Chapter 6 - The Clause Nobody Read
The divorce agreement was more than three hundred pages long.
Claire had read every page.
Or she thought she had.
At 1:14 the next morning, Marco discovered that the copy stored in Moretti Capital’s secure archive differed from the version Claire’s attorney had received.
One page had been replaced.
Clause 47.
Adrian read it twice.
Then a third time.
“What does it mean?” Claire asked.
Marco looked grim.
“If Adrian dies without a recognized heir, a large block of Moretti family voting shares transfers temporarily to the corporate trustees.”
“Who controls the trustees?”
Adrian already knew.
“Sebastian.”
Claire went cold.
“But Adrian isn’t dead.”
“No,” Marco said. “Which means Sebastian has another problem.”
Claire touched her stomach.
“The baby.”
Adrian stood.
“From now on, Claire doesn’t go anywhere without—”
He stopped himself.
Claire noticed.
He tried again.
“Claire, would you agree to additional security?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
Marco looked between them.
“This therapy-by-hostage-crisis thing is fascinating.”
Adrian glared at him.
Claire almost laughed.
The following morning brought another surprise.
Victor Russo arrived.
Cancer had made him thinner, but his voice remained strong.
Adrian met him in the library.
“You knew.”
Victor nodded.
“For twenty-three years.”
“You let me believe my father died in an accident.”
“Because Antonio asked me to protect you.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“That sentence seems popular in my family.”
Victor lowered his eyes.
“I made the same mistake you made with Claire.”
Adrian stopped.
Victor continued.
“We confuse secrecy with protection because secrecy lets us remain in control.”
Adrian looked toward the doorway where Claire stood listening.
She said nothing.
Victor handed Adrian a sealed envelope.
“Your father wrote this the night before he died.”
Adrian opened it.
The handwriting was unmistakable.
Antonio wrote that Sebastian had discovered the investigation.
He warned that if Adrian ever inherited the company, he should never allow fear to turn him into a man who loved people only from a distance.
Adrian had to stop reading.
The irony was unbearable.
Claire quietly left the room.
Later that afternoon, she found Adrian alone on the terrace.
Snow had begun falling over Manhattan.
“You’ll freeze.”
“I’ve been told I’m emotionally cold.”
“That isn’t how weather works.”
He looked at her.
Claire handed him his coat.
For a moment, their fingers touched.
“Did you finish the letter?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That I became exactly what he was afraid I would become.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
“You don’t have to protect my feelings.”
“I’m not. You made terrible choices. That doesn’t mean you’re permanently defined by them.”
Adrian looked at her.
“How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“See something worth saving in people who hurt you.”
Claire’s expression changed.
“I don’t always.”
“Do you see something worth saving in me?”
She took a long breath.
“I’m trying to decide.”
That was more hope than he deserved.
The next weeks passed quietly.
Twenty weeks.
Then twenty-one.
Adrian attended his first ultrasound with Claire’s permission.
When the technician asked whether they wanted a recording of the heartbeat, Adrian said yes too quickly.
Claire laughed.
He listened to it twelve times in the car.
At twenty-two weeks, he assembled a crib in the townhouse guest room.
Incorrectly.
Claire found him staring at six leftover screws.
“You run a multinational corporation.”
“The instructions are badly written.”
“They’re pictures.”
“Hostile pictures.”
She laughed so hard she had to sit down.
Adrian stared at her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re smiling.”
“I’m allowed.”
“I know.”
“No, you’re staring.”
“I forgot how much I liked that sound.”
The laughter faded.
Their eyes met.
Adrian stepped closer.
Then stopped.
Claire felt the space between them.
Once, he would have closed it without asking.
Now he waited.
She appreciated that more than she wanted to.
But before either spoke, Marco entered.
“We have a problem.”
Adrian sighed.
“You always say that.”
“I rarely arrive with cake.”
Marco placed a tablet on the table.
A news article had appeared online.
MORETTI HEIR ON THE WAY? BILLIONAIRE’S SECRET EX-WIFE PREGNANT.
Claire’s face drained.
Her photograph appeared beneath the headline.
So did the address of her Brooklyn apartment.
Adrian swore.
“That went live twelve minutes ago,” Marco said. “The source was anonymous.”
“Sebastian.”
“Probably.”
Claire read farther.
Then stopped.
“What is this?”
The article claimed Adrian intended to challenge their divorce and seek sole custody after the baby’s birth.
Claire looked at him.
“You didn’t—”
“No.”
“You swear?”
“On my daughter’s life.”
She believed him.
That realization startled her.
Marco’s phone rang.
He answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at Adrian.
“The Brooklyn apartment.”
Claire stood.
“What about it?”
“There was a fire.”
Her hand covered her mouth.
“Was anyone hurt?”
“No. The building was evacuated.”
“Cause?”
Marco hesitated.
“The fire marshal found an incendiary device inside your unit.”
Silence.
Then Adrian’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A man’s voice spoke.
“Congratulations on the daughter.”
Adrian’s face went still.
Claire knew immediately.
Sebastian.
“You want me,” Adrian said. “Leave them out of this.”
Sebastian laughed.
“I wanted what your father stole from me.”
“What?”
“The company.”
“You’ll never have it.”
“I don’t need all of it.”
A pause.
“I only need you to have no heir.”
The call ended.
Claire stood perfectly still.
Adrian looked at her.
For the first time, neither pretended the danger was distant.
May you like
Sebastian wasn’t threatening money anymore.
He was threatening their daughter.
