Chapter 9 - The Mother’s Reckoning
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The master bedroom of the Romano estate was heavy with the smell of medicinal tinctures and fading roses.
Adrian sat on the edge of the velvet armchair beside his mother’s four-poster bed.
Madame Elena Romano lay against a mountain of white pillows, her breathing shallow and raspy.
Her face was lined with age and grief.
She turned her dark, intelligent eyes toward her only son.
“You look tired, Adrian,” Elena whispered, her voice like dry autumn leaves.
Adrian rubbed his face with both hands.
“The Morettis are squeezing our northern supply lines, mother.”
“The syndicate council is demanding an emergency meeting on Friday.”
“They want to know why we lost the maritime contract.”
Elena let out a soft, mocking sigh that hit Adrian harder than any bullet.
“They don't care about the contract, Adrian.”
“They care that you lost your mind.”
Adrian stiffened.
“Mother, I am handling it—”
“You are handling nothing!” the old woman snapped, coughing weakly into a linen handkerchief.
“You threw away the greatest treasure this family ever possessed because of your pathetic, fragile pride!”
Adrian stood up, pacing across the antique Persian rug.
“Why does everyone keep defending her?” he shouted, his voice cracking with raw frustration.
“She was just a quiet girl from a bankrupt family!”
“I gave her everything!”
“I gave her diamonds, a mansion, and the Romano name!”
Elena laughed, a raspy, painful sound that cut through the room.
“You gave her a cage, Adrian!”
“And you think you saved her?”
“Let me tell you a truth that your foolish arrogance blinded you from seeing.”
Elena struggled to sit upright, pointing a trembling, bony finger at her son’s chest.
“Two years ago, when the federal prosecutors raided our shipping offices in Newark, who do you think shredded the secondary manifests?”
Adrian paused, his brows furrowing.
“My legal team handled the federal audit.”
“Your legal team was on a yacht in the Bahamas, drunk out of their minds!” Elena hissed.
“Sophia spent forty-eight hours straight in the sub-basement of that office.”
“She audited every single line of code, separated the legitimate cargo from the contraband, and forged customs stamps with her own hand to keep you out of federal prison!”
Adrian felt the room spin violently around him.
His mouth went dry.
“She... she never said a word to me about that.”
“Of course she didn't!” Elena wept, tears spilling down her weathered cheeks.
“Because she loved you!”
“Because she believed that a wife protects her husband without demanding applause!”
“And how did you repay her?”
“You let that viper Isabella mock her at your own table!”
“You told your enemies that your wife was a shameful nobody who only knew how to stay silent!”
Adrian sank back into the armchair, burying his face in his trembling hands.
The memories flooded his mind with terrifying clarity.
The late nights she had spent working at the desk in his study.
The dark circles beneath her eyes that he had never bothered to ask about.
The way she had quietly smoothed his collar every morning before he went to war for his empire.
She had not been his dependent.
She had been his guardian angel.
And he had cast her out into the cold with a sneer.
“What have I done?” Adrian whispered into the silence of the room.
His mother looked at him with cold, unforgiving eyes.
May you like
“You broke the heart of a queen, Adrian.”
“And now, you will watch her take your crown.”
