Chapter 2
Vittorio did not open the envelope.
Not there.
Not while Emma was contracting.
Not while Richard watched him like a man waiting for grief to make someone stupid.
He looked at one of his bodyguards.
“Preserve it.”
Richard’s expression hardened.
“It belongs to me.”
Vittorio’s eyes moved toward him.
“It belonged to my son.”
Richard’s hand tightened.
Then the paramedics moved Emma out.
That ended the argument.
At the hospital, everything narrowed.
Monitors.
Bright lights.
Doctors.
Twin heart rates.
One strong.
One difficult to find.
Emma lay on her side while nurses adjusted sensors.
Vittorio stood near the wall.
He had negotiated killings, strikes, betrayals, federal investigations.
None of them had ever made him feel as powerless as a doctor staring at a monitor without speaking.
Finally—
a second heartbeat.
Weak.
But there.
Emma sobbed once.
Then covered her mouth.
Vittorio closed his eyes.
Only for a moment.
The physician explained that the reduced movement could indicate fetal distress.
At thirty-seven weeks with twins, delivery should happen soon.
Likely that night.
Emma nodded.
Then she whispered:
“Do whatever keeps them safe.”
Vittorio looked at her.
That sentence sounded like Ethan.
Always family first when the room became serious.
Richard and Mark arrived twenty minutes later.
Vittorio’s security stopped them outside the maternity floor.
Emma heard.
“Let Dad in.”
Vittorio looked at her.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“But I need to know what Ethan told him.”
Richard entered alone.
His expensive suit was wrinkled now.
One cuff stained from the kitchen.
He stopped when he saw his daughter attached to monitors.
Some of his certainty disappeared.
“Emma.”
She looked at him.
“Did Ethan ask you to take my son?”
Richard’s breathing slowed.
“He asked me to help him.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
For the first time, Vittorio heard steel inside her voice.
Richard looked toward the monitor.
Then back at his daughter.
“He was afraid.”
Vittorio’s eyes sharpened.
“Of whom?”
Richard did not look at him.
That answered enough.
Emma saw it too.
“Of Vittorio?”
Richard finally nodded.
The room became colder.
Vittorio remained perfectly still.
Richard continued.
“Ethan didn't want his son raised to inherit this life.”
Vittorio’s fingers closed around his signet ring.
Emma’s eyes filled.
“He never told me.”
Richard’s face softened.
“He planned to.”
“When?”
“After the twins were born.”
Vittorio turned away.
Pain crossed his face before he controlled it.
His son had planned something about his children and told another man first.
Richard saw.
“You think this is about me taking something from you.”
Vittorio slowly looked back.
Richard continued.
“It isn't.”
A pause.
“It is about keeping one child from becoming the next DeLuca boss.”
Emma’s hand tightened around the hospital blanket.
“One child?”
Richard stopped.
She caught it.
“So you admit this is only about the boy.”
Richard’s face changed.
Emma’s voice became quieter.
“Why doesn't my daughter deserve protection too?”
Richard had no immediate answer.
Then the nurse entered carrying Emma’s hospital bag.
“Mrs. DeLuca, we found something in the exterior pocket.”
Emma frowned.
The nurse handed her a folded note.
Ethan’s handwriting.
Emma’s hands began trembling.
She unfolded it.
Only one sentence.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, DO NOT LET THEM SEPARATE THE TWINS.
May you like
Emma slowly raised her eyes toward her father.
Richard went pale.
