Chapter 10
Emma had never been Margaret’s real target.
She had been the leverage.
David was the target.
Margaret had spent eight months constructing a choice for him.
Laura had decided to move away from the estate.
Vincent had declared that no child in the next generation would be groomed to inherit family authority.
David was approaching adulthood.
And Margaret believed the Moretti bloodline was slipping away in front of her.
So she created a public loyalty test.
The banquet was deliberate.
That did not mean Margaret had planned every second.
She later insisted she did not intend Emma to fall as hard as she did.
But she had intentionally decided to humiliate the little girl at the main family table.
She expected Laura to become furious.
She expected Laura to take Emma and leave.
And she had already ordered David to remain in his chair.
In front of senior capos.
In front of family elders.
Beside Vincent.
Margaret wanted everyone watching to see the biological grandson stay while his mother walked away with her adopted daughter.
Then Margaret could tell David the choice had already been made.
The clues finally locked together.
She moved David into the senior-family seat.
She ordered staff never to move his chair.
She gave him a Moretti signet ring.
She had spent months telling him blood created obligations Emma did not carry.
She prepared a room for him at the estate.
And before dinner, she specifically told him not to follow his mother.
Margaret was trying to manufacture a moment David would spend the rest of his life interpreting as commitment.
Once he stayed seated, she could introduce him to senior relatives as the Moretti who remained.
The future heir who chose blood.
She had underestimated one thing.
Vincent.
Margaret expected her brother to dislike the humiliation but ultimately defend family tradition.
Instead, Vincent saw Emma on the floor and chose the child.
Immediately.
That destroyed the scene Margaret had constructed.
David never had to choose between standing up for Emma and defying Vincent.
Vincent had already made the correct choice before the teenager could move.
That was why David had looked so frightened at Emma’s empty chair.
He finally understood what Margaret had expected him to do.
Nothing.
Stay seated.
Let Laura carry Emma away.
Become the boy who remained.
David began crying when he explained it.
“I didn’t know she was going to hurt Emma.”
Laura sat beside him.
“I know.”
“But she told me to stay.”
“You didn’t.”
David looked at her.
“What?”
“You left with us.”
The boy covered his face.
Vincent looked at the signet ring Margaret had given him, now lying on the table.
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Margaret claimed she was protecting the Moretti future.
Instead, she had nearly taught its youngest biological heir that becoming a man meant watching a three-year-old be humiliated and refusing to stand.
