Chapter 6 - Before the First Cry
The flashlight blinded them.
Adrian moved in front of Emma.
“Turn it off.”
A familiar voice answered.
“Still giving orders.”
The light lowered.
An elderly man stood twenty feet away.
Emma did not recognize him.
Adrian did.
“Daniel Russo.”
The man from the warehouse photographs.
The man Adrian had supposedly been hurting.
The man Adrian claimed he had rescued twelve years earlier.
Daniel looked older now, his hair silver, his back slightly bent.
But alive.
Very alive.
Emma stared.
“You’re Daniel.”
He nodded.
“And you must be Emma.”
Adrian’s voice remained cautious.
“What are you doing here?”
“Saving your family. Again.”
Another contraction seized Emma.
She bent forward.
Adrian abandoned every question instantly.
He held her.
“How close?”
“I don’t know.”
Rachel checked the time.
“Four minutes since the last one.”
Adrian looked horrified.
“Four minutes?”
Emma managed, “Stop looking like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m about to explode.”
“You just said four minutes!”
Daniel almost smiled.
“There’s a car at the tunnel exit.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Yours?”
“Yes.”
“Hospital?”
“Seven minutes.”
Victor’s voice echoed behind them.
“Daniel?”
The older man’s smile disappeared.
“He knows I’m here.”
Marco turned.
“We move now.”
They hurried through the tunnel.
Emma could barely walk by the end.
Adrian practically carried her up the final stairs.
Daniel’s vehicle waited behind an abandoned carriage house.
Marco drove.
Rachel and Emma sat in the back.
Adrian climbed beside Emma.
Elena and Daniel followed in another vehicle.
The moment they reached the road, Emma grabbed Adrian’s hand.
Another contraction.
He looked at Rachel.
“How long?”
“Three minutes.”
Adrian swore.
Emma squeezed his fingers.
“Do not panic before I do.”
“I’m not panicking.”
“You’re crushing my hand.”
He immediately loosened his grip.
“Sorry.”
Emma laughed despite the pain.
Then cried.
The emotional whiplash terrified him.
“Why are you crying?”
“Because I’m in labor, Adrian.”
“Right.”
He looked forward.
“Marco.”
“I’m driving.”
“Faster.”
“I’m already doing eighty.”
“Then do—”
Emma pulled Adrian’s face toward hers.
“Stop.”
He stopped.
“Look at me.”
He did.
For the first time that night, the rest of Chicago vanished.
“You asked why I didn’t tell you.”
His expression changed.
“Not now.”
“Yes. Now.”
“Emma.”
“I didn’t leave because I stopped loving you.”
He went completely still.
“I left because I loved you enough to know I was becoming someone I didn’t recognize.”
He swallowed.
“I was afraid all the time.”
“I know.”
“No. You know now.”
He nodded.
“That’s fair.”
“I thought if I told you about Sophie, you’d pull me back into your world.”
“I would have.”
Emma looked away.
His answer hurt because it was honest.
“But I was wrong,” he added.
She looked back.
“I would’ve told myself it was protection.”
His eyes were wet.
“I would’ve surrounded you with guards. Cars. Houses. People watching every door.”
“That’s exactly what I feared.”
“I know.”
“What changed?”
“You disappeared.”
He glanced down at her belly.
“And I still didn’t understand what I’d lost.”
The hospital appeared ahead.
Adrian exhaled.
Emma whispered, “I don’t want our daughter raised afraid.”
“She won’t be.”
“You can’t promise that while staying who you are.”
Silence.
Marco looked into the mirror.
Adrian stared at Emma.
“What are you asking me?”
“I’m not asking.”
She gripped his hand as another contraction began.
“I’m telling you what it costs to be her father.”
The car stopped at the emergency entrance.
Nurses arrived with a wheelchair.
Adrian lifted Emma before anyone could object.
“I can walk.”
“No.”
“Adrian.”
“Humor me.”
She almost did.
He placed her carefully in the wheelchair.
A nurse pushed Emma toward labor and delivery.
