Inheritance ✔

Chapter 30 - Inheritance

Laurier Ashford's POV

The morning after the storm was quiet.

For once, there were no meetings. No scheduled calls. No looming threats. Just light—soft and golden—spilling through the sheer curtains of my bedroom.

I stretched beneath the sheets, sore in that satisfying way that had nothing to do with battle and everything to do with the man lying beside me.

Renzo.

He was awake. Always was before me. One arm behind his head, eyes on the ceiling, shirtless and beautifully real. The bruises on his torso had faded, but I still traced them with my fingertips sometimes—proof that we survived.

"Morning," I murmured, voice thick from sleep.

He turned to me, slow smile tugging at his lips. "You're smiling."

"I'm allowed to smile now," I said. "Everything's done."

"Is it?"

I raised a brow. "You think there's another villain hiding under the bed?"

"No. I mean... you've finally cleaned house. Burned half of it down. Rebuilt what was left. Declared war on your own board. Declared peace to the public. That sounds like an ending."

"It does." I leaned over and kissed his bare shoulder. "But not mine."

Two hours later, I stood in the main hall of the Ashford estate. The original one—what remained of it.

My mother had left it to me when she died. My father had kept it locked up like a museum. I hadn't stepped inside in years.

But it was time.

Time to make peace with where I came from.

The stained glass still held. The fireplace still burned.

And in the center of the marble floor, I laid the final file from the vault. Genesis.

I lit the match.

Flames danced up the paper, curling it in on itself. The encoded lies. The breeding plans. The silent cruelty. Gone.

I didn't need engineered legacy.

I would write my own.

Later that day, I held a private press release—just me, no board, no pre-approved speech. Just words from my mouth to the world.

"I, Laurier Ashford, am dissolving all genetic research programs affiliated with the Thorne Project. I am allocating those resources to the Rosette Foundation—an initiative to care for survivors of human experimentation and illegal biogenetic development."

The reporters blinked.

I didn't give them time to interrupt.

"My family built empires. But they also buried people. That ends with me."

That night, Renzo and I walked along the balcony of the Tokyo high rise.

The city pulsed below us—alive, breathing, unaware of how close it came to becoming a footnote in Dagon's vision of a new world.

I leaned against the railing, wind in my hair, silk dress clinging to my skin.

He came up behind me, arms sliding around my waist, lips brushing the shell of my ear.

"You did it," he said.

"No," I corrected. "We did."

He turned me around, eyes serious now.

"You know this doesn't end the need for someone like me by your side."

"Security?"

"Secretary," he teased, eyes sparkling.

I smirked. "You sure you still want that title? After all the times I screamed your name off every surface in this house?"

He stepped closer, voice low. "I'm not done making you scream yet."

My breath caught.

But it wasn't lust this time.

It was something deeper.

Something terrifying.

"Renzo," I said slowly. "If I asked you to stay—not just in my bed. Not just in my shadow. But with me. Publicly. Permanently..."

He stilled.

Then said, "Are you asking?"

I held his face in my hands.

"Yes."

He kissed me.

And it felt like the end of a war.

One Year Later

The Ashford name remained.

But it was different now.

On the 47th floor of our new headquarters, the Rosette Foundation grew faster than expected. Clara ran the European branch. Rosette herself had started school—with private tutoring and a fiercely protective godfather named Mateo.

As for me?

I was no longer afraid of mirrors.

No longer haunted by the shape of my father's plans or my mother's silence.

Because when I looked in the mirror now, I saw someone new.

Someone flawed.

Someone free.

And Renzo?

He was still beside me—every morning, every night, every heartbeat between.

Lover.

Protector.

Partner.

He wasn't just part of my empire anymore.

He was my inheritance.

And I was his.