Chapter 7: The First Look
Dominic Ashford's POV
The champagne glass in my hand was worth more than most people's monthly rent, but it tasted like ash.
I stood at the edge of the charity gala ballroom, watching Metropolitan City's elite pretend to care about underprivileged children while comparing yacht sizes. Another fundraiser. Another night of fake smiles and business deals disguised as philanthropy.
My phone buzzed for the fifteenth time. Victoria again.
"Where are you? I'm at the entrance. We need to discuss the Chen Technologies final report."
I ignored it. Victoria had been suffocating me lately—always finding excuses to be near me, touching my arm during meetings, laughing too loud at jokes that weren't funny. My Director of Acquisitions was crossing lines, and I needed to address it soon.
But tonight, my mind was somewhere else entirely.
That press conference this morning wouldn't leave me alone. CrossTech Industries' new CTO had haunted my thoughts all day. The cameras hadn't shown her face clearly, but something about her voice, her posture, the way she moved—
Impossible, I told myself for the hundredth time. Sophia Chen disappeared six years ago. She took the settlement money and vanished.
Except my team confirmed this afternoon that no settlement was ever cashed. No money was ever touched.
Where had she gone?
"Dominic Ashford brooding at a party? That's new." Marcus Chen, my assistant and closest thing to a friend, appeared beside me. "Usually you're networking or crushing someone's business dreams."
"Not in the mood," I muttered.
"Let me guess. Still thinking about CrossTech's mystery CTO?" Marcus raised an eyebrow. "The woman's brilliant. That AI technology she developed could actually compete with ours. Maybe even win."
My jaw tightened. "Nobody beats Ashford Global."
"Pride comes before the fall, boss." Marcus sipped his drink. "Besides, you look like you've seen a ghost. What's wrong?"
Everything was wrong, but I couldn't explain why.
Six years ago, I woke up next to the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. Soft features. Scared eyes. Clearly inexperienced. For one moment—one single moment—I'd felt something other than the cold emptiness that lived in my chest.
Then reality crashed in. She was connected to Chen Technologies, the company I was acquiring. The timing was too perfect. The whole thing screamed setup.
So I'd done what I always did—I protected myself. Built walls. Pushed her away with cruel words designed to hurt.
"You got what you wanted. Leave quietly, and I'll compensate you for your time."
I still remembered how her face crumbled. How she grabbed her clothes and ran.
Six weeks later, she showed up pregnant, and every suspicion I had seemed confirmed. A honeytrap. A manipulation. An attempt to use a baby to stop my acquisition.
I'd called her child a bastard before it was even born. I'd had her thrown out of my office. I'd destroyed her.
And I'd been certain I was right.
But what if I wasn't?
"Dominic?" Marcus waved his hand in front of my face. "You're doing the thing where you disappear into your head. Stop it. It's creepy."
I was about to respond when the ballroom doors opened.
And my entire world stopped.
She walked in like a queen entering her kingdom.
The woman from the press conference wore a midnight blue dress that shimmered under the chandeliers. Her hair, longer than I remembered, was swept up elegantly. Diamond earrings caught the light. But it was her face—her face that made my heart slam against my ribs.
Sophia.
But not the Sophia I remembered. That girl had been soft, uncertain, easy to dismiss. This woman radiated power. Confidence. Strength that made everyone in the room turn and stare.
On her arm was Adrian Cross, my Harvard rival and current business enemy. He whispered something in her ear, and she smiled—the kind of smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"Oh no," Marcus breathed beside me. "Boss, that's—"
"I know who it is." My voice came out strangled.
Sophia Chen—no, Sophia Lin now—stood thirty feet away, and she was the most magnificent thing I'd ever seen.
And she was engaged to the man who'd spent a decade trying to destroy me.
My feet moved before my brain could stop them. I crossed the ballroom floor, my heart pounding harder than it had during any business deal, any hostile takeover, any moment of my carefully controlled life.
"Sophia?"
She turned slowly, and when her eyes met mine, they were cold as winter ice.
"Mr. Ashford." Her voice was polite, professional, empty. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced. I'm Sophia Lin, CTO of CrossTech Industries."
The name change was a slap. She'd erased every trace of the girl I knew.
"We've met," I said, my voice rough. "Six years ago—"
"I'm afraid you're mistaken." Her smile was sharp as broken glass. "I would remember meeting the great Dominic Ashford."
She was lying. We both knew it. But before I could push further, before I could demand answers, a small voice cut through the tension.
"Mommy! Mommy, they have chocolate fountains! Can I—"
A little boy ran up, grabbing Sophia's hand, and my entire world tilted sideways.
Five years old, maybe six. Dark hair like his mother's. Delicate features. Wearing a small suit that made him look like a tiny businessman.
