Chapter 3 - THE SISTER’S WARNING
Adrian wanted me transferred immediately.
Dr. Sloan refused.
“She is medically unstable.”
“She is exposed here.”
“She could hemorrhage during transport.”
“I have an armored medical vehicle downstairs.”
“You have an ambulance?”
“I have what is necessary.”
Dr. Sloan stared at him.
“An armored vehicle does not make you a doctor.”
“No. It keeps doctors alive long enough to do their jobs.”
The argument continued until my daughter’s heartbeat dropped again.
Every voice in the room stopped.
A nurse adjusted the monitor.
Dr. Sloan pressed a hand against my stomach.
“Elena, are you feeling pain?”
A tightening sensation spread beneath my ribs.
“Yes.”
“How strong?”
“Stronger than before.”
The doctor checked the intravenous line and ordered another dose of medication.
“You are not moving her,” she told Adrian. “Not until the bleeding is controlled.”
Adrian looked ready to fight the entire hospital.
Instead, he faced Gabriel.
“Secure the building.”
Gabriel’s injured arm had been wrapped in white bandages, but he showed no sign of pain.
“We have men at every entrance.”
“Double them.”
“The police will notice.”
“I don’t care.”
“They may shut down the facility.”
“Then purchase it.”
Dr. Sloan closed her eyes briefly.
I almost laughed, but another wave of pain took my breath away.
Adrian moved to my side.
“Where does it hurt?”
“Everywhere.”
He took my hand.
Dr. Sloan examined me while the nurse watched the monitor.
After several tense minutes, the baby’s heartbeat stabilized.
“We are buying time,” the doctor said. “Nothing more.”
“How much?” Adrian asked.
“Hours. Perhaps a day.”
He nodded once, as though she had given him a deadline for a business negotiation.
“Then use them.”
Dr. Sloan left to arrange blood products in case I required surgery.
Gabriel followed her into the hall, leaving Adrian and me alone.
I studied the photograph from the crypt.
Someone had known where I worked.
Someone had been close enough to photograph me.
And someone believed my daughter belonged to them.
“What does it mean?” I asked.
Adrian stood beside the monitor.
“My father created a trust before he died.”
“What kind of trust?”
“One that controls the legitimate Moretti holdings.”
“I thought you controlled them.”
“I manage them.”
“That sounds like the same thing.”
“It isn’t.”
He pulled the chair closer.
“Moretti Shipping, Lakefront Development, the hotels, the construction companies—they are held under a family trust. I control the voting rights until a biological child of mine is born.”
My fingers tightened around the blanket.
“And then?”
“The controlling shares transfer to the child.”
“She isn’t even born.”
“The trust was designed to prevent an adult heir from selling the companies or losing them through marriage, debt, or criminal prosecution. Until she turns thirty, her legal guardian controls the vote.”
I stared at him.
“Her guardian.”
“Yes.”
“Which would be me.”
“If I were dead.”
The room became colder.
“What happens if we’re both dead?”
“The court appoints a guardian from the Moretti bloodline.”
“Carlo.”
“He would be first in line.”
The photograph trembled in my hand.
“This isn’t about whether the baby is yours.”
“No.”
“It’s about billions of dollars.”
“Money is the smallest part of it.”
“What is the larger part?”
“Legitimacy.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“For decades, the Moretti organization survived because my father separated the legal empire from everything else. Whoever controls the legitimate companies controls the ports, the unions, the construction contracts, and thousands of employees.”
“And whoever controls our daughter controls all of it.”
“Yes.”
My stomach turned.
I had spent months believing my silence protected her.
Instead, I had carried a crown through Chicago while everyone who wanted it watched from the shadows.
“You should have told me about the trust.”
“I didn’t know you were pregnant.”
“You should have told me while we were married.”
“I never expected it to matter so soon.”
“So soon?”
Pain and anger sharpened my voice.
“You planned to have children with someone else?”
His expression changed.
“No.”
“Then what did you expect?”
“I expected to die before I became a father.”
The honesty silenced me.
Adrian looked toward the monitor.
“My father was forty-seven when someone cut the steering line on his boat. My grandfather was fifty-one when he was shot outside his office. Men in my family do not grow old.”
“You’re thirty-eight.”
“I know.”
The mask slipped for one second.
Behind it, I saw the boy who had stood beside his father’s grave while half the city waited to discover whether he was strong enough to inherit an empire.
“You divorced me because you thought you would die?” I asked.
“No.”
“Then tell me why.”
He looked away.
Before he could answer, the door opened.
Bianca Moretti walked inside.
Adrian’s younger sister had always entered rooms as though photographers were waiting. Her dark hair fell perfectly over the shoulders of a cream-colored coat. Diamonds flashed at her ears.
But today her face was pale.
She stopped when she saw me.
“Elena.”
I had once considered Bianca my closest friend.
She helped me choose my wedding dress.
She stood beside me when my mother’s necklace was fastened around my throat.
She held me when Adrian’s lifestyle became too heavy and promised that loving a Moretti did not mean losing myself.
Her initials were in Vittorio’s ledger.
B.M.
I pulled the blanket higher.
“What are you doing here?”
“I heard what happened.”
“From whom?”
“Carlo.”
Adrian moved between us.
“Why did you use Father’s encryption key?”
Bianca’s mouth opened.
“What?”
“The security footage from Elena’s building was erased using his code.”
“I don’t have his code.”
“You had access to his archives after he died.”
