Chapter 5
The first baby cried at 9:17 p.m.
A girl.
Two minutes later came the boy.
For six terrible seconds, he did not cry.
Vittorio stood outside the operating-room doors hearing only movement.
Then—
a thin, angry sound.
He closed his eyes.
His forehead touched the wall.
Two grandchildren.
Alive.
Emma stable.
That was all that mattered.
For almost one minute.
Then memory returned.
Richard.
Mark.
Ethan’s document.
When Emma was awake enough to understand, the doctor told her both babies were doing well.
The boy had experienced temporary distress but responded quickly.
Emma cried.
Then laughed weakly through it.
“Together?”
“Yes.”
“In the same nursery?”
“Yes.”
Only then did her body relax.
Vittorio stood beside her.
She looked at him.
“What did Mark find?”
“You don't need this now.”
Her eyes hardened.
There it was.
The thing everyone kept doing.
Deciding what she could handle.
“Don't.”
Vittorio stopped.
Emma continued.
“Don't become another man protecting me from information.”
He nodded.
Then told her.
Mark had discovered a full draft of Ethan’s statement in an old cloud account.
The page Richard filed was real.
But incomplete.
Emma’s eyes closed.
“Read it.”
Vittorio hesitated.
Then did.
Ethan wrote that he did not want his son groomed as successor.
He wrote that he wanted both children raised with choices.
He wrote that Emma should decide where they lived.
Then came the missing paragraph.
MY FEAR IS NOT THAT MY FATHER WILL STEAL MY SON.
MY FEAR IS THAT EVERYONE AROUND HIM WILL EXPECT HIM TO.
IF DAD CAN CHANGE THAT WORLD, I WANT MY CHILDREN TO KNOW HIM.
IF HE CANNOT, EMMA SHOULD TAKE BOTH CHILDREN AWAY.
NOT ONE.
BOTH.
Emma covered her face.
Vittorio stopped reading.
Her shoulders shook.
“He trusted me.”
Vittorio’s voice became rough.
“Yes.”
“He trusted me to choose.”
“Yes.”
“And Dad turned it into ownership.”
Silence.
Vittorio looked toward the newborn bassinets.
His grandson slept beside his sister.
No throne.
No successor.
Just a child.
Emma lowered her hands.
“What else?”
Vittorio looked at her.
She already knew there was more.
He continued.
Ethan had written that Richard Bell had offered to help Emma relocate if she ever wanted distance from the DeLuca family.
Not to take the boy.
To help all three of them.
Emma stared.
“Dad knew.”
“Yes.”
“He knew Ethan wanted them together.”
“Yes.”
The betrayal settled differently now.
Richard had not misunderstood.
He had selectively used a dead man’s fear.
Emma looked toward the door.
“Why?”
Mark answered from the hallway.
Because he had been allowed in.
Emma looked at her brother.
His eyes were red.
“Why did Dad want the boy?”
Mark swallowed.
“At first?”
“Yes.”
“To protect him.”
Emma’s jaw tightened.
“And later?”
Mark looked away.
That answer took longer.
“Because Dad realized Vittorio would negotiate almost anything for Ethan’s son.”
Vittorio’s expression hardened.
Mark continued.
“Bell Holdings is collapsing.”
Emma went still.
May you like
Richard’s demand had not remained about protection.
He had turned the boy into leverage.