But his eyes—
Oh God. His eyes.
Gray. Exactly like mine. The same shade I saw every morning in the mirror. The same unusual color that ran in the Ashford family and nobody else's.
The boy looked up at me, and for a moment, we just stared at each other. His small face was curious, tilting his head like he was trying to solve a puzzle.
"Hello," he said politely. "I'm Ethan. Who are you?"
I couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't do anything but stare at this child who had my eyes.
My son. This is my son.
Sophia's face had gone pale. She grabbed Ethan's hand tighter, pulling him close. "Ethan, baby, we need to go find Mr. Cross—"
"But Mommy, the chocolate—"
"Now, Ethan."
She turned to leave, but I grabbed her wrist. Gently. Desperately.
"Sophia, wait. Please. That boy—"
"Is none of your concern." Her eyes flashed with fury and fear. "Stay away from us, Mr. Ashford. You made your choice six years ago."
She pulled free and walked away quickly, Ethan trotting beside her, looking back at me with those impossible gray eyes.
Marcus appeared at my shoulder, his face shocked. "Boss, that kid—"
"Looked exactly like me." My voice shook. "He looked exactly like me."
My phone buzzed. A message from my head of security:
"Background check on Sophia Lin complete. Birth records show one child: Ethan Lin, born five years and seven months ago. Father: Unknown. Location of birth: Singapore. Mother was alone."
Five years and seven months.
Nine months after our night together.
The math was simple, brutal, undeniable.
I had a son.
A son I'd called a bastard. A son whose mother I'd destroyed and driven away. A son who'd grown up without me because I was too damaged, too suspicious, too broken to see the truth.
And now that son was engaged to my enemy's soon-to-be stepfather.
Victoria appeared suddenly, her face twisted with something ugly. "Dominic, I've been looking everywhere—" She followed my gaze to where Sophia was leaving with Ethan. "Oh. You saw them."
Something in her voice made me turn. "What do you know about this?"
"Nothing!" She said it too quickly. "I just meant—everyone's talking about Adrian Cross's new fiancée and her son. Such a scandal, a single mother trying to climb the social ladder—"
"Shut up." My voice was deadly quiet. "Don't talk about her."
Victoria's eyes widened. "But Dominic, she's using that child to—"
"I said shut up." I stepped closer, and Victoria actually backed away from the fury in my eyes. "Go home, Victoria. You're fired."
"What?! You can't—"
"I can. I will. Get out of my sight before I have security remove you."
Victoria fled, tears streaming down her face, but I didn't care. Couldn't care.
I pulled out my phone and called my head of security. "I need everything on Sophia Lin. Every detail of the last six years. Every place she lived, every job she worked, every moment of her life. And I need a paternity test arranged discreetly. Tonight. Now."
"Sir, without the child's DNA—"
"Figure it out. That's what I pay you for."
I hung up and stared at the ballroom exit where my son had disappeared.
Across the room, I saw Adrian Cross talking to a group of investors, his arm possessive around Sophia's waist. She looked tired. Trapped.
And suddenly, everything clicked into place.
The timing of CrossTech's expansion. Adrian's sudden engagement announcement. Sophia's return to the city she'd fled.
This wasn't coincidence.
This was revenge.
And I deserved every bit of it.
My phone buzzed again. Another message from my security team:
"Sir, we found something. Six years ago, hotel security footage from the night you met Sophia Chen. You need to see this. She was drugged. You were both drugged. This was a setup."
The world spun around me.
Drugged. We were both drugged.
Which meant Sophia hadn't been trying to trap me.
She'd been a victim too.
And I'd destroyed an innocent woman for a crime she never committed.
The phone buzzed once more. A video file attached.
I opened it with shaking hands.
The footage showed a young woman—Victoria Chen—slipping something into two drinks at a hotel bar six years ago. Then handing one to a tired-looking Sophia. Then approaching me and offering the other.
Victoria.
My Director of Acquisitions.
The woman I'd trusted for six years.
Had drugged us both and orchestrated everything.
And I'd played right into her hands, destroying the one person who was innocent in all of this.
A waiter passed by with champagne, and I grabbed a glass, needing something to steady myself.
That's when I saw it.
Written on the inside of the glass in lipstick, barely visible:
"Ask Sophia about the emails. Someone's been watching your son. Someone wants him dead. You have 72 hours before they strike. —A Friend"
The glass shattered in my hand.
Blood dripped onto the marble floor, but I didn't feel it.
Someone was threatening my son.
My son, who I'd just discovered existed.
My son, who was in danger.
I looked up, searching for Sophia in the crowd, but she was already gone.
And the countdown had already begun.