“I helped organize the estate. That was nine years ago.”
“Answer the question.”
“I did.”
“No. You denied it.”
Bianca’s eyes filled with anger.
“Do you think I poisoned her?”
“I think someone inside this family did.”
“And because I came here, you decided it was me?”
“I decided nothing.”
“That is a lie. You decided the moment Gabriel said my name.”
My attention sharpened.
“Gabriel said your name?”
Bianca glanced at me.
“What has he told you?”
“Enough.”
“Then he hasn’t told you the truth.”
Adrian stepped closer to her.
“What truth?”
Bianca reached slowly into her coat.
Adrian caught her wrist.
She froze.
“It’s a phone,” she said.
He removed it himself and checked the screen.
An audio file was open.
Bianca looked at me.
“I received this six months ago.”
Adrian pressed play.
His own voice filled the room.
“She knows too much. Make her disappear before Carlo reaches her.”
My blood turned cold.
Those were the words I had overheard from the hallway outside Adrian’s study.
The words that convinced me he had discovered the ledger.
The words that made me believe my husband had ordered my death.
Bianca stopped the recording.
“That isn’t the entire conversation,” Adrian said.
“I know.”
“Where did you get it?”
“It was sent anonymously.”
“You played this for Elena?”
Bianca looked at me.
“I left the phone in your bedroom.”
The truth struck so hard that I forgot to breathe.
“You?”
“I thought you needed to hear it.”
“You wanted me to believe Adrian planned to kill me.”
“I wanted you to leave before Carlo did.”
Adrian’s face became dangerous.
“You knew Carlo was moving against her?”
“I suspected.”
“And you said nothing?”
“To whom? You?” Bianca demanded. “You were surrounded by men who reported to him. Your advisers, your drivers, members of your security team. I didn’t know who could be trusted.”
“You could trust me.”
“You trusted Gabriel more than your own wife.”
Gabriel appeared in the doorway.
No one had heard him approach.
His gaze rested on Bianca.
“What exactly are you accusing me of?”
Bianca turned toward him.
“I am not accusing you of anything.”
“You mentioned my name.”
“I said Adrian trusted you.”
“That is not a crime.”
“No,” she replied. “But perhaps it should be.”
Gabriel’s expression did not change.
Adrian held up the phone.
“Who sent this recording?”
“I never found out.”
“Why didn’t you give it to me?”
“Because the original conversation was stored in your private system. Whoever edited it had access to the house.”
Gabriel crossed his arms.
“Many employees had limited access.”
“Not to Adrian’s study.”
“Security staff did.”
Bianca smiled without warmth.
“That narrows the list.”
I watched Gabriel.
He showed no reaction.
But for the first time, I remembered something from the night I found the ledger.
The drawer in Adrian’s study had already been open.
Gabriel was responsible for the house’s security system.
He knew when Adrian traveled.
He knew which rooms I entered.
He knew where I slept.
“Why did you help me escape?” I asked Bianca.
Her anger disappeared.
“Because you were pregnant.”
Adrian looked at her sharply.
“You knew?”
“I guessed.”
“You knew before I did?”
“Elena fainted at a charity luncheon. She refused champagne at dinner. She cried because the chef removed a lemon pie from the menu.”
Despite everything, Adrian glanced at me.
“I liked that pie.”
Bianca continued.
“I followed her to a pharmacy. I saw the pregnancy test in her bag.”
I swallowed.
“You never told me you knew.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By making me believe my husband wanted me dead?”
“By making you run before the person watching you discovered the baby.”
Adrian held up the photograph from the crypt.
“They discovered her anyway.”
Bianca’s face changed when she saw the words.
“The heir belongs to us,” she whispered.
“You recognize it?” Gabriel asked.
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“Because I know what it means.”
Adrian waited.
Bianca looked at me.
“Father’s trust contains a second clause.”
“What clause?” I asked.
“If Adrian’s first child is born outside a recognized marriage, any blood relative may challenge the mother’s guardianship.”
My heart stopped.
“Our divorce.”
Bianca nodded.
“The child is legitimate, but your legal authority can be contested because you and Adrian were not married at the time of birth.”
Adrian’s face became unreadable.
“Who knew about that clause?”
“Father. His attorney. Carlo.”
“And you?”
“I found it while organizing the estate.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you had just buried Father, and you swore you would never bring a child into this life.”
Adrian turned toward the window.
The machines around me seemed suddenly too loud.
The divorce had not merely broken our marriage.
It had made our daughter vulnerable.
Whether Adrian intended it or not, the papers he sent six months ago had opened a path for someone else to claim her.
Dr. Sloan entered with a laboratory report.
She stopped when she saw the tension in the room.
“I have the results from the syringe.”
Adrian faced her.
“What was inside?”
“A concentrated dose of the same anticoagulant found in Elena’s blood.”
Bianca covered her mouth.
Dr. Sloan continued.
“If that injection had been administered, Elena likely would have suffered catastrophic bleeding.”
“And the baby?” I asked.
The doctor did not answer.
She did not need to.
Gabriel’s phone vibrated.
He listened through his earpiece.
“Adrian, we found the delivery records for Elena’s vitamins.”
“Who sent them?”
Gabriel looked directly at Bianca.
“The orders were authorized through the Moretti Foundation.”
Bianca’s face went white.
Adrian’s voice dropped.
“Whose account?”
May you like
Gabriel held her gaze.
“Bianca’s.”
