Urban Plundering: I Corrupted The System!-Chapter 525: ...in the Wake of the Awakening Era.

Then, with a slow, sharp grin rising on her lips, she rolled slightly to face him, her bare leg tangling around his.

"You know..." she whispered, voice thick with challenge. "Now that I’m pregnant with your child... Maya can’t say she has something I don’t."

Parker blinked, then gave a slow, deep laugh—one that rumbled in his chest like distant thunder. "You’re seriously going there?"

"Hell yes." Her grin widened. "She always had that over me. ’I carried the heir of Existence. I nursed that stormbringer for centuries. I birthed the only child of the Prince.’" Tessa imitated Maya’s regal voice with a smirk. "Well, guess what? I’m eighteen. I survived being abducted, interrogated, imprisoned in an estate playing as a cage by a being older than the stars themselves... and now I’m carrying your child. So yeah. I win."

He chuckled, brushing a thumb over her cheekbone. "You were under house arrest by a billion-year-old creature, your family threatened, and your grandfather’s fate still unknown."

Her smile wavered—but not her fire.

"Exactly."

He cupped her jaw, his voice quieter now. Reverent. "Then I’d say you’ve earned your title."

She held his gaze. Her lips parted—but not for a quip this time. Just a soft, sacred breath.

"Then say it," she whispered.

His brows lifted slightly. "Say what?"

She leaned in, lips grazing his. "Say I’m your empress."

Parker didn’t look through her. He looked into her—into the riotous girl who once defied death in chains, into the flame that refused to extinguish... into the flame that refused to extinguish, into the frightened, furious, brilliant girl who had clawed her way into becoming more.

He kissed her forehead first—soft, slow, a blessing carved in silence. Then her lips, gentle but unyielding. As if sealing a pact older than vows.

"You’re my empress, Tessa."

Her eyes fluttered closed. And for a second, she stopped breathing—not from fear or awe, but from the weight of it. The word settled into her bones like molten gold poured into the cracks of everything she used to be. It remade her.

Then she inhaled—and the world changed with her.

"And now," she added, voice sharp with mock-seriousness, "you’re going to respect your empress and agree that we are absolutely not telling my family yet."

Parker chuckled, pulling her tighter, his hand slipping back over the small curve of her belly like it was something holy.

"As you command."

"Good." She nuzzled against him, her fingers trailing slow patterns over his chest. "I don’t want them tainting this moment. I want her to be untouched by all of it—the pressure, the family name, the early pregnancy righteous talk, the poison. I want this baby to have nothing of their chains."

"She won’t," he said without hesitation. "She’ll be free. She’ll be ours."

She went quiet. Then looked up at him with eyes that made gods reconsider their thrones.

"I want her to be ours, Parker. Just... ours. No dynasties. No secrets. No thrones."

He smiled. The real kind—the kind that lit stars. "She already is."

They stayed like that, for a time that refused to be measured. No fate. No past. No empire. Just a girl, a man, and the growing thrum of new life pressing upward from within her.

Parker was silent for a long, long time.

Then, softly: "By the way where is that uncle of yours now?"

"Saudi Arabia," she said, eyes closed again. "Closing some oil deal. Picking up the threads of a contract my parents left behind."

His jaw tightened. "I want to kill him."

"Don’t talk like that in front of your daughter," she said, tapping his chest lightly. "She’s listening."

He exhaled through a slow grin. "She’s going to take after both of us. Language will be the least of our problems."

"What?" Tessa laughed, soft and light. "You think she’s going to end the world or something?"

He didn’t answer.

Because one of them... might.

But not tonight.

Tonight, she was his. And he was hers. And the thunder outside had gone quiet.

*

The grand hall felt different at midnight—less opulent celebration, more war council convening in the aftermath of revelation. Most guests had departed through portals that Robert Blackwood opened with casual precision, each dimensional gateway delivering terrified billionaires back to their homes across the globe.

The irony wasn’t lost on Parker.

This was Robert Blackwood—the man remembered for being merciless for almost two decades, opening portals like some benevolent Jesus figure ensuring everyone got home safely. The same man who’d been impersonated for years while the real Robert suffered in exile.

Helena stood nearby, studying Robert with the kind of professional curiosity that came from finally meeting someone she’d only heard about in reports.

She’d never met the real Robert either until recently. Only the imposter, after Parker’s mother had instructed her to raise her son in the Blackwood household. Helena had played the role of Robert’s new wife after his woman had left him, becoming a mother figure to children who needed stability in their chaotic lives.

Annabelle had been the same age as Parker then, clinging to the reality of Helena being her new mother with desperate hope. Julian had been easy to shift into the new dynamic too—perhaps the fool had wanted a mother figure as much as anyone.

Vivian, well... Vivian was Vivian.

The two—Parker and his aunt—could only look baffled at the intertwining ironies of this family dynamics before shifting back to business.

Parker entered the hall where the remaining families had assembled. The Harringtons, Beaumonts, Morellos, and of course the Wilders.

Each family had only brought four members at most, but the collective audience still felt substantial—these were people who’d spent their lives believing they controlled the world, now discovering they’d been middle management at best.

Time for the real conversation.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Parker began, his voice carrying the kind of casual authority that made reality itself pay attention. "I want to start by saying I was seriously considering dismantling all of your organizations entirely."

The silence that followed was deafening.

They stared at him with expressions that ranged from curious fascination to calculating interest. They’d all witnessed what had happened to the Ashfords—complete business restructuring in the span of a conversation. Now he was planning something for them too.

The anticipation in the room was electric.

"Apart from the Wilders, of course," Parker added with a smile that could have melted glaciers. "Wouldn’t be good optics to destroy my in-laws. Tessa would never forgive me, and frankly, I quite like having my limbs attached to my body."

A few genuine chuckles rippled through the crowd. Even at midnight, the party atmosphere hadn’t completely died.

Grandfather Wilder’s eyes twinkled with amusement despite the universe-ending context. "Smart boy. Happy wife, happy life, as they say."

"Exactly, sir," Parker grinned. "I may be the Prince of Existence, but I’m not stupid enough to piss off my girlfriend by bankrupting her family."

Tessa rolled her eyes but smiled anyway, clearly pleased that her cosmic boyfriend understood basic relationship dynamics.

"Anyway, in fact," Parker continued with the kind of smile that made accountants recalculate their portfolios, "I already bought everything you own. Every asset, every subsidiary, every shell company you thought was hidden. Helena’s quite thorough in her acquisitions."

Several people looked genuinely impressed rather than panicked.

"But," Parker said, and the word carried enough hope to resurrect dying civilizations, "I’ve changed my mind after some convincing."

His gaze shifted to Isabella and Diana, both of whom had spent considerable time explaining why complete destruction might be less useful than strategic cooperation.

They’d made compelling arguments about infrastructure and stability.

"I came up with another plan," Parker said, his smile growing wider. "One I find considerably more amusing."