Adrian followed.
A security officer stopped him.
“Family only.”
Adrian froze.
Emma turned.
“He’s the father.”
Three words.
Adrian’s face broke open.
The nurse waved him through.
For the next two hours, every part of Adrian’s life changed.
He held Emma’s hand.
He counted breaths.
He gave her ice chips badly.
He asked so many questions that one nurse threatened to remove him if he didn’t stop interrogating the fetal monitor.
Emma laughed for the first time in months.
Then another contraction erased the smile.
“You did this to me.”
Adrian nodded immediately.
“Yes.”
“You agree too quickly.”
“I’m learning.”
“You’re terrible at it.”
“I’m learning that too.”
Outside the room, Marco handled the danger.
Victor never reached the hospital.
Daniel had called federal investigators before entering the tunnel.
Not because Adrian asked.
Because twelve years earlier Adrian had pulled him from a warehouse and saved his life without demanding repayment.
Daniel had spent years collecting evidence against Victor.
Tonight gave him enough.
Just after midnight, Marco entered the room.
Adrian immediately stood.
“Well?”
“Victor is in custody.”
Emma exhaled.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
Adrian looked almost annoyed by the question.
She stared at him.
“Good.”
He nodded.
“Good.”
Marco hesitated.
“There’s something else.”
Adrian stepped into the hallway.
Emma couldn’t hear everything.
Only fragments.
Original agreement.
Fraud.
Signatures.
Invalid.
Then Adrian returned.
“What?”
He sat beside her.
“The Continuity Agreement was never enforceable.”
Emma blinked.
“What?”
“My father forged one of the original signatures.”
“So all of this was for nothing?”
“Victor believed it was real.”
“Lucia believed it was real.”
“Yes.”
“And people destroyed our marriage over a piece of paper that was worthless?”
Adrian looked at her.
“Our marriage had problems before Victor touched it.”
Emma stared.
That answer mattered.
He was not using Victor as an excuse.
“We let fear do the rest,” he said.
Another contraction interrupted them.
The nurse checked Emma.
“It’s time.”
Adrian went pale again.
Emma almost laughed.
“Don’t faint.”
“I don’t faint.”
Twenty minutes later, Emma screamed his name.
Adrian held her hand.
“Again,” the doctor said.
Emma pushed.
A cry filled the room.
Small.
Sharp.
Perfect.
Adrian stopped breathing.
The doctor lifted a tiny baby into view.
“A beautiful girl.”
Emma sobbed.
Adrian didn’t move.
The nurse placed Sophie against Emma’s chest.
Tiny dark hair.
Red cheeks.
Furious little fists.
Emma kissed her forehead.
Then looked at Adrian.
He was crying.
Silent tears.
No attempt to hide them.
“Come here.”
He stepped closer.
Emma moved the blanket slightly.
“Sophie.”
Adrian touched one tiny hand.
Sophie wrapped her fingers around his.
His knees nearly gave out.
“Hello,” he whispered.
Emma closed her eyes.
For one moment, there was no Victor.
No Moretti empire.
No divorce.
Only their daughter.
Hours later, Emma woke to find Adrian sitting beside the bassinet.
He was reading something on his phone.
His expression had changed.
“What?”
He looked up.
“Nothing.”
“That word still doesn’t work.”
He stood.
“Marco sent me the final evidence file.”
“And?”
“The person who first warned Victor about the pregnancy.”
Emma sat up slowly.
“I thought Elena said Victor had been watching me.”
“He was.”
“Then what?”
“Someone confirmed Sophie was mine.”
“Who?”
Adrian hesitated.
Emma felt dread return.
“Tell me.”
He turned the phone toward her.
An email filled the screen.
Sent seven months earlier.
Attached was Emma’s first ultrasound report.
The sender address belonged to someone she recognized.
Someone who had hugged her after she took the pregnancy test.
Someone who had sworn never to tell Adrian.
Emma looked toward the hospital door.
May you like
Rachel stood there.
And she had heard every word.
