Ms. CEO’s Baby Daddy Is the Merchant of Death – Episode 32
Connor reached the safe house before dawn. Summer ran across the room and collided with him so hard that he nearly lost his balance. He held her until her shaking stopped.
She had practiced being brave for the guards. Only after touching his face did she begin to cry. Connor understood that every disappearance had taught her to expect another abandonment.
Scarlett joined them with dust still covering her coat. Summer pulled both parents down beside her and refused to release either hand. For several quiet minutes, the world’s most dangerous family sat together on the floor.
Connor apologized for leaving her during the emergency. Summer reminded him that he had promised to come back, and this time he had. Her forgiveness hurt more than anger would have.
News reports confirmed that the three cities were safe. Cross had been charged with terrorism, murder, and conspiracy, while international authorities seized Dominion’s autonomous weapons network. Public relief quickly turned into demands for answers.
Connor announced that every offensive weapons program would remain shut down. Cypher warned that directors and governments would resist. Connor replied that Dominion would become a defensive technology company or cease to exist.
Scarlett supported the reform but refused to let him make another decision from guilt. Destroying useful systems would not undo the past. They needed rules, oversight, and the courage to build something better.
An audit of Cross’s accounts revealed payments routed through Whitmore-controlled companies. The transfers began before Scarlett met Connor and continued through the kidnapping, the board coup, and the city attack. Bennett’s shadow stretched across every crisis.
Connor ordered a complete investigation. He wanted Bennett arrested before another threat reached his family. Cypher reminded him that Bennett’s lawyers had already challenged the earlier charges.
Scarlett refused to be frightened into hiding. She would reopen Hayes Group and restore the company her mother intended her to lead. If Bennett wanted a public fight, she would meet him in daylight.
Summer finally fell asleep between her parents. Connor carried her to bed and placed the damaged watch beside her. He promised to replace it, but she asked him to repair the same one because it had always found him.
Before he could answer, the security perimeter reported an approaching motorcade. The vehicles carried Reed family credentials older than Dominion itself. Connor’s expression hardened.
Cypher entered with unusual caution. Richard Reed, the richest man in the country and Dominion’s original financial patron, had landed in New York. He was accompanied by Connor’s younger sister, Lily.
Scarlett knew the name from financial history, not from her husband’s stories. Connor had never mentioned that the Reed fortune stood behind his earliest rise. Another part of his life had remained locked away.
Connor insisted Richard had no place near Summer. His father had treated affection as leverage and children as heirs. Scarlett asked whether Richard had ever harmed him, but Connor only said absence could be its own kind of harm.
Lily called before the motorcade reached the gate. She told Connor that their father had watched the city countdown on live television and believed his son might die. Richard had crossed the country without waiting for permission.
Connor refused the visit. Lily answered that she was not asking for the company, money, or reconciliation. Their father wanted to see the granddaughter he had learned about from a news report.
Scarlett reminded Connor of the condition he had accepted: danger and family decisions would no longer be hidden from her. He admitted Richard was difficult, proud, and powerful, but not an immediate physical threat.
The gate camera showed an older man stepping out before his security team could open the door. Richard stared directly at the house, his usual command replaced by something close to fear. Lily stood beside him holding a small velvet box.
Summer appeared at the top of the stairs and asked why everyone had gone silent. Richard heard her voice through the open intercom. Without taking his eyes from the door, he said, “Because your grandfather has waited too long to meet you.”