Chapter 7 - The Man Who Knew About the Baby
“Mom?”
Amelia Bennett descended one step.
Then another.
No ropes.
No guards.
No visible fear.
Chloe's heart sank.
“You're with them.”
Amelia shook her head.
“No.”
“Then why are you standing beside Bradley?”
“Because if I hadn't come, Victor would have killed Danny.”
“He already shot him.”
Amelia's face changed.
“What?”
“He's alive.”
Relief weakened her knees.
Bradley glanced toward the cameras.
“We shouldn't do this here.”
Chloe looked at him.
“You humiliated me here.”
Bradley's face tightened.
“I was told to.”
“What?”
“At the bakery.”
Leo's voice was dangerously calm.
“Explain.”
Bradley swallowed.
“Victor wanted to see whether Chloe would contact you immediately after being provoked.”
Chloe stared.
“So you called me fat as an experiment?”
Bradley winced.
“When you say it like that—”
“How else should she say it?” Leo asked.
Bradley stopped speaking.
Amelia approached Chloe.
Her eyes fell to the pregnancy.
Tears appeared.
“My baby is having a baby.”
Chloe stepped backward.
“You don't get to do that.”
Amelia stopped.
“You don't get twenty years of mothering from one sentence.”
“I know.”
“Where were you?”
“Watching.”
“That is not the same as being there.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know!”
Guests turned.
Cameras continued flashing.
Leo moved slightly between Chloe and the press.
Amelia whispered, “Victor wanted you invisible. Antonio believed the same. I believed them.”
“You chose fear.”
“Yes.”
The honesty disarmed Chloe.
Amelia touched her own chest.
“And I've hated myself every day for it.”
Leo's security surrounded them.
“Inside,” he said.
The hotel ballroom became a fortress.
The gala continued because canceling would tell Salerno he controlled the evening.
Chloe entered on Leo's arm.
Every face turned.
She heard whispers.
Moretti.
Pregnant.
Who is she?
Leo leaned closer.
“Want to leave?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Why good?”
“Because I didn't want to.”
She almost smiled.
Then Bradley approached.
His eyes lowered to Chloe's belly.
Leo noticed.
“Keep your eyes north, Hayes.”
Bradley flushed.
“I deserve that.”
“You deserve considerably more.”
“Leo.”
Chloe touched his sleeve.
He stopped.
Bradley looked at her.
“I was cruel to you long before Victor asked me to be.”
“Yes.”
“I thought controlling you meant improving you.”
“Yes.”
“I was wrong.”
“Yes.”
Bradley blinked.
“That's it?”
“What were you expecting? A medal for self-awareness?”
Leo's mouth twitched.
Bradley nodded.
“Fair.”
He handed Chloe a keycard.
“My father's private records are upstairs.”
“Why give this to me?”
“Because Victor thinks I'm still working for him.”
“Are you?”
“No.”
Leo took the card.
“We'll verify that.”
Bradley walked away.
Chloe exhaled.
“That felt good.”
“I noticed.”
Music began.
Leo looked at her.
“Dance?”
She stared.
“You dance?”
“I have many disturbing secrets.”
Chloe allowed him to lead her onto the floor.
His hand settled at her waist.
Her belly created distance between them.
Leo looked down.
“Someone's in the way.”
“She outranks you.”
“She?”
Chloe froze.
Leo did too.
“You know?”
“The clinic called this afternoon.”
“You found out without me?”
“I told Ellis not to tell me.”
“But?”
“He accidentally used a pronoun.”
Chloe laughed.
A real laugh.
Leo stared as though he wanted to memorize it.
“A girl,” he whispered.
“A girl.”
His hand moved carefully over her belly.
“What do you want to name her?”
“The contract says you choose.”
“Forget the contract.”
“You keep saying that.”
“I mean it.”
Chloe looked into his eyes.
“What happens after she's born?”
Leo did not answer immediately.
Before he could, the lights dimmed for the foundation presentation.
A giant screen illuminated.
Instead of the charity film, a document appeared.
Their surrogacy contract.
Guests gasped.
Chloe stopped breathing.
Then another page appeared.
Medical records.
Her name.
Pregnancy.
Leo Moretti listed as biological father.
Phones rose throughout the ballroom.
Someone had publicly exposed everything.
Then a photograph filled the screen.
Chloe and Leo kissing four months earlier.
The night the contract had ceased to matter.
Text appeared beneath it:
THE HEIR WAS NEVER A SURROGACY CHILD.
Leo stared at the screen.
Chloe heard whispers multiplying around them.
Then the final image appeared.
A paternity document.
May you like
But the name printed beneath “FATHER” was not Leo Moretti.
It was Bradley Hayes.
