls bounced when she giggled, the way Jamal always tried to protect his siblings. Memories stabbed her like knives.
Bianca’s foot tapped sharply against hers under the table, jolting her back.
“I can’t do this, Ares,” she said suddenly, the words tumbling out in a rush. “I’m…not interested. Not in the kids. Not in…any of it.”
Silence. Heavy, suffocating silence filled the line.
When Ares finally spoke, his voice was lower, pained, edged with disbelief. “Not interested…in the kids? Tessa, how can you even say that?”
Her hand trembled around the phone. “Because it’s true. Don’t call me again.” With that, she ended the call, her chest heaving as though she had just leapt off a cliff.
Bianca’s smile spread slowly, triumph curling in every corner of her mouth. “Well done. You see? That wasn’t so hard. You’ve just taken the first step toward reclaiming your power.”
Tessa shoved her phone away, bile rising in her throat. The victory Bianca painted felt nothing like triumph. It felt like betrayal of herself, of her children, of the faint chance Ares’s voice had offered.
Yet she said nothing. She only sat there, forcing her face into stillness as Lady Bianca reached for the wine list, as though the world had not just shifted under their feet.