Chapter 8 - A Father’s Choice
Adrian lowered his weapon.
Sienna had never seen him obey anyone so quickly.
“Put it down,” Alessandra ordered.
He did.
The gun hit the floor.
“Kick it away.”
He kicked it.
Alessandra’s pistol remained pressed against Sienna’s stomach.
“Good boy.”
Adrian’s eyes never left Sienna.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Baby?”
“She moved ten minutes ago.”
His shoulders lowered by perhaps half an inch.
Alessandra laughed.
“How touching.”
Adrian ignored her.
“Sienna, look at me.”
She did.
“We're going home.”
Alessandra pushed the barrel harder against her.
“Stop pretending you control this.”
Adrian finally looked at his aunt.
“You want the trust.”
“I want what should have been mine.”
“It can be.”
Everyone went still.
Sienna stared at him.
Alessandra narrowed her eyes.
“Explain.”
“I renounce my interest.”
“Adrian—” Sienna began.
He stopped her with one look.
Not commanding.
Trust me.
“I sign everything,” Adrian said. “Valente Holdings. Voting rights. Properties. All of it.”
Alessandra laughed.
“You expect me to believe you?”
“I spent nine years believing I could never have a child. Do you know what I learned?”
“What?”
“That none of it matters.”
His gaze returned to Sienna.
“Not the company. Not the name. Not the empire.”
Sienna’s eyes filled.
Adrian continued.
“You want Valente Holdings? Take it.”
He slowly spread his empty hands.
“I want my wife and daughter.”
Alessandra studied him.
Something about his sincerity unsettled her.
Because Adrian meant it.
That was the part Sienna understood.
He would walk away from everything.
The money.
Power.
Legacy.
For them.
Alessandra lowered the gun slightly.
A mistake.
Sienna moved.
She knocked Alessandra’s wrist sideways.
The gun fired.
Adrian lunged.
The bullet struck the wall.
Marco burst through the side door.
Alessandra screamed as Adrian pinned her arm against the table.
The pistol fell.
Sienna stumbled backward.
Then pain ripped through her abdomen.
She gasped.
Adrian released Alessandra to Marco immediately.
“Sienna?”
She gripped her stomach.
“No.”
Another pain.
Sharp.
Wrong.
Adrian caught her.
“Sienna!”
“My baby.”
Those two words turned chaos into terror.
An ambulance carried her to the hospital.
Adrian sat beside the stretcher holding her hand.
“Twenty-four weeks,” the paramedic said into the radio. “Abdominal trauma, contractions beginning.”
Sienna began crying.
“It's too early.”
Adrian pressed her hand against his lips.
“Stay with me.”
“What if—”
“No.”
“Adrian.”
“Don't finish that sentence.”
At the hospital, doctors rushed her upstairs.
Adrian was stopped outside.
For the first time in his adult life, money could do nothing.
Threats could do nothing.
Power could do nothing.
He sat in a plastic chair.
Rocco arrived.
Then Luca.
Then Theo and Sienna’s mother.
Nobody spoke.
Two hours later, Dr. Hale emerged.
Adrian stood.
“Sienna?”
“Stable.”
“The baby?”
“Also stable.”
His knees nearly failed.
The doctor explained that the contractions had been stopped.
No placental abruption.
No labor.
But Sienna needed monitoring.
Adrian entered her room.
She was awake.
He crossed to her without speaking and placed both hands around hers.
“She’s okay,” Sienna whispered.
“I know.”
“You're crying.”
“I know.”
“Again.”
“Apparently you've ruined my reputation.”
She smiled weakly.
He kissed her fingers.
“I meant what I said.”
“What?”
“I'll give it all up.”
Sienna studied him.
“I know.”
“Every company. Every building. Every dollar connected to that family.”
“I don't want you to.”
He frowned.
“I want you to choose,” she said.
“I did.”
“No. You chose us because a gun was pointed at our daughter. I want you to decide what kind of life you want when nobody is forcing you.”
Adrian lowered his head.
“I want breakfast with you.”
She smiled.
“I want to complain when you leave flour on my suits.”
“That happened once.”
“Seven times.”
“Continue.”
“I want our daughter to know me as her father before she understands my last name.”
Sienna squeezed his hand.
“And the empire?”
He looked toward the window.
“I want to make it something she won't have to be ashamed of.”
That answer satisfied her.
Alessandra survived.
She was arrested on charges connected to kidnapping, conspiracy, attempted murder, arson, and financial crimes.
Corrado agreed to testify.
So did Rocco.
But one problem remained.
The federal investigation uncovered evidence of decades of criminal activity inside Valente businesses.
Adrian was not directly implicated in most of it.
But his father had been.
His grandfather too.
The empire was beginning to collapse.
Three days after Sienna left the hospital, Adrian called a family meeting.
“I’m separating every legitimate company from the criminal network.”
Rocco stared.
“You'll lose half the organization.”
“Yes.”
“Enemies will move in.”
“Then let them move.”
“Your grandfather built this for seventy years.”
Adrian looked at him.
“My grandfather built something that almost killed my wife before my daughter was born.”
Rocco fell silent.
Luca leaned back.
“So what happens to us?”
Adrian placed documents on the table.
“You get choices.”
Legitimate employment.
Legal businesses.
Or nothing.
No more protection rackets.
No more bribery.
No more inherited criminal obligations.
Rocco laughed once.
“You think you can turn the Valentes respectable?”
“No.”
Adrian looked toward Sienna, who stood in the doorway.
“But I can make sure my daughter doesn't inherit our sins.”
Sienna smiled.
Then her face changed.
Her hand flew to her stomach.
Adrian was beside her instantly.
“What?”
She grabbed his hand and pressed it against her belly.
A tiny kick struck his palm.
Adrian froze.
Again.
His daughter kicked.
He laughed.
Everyone in the room went silent.
The most feared man in New York dropped to his knees in front of his wife.
“Do that again.”
Sienna laughed.
“She isn't taking requests.”
Another kick.
Adrian looked up, astonished.
Then Rocco turned away.
Sienna saw him wipe his eyes.
For one moment, she almost felt sorry for him.
Then Adrian’s phone rang.
He answered.
His attorney spoke for less than thirty seconds.
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“What is it?” Sienna asked.
He ended the call.
“Alessandra made a deal.”
“With prosecutors?”
“No.”
He looked at Rocco.
“With someone outside the family.”
Rocco went pale.
“Who?”
Adrian’s answer changed everything.
“The man who actually drove the truck that hit me nine years ago.”
May you like
And according to the attorney, he had evidence proving Rocco had lied about one final thing.
Matteo had never ordered Adrian’s accident.
