Chapter 13 - The Child They Wanted to Control
“It is.”
Leo did not lie.
That almost made it worse.
Chloe held the document.
“You signed away my rights?”
“No.”
“It says exactly that.”
“I signed the original agreement before we knew the pregnancy was natural.”
“The date says otherwise.”
Leo looked.
His face changed.
“This was altered.”
“Your signature?”
“Real.”
“The date?”
“False.”
“How can you prove that?”
Leo called his attorney.
At two in the morning, Evelyn Price arrived with digital records.
The signed agreement had been executed three days before Chloe conceived.
The date on the anonymous copy had been manipulated.
Chloe sank onto the couch.
“I believed it.”
“For five minutes.”
“I believed you could do that to me.”
Leo sat opposite her.
“You had reasons.”
“I don't want reasons.”
She started crying.
“I want this to stop.”
Leo moved beside her.
Chloe leaned into him.
“I want to be excited about our daughter without wondering who wants her money or her name or her DNA.”
“So do I.”
“Then change it.”
“I will.”
“No. We will.”
The next morning, they did.
Leo publicly renounced any succession rule dependent on his daughter's birth.
Chloe's attorneys restructured the Bennett assets into an independent trust.
Neither family could use the child as a legal bridge to control the other's holdings.
The baby would inherit because her parents loved her.
Not because powerful men needed her existence.
It cost Leo influence.
Several old allies protested.
He let them.
It cost Chloe money.
She let it.
Antonio watched quietly.
“You're dismantling everything we built.”
Leo looked at his father.
“No.”
He put his hand over Chloe's belly.
“I'm building something you forgot to.”
“What?”
“A family where the child doesn't owe the adults anything for being born.”
Antonio lowered his eyes.
For once, he had no counterargument.
Bradley appeared later.
Chloe almost refused to see him.
Then changed her mind.
He stood awkwardly in Leo's office.
“I came to apologize.”
“You already did.”
“Badly.”
“True.”
Bradley breathed in.
“I spent years making you smaller because I was insecure when you didn't need me.”
Chloe said nothing.
“I thought criticism would make you work harder to keep me.”
“It did.”
“I know.”
“And I hated myself.”
“I know.”
“You don't get to say that like it hurts you more.”
Bradley nodded.
“Right.”
He placed a bakery bag on the desk.
Cheese Danish.
Chloe stared.
“I thought…”
“That's weird.”
“Yes.”
“Very weird.”
“I realize that now.”
She almost smiled.
“Goodbye, Bradley.”
He nodded.
“Goodbye, Chloe.”
He left.
Leo entered through another door.
“You listened?”
“Shamelessly.”
“Were you jealous?”
“Violently.”
“You hide it well.”
“I considered throwing him from the balcony.”
“Leo.”
“The window doesn't open.”
Chloe laughed.
He kissed her.
Then knelt.
Not with a ring.
Not yet.
He put his cheek against her belly.
Their daughter kicked him.
Leo looked offended.
“She assaulted me.”
“Probably inherited my temperament.”
“God help Manhattan.”
Chloe ran her fingers through his hair.
Then his phone rang.
Marco.
Leo answered.
Listened.
The warmth disappeared.
“What happened?”
Marco spoke loudly enough for Chloe to hear.
“Isabella Romano is missing.”
“The embryo?”
“Recovered.”
“Then why take her?”
“We don't think anyone took her.”
“What do you mean?”
“She left voluntarily.”
“Where?”
A pause.
“We found her car at the old Moretti estate.”
Antonio entered behind them.
His face went white.
“No.”
Leo turned.
“What?”
Antonio whispered, “There is something in that house Isabella cannot be allowed to find.”
“What?”
Antonio grabbed his coat.
“A second will.”
They drove immediately.
The old estate had been abandoned since Antonio's supposed death.
The front door stood open.
Leo entered first.
Chloe stayed behind Marco.
Upstairs, they found Isabella inside Antonio's study.
A document lay open before her.
She looked at Leo.
“You should read this.”
Antonio lunged for it.
Leo stopped him.
He picked up the will.
Read the first page.
Then the second.
His expression changed.
Chloe approached.
“What?”
Leo stared at his father.
“This leaves control of the Moretti holdings to someone else.”
Antonio said nothing.
“To whom?” Chloe asked.
Leo turned the final page toward her.
May you like
A name was printed beneath the inheritance clause.
CHLOE BENNETT.
