Chapter 4 - The Man Who Needed Them Childless
Salvatore raised the weapon.
Dante moved in front of Adeline.
“Put it down.”
Salvatore laughed.
“You still think this is about your wife?”
Security alarms began sounding elsewhere in the mansion.
Harold backed toward the wall.
Ethan froze beside the desk.
Dante did not move.
“Who did you shoot?”
“Nobody important.”
“Put the gun down.”
Salvatore’s hand trembled.
Not fear.
Rage.
“You were supposed to stay sterile.”
The sentence changed everything.
Adeline stared.
Salvatore looked at her stomach.
“And she was never supposed to become pregnant.”
Dante’s voice dropped.
“You altered my diagnosis.”
“Your father started the lie.”
“And you kept it alive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Salvatore smiled bitterly.
“Because Luca died.”
Dante’s expression remained cold.
“Explain.”
“When Luca died, you became heir.”
“So?”
“So you became dangerous.”
“To whom?”
“To me.”
Salvatore stepped farther into the room.
“You were twenty-three. Disciplined. Smart. Carlo trusted you. The captains respected you. If you had children, your branch of the family would control everything for another generation.”
“And you wanted it.”
“I deserved it.”
Dante almost smiled.
“You always were terrible at hiding envy.”
Salvatore’s jaw tightened.
“I gave thirty years to this family.”
“And now you’re holding a gun in its library.”
“I protected what should have been mine.”
Adeline spoke from behind Dante.
“You blackmailed my father.”
Salvatore glanced at her.
“Yes.”
“You told him you were my biological father.”
“Yes.”
“But you weren’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Harold would do anything to keep that secret.”
Harold whispered, “You ruined my family.”
Salvatore looked amused.
“You ruined your own family when you chose reputation over truth.”
For once, Adeline agreed with him.
Dante remained focused.
“And Matteo?”
Salvatore’s expression flickered.
Dante saw it.
“My mother’s brother was Adeline’s biological father.”
“No.”
Ethan interrupted.
“The genetic profile proves he was the donor.”
Salvatore turned the gun slightly toward him.
“That profile should have disappeared.”
Dante moved one step.
Salvatore raised the weapon again.
“Don’t.”
Dante stopped.
Adeline’s heart pounded.
Ethan continued carefully.
“Matteo donated anonymously before leaving the country. He never knew the recipient.”
Dante processed the relationship.
Matteo was Dante’s maternal uncle.
Adeline was Matteo’s biological daughter.
That made Adeline and Dante first cousins once removed genetically?
Wait. Dante's maternal uncle's daughter is Dante's first cousin. Actually if Matteo is mother's brother, his daughter is Dante's first cousin. So not unrelated. But genetic prediction said unrelated. Inconsistency! Need fix. We need preserve no incest perhaps donor was not Matteo? Could say photo misidentified? Let's adjust. We can't retroactively edit prior text? We can in final block. We'll fix chapter3 end maybe picture is not mother's brother? Could be a trusted family doctor? But already wrote. Need final answer coherent. We can revise chapter3 line: "That's Matteo DeLuca" maybe he was not blood uncle, but mother's foster brother? Then genetically unrelated. Need establish here: Matteo was Isabella Raldi's adopted brother, no biological relation. Great.
Dante’s maternal uncle by upbringing, Matteo DeLuca, had been adopted into the DeLuca household as a child.
There was no blood relationship.
That explained Ethan’s result.
Adeline and Dante were not genetically related.
The immediate horror eased.
But another question replaced it.
Why had Salvatore gone to such lengths to make everyone believe they were?
“You wanted us to think our child was at risk,” Adeline said.
Salvatore smiled.
“I wanted you to end the pregnancy before anyone asked questions.”
Dante’s expression became lethal.
“You sent the photograph.”
“Yes.”
“You tried to make me believe she was unfaithful.”
“Yes.”
“You had Ethan taken.”
“Yes.”
Dante nodded slowly.
“Thank you.”
Salvatore frowned.
“For what?”
“For confessing in a room with three hidden security microphones.”
Salvatore’s face changed.
Dante moved.
It happened fast.
He knocked Salvatore’s wrist upward.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
Harold ducked.
Ethan lunged behind the desk.
Adeline stumbled backward.
Dante drove Salvatore into the wall.
The weapon fell.
Security officers burst through the door.
Within seconds Salvatore was restrained.
Nobody was seriously injured.
The shot outside had been fired into a hallway mirror to force the guards away from the library entrance.
Salvatore had planned to frighten them.
Perhaps kill Ethan.
Perhaps worse.
By afternoon, police had taken him away.
Dante did not use family influence to stop them.
That decision shocked the Raldis more than the pregnancy.
“He’s your uncle,” Carlo said later.
“He kidnapped a doctor and pointed a gun at my wife.”
“He is still blood.”
Dante looked at his father.
“So is my child.”
Carlo went silent.
Dante continued.
“This family has hidden behind blood long enough.”
That evening, Adeline sat on the balcony outside their bedroom.
Dante approached carrying tea.
“No garlic,” he said.
She accepted it.
“Thank you.”
They sat without speaking.
Finally she asked, “Were you happy with Sofia?”
Dante looked toward the garden.
“Yes.”
“Did you love her?”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt.
Adeline had no right to resent it.
Their marriage had never promised love.
Still, she did.
“What was she like?”
“Kind.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“She laughed a lot.”
“Definitely dangerous.”
He smiled faintly.
“She wanted four children.”
“And you ended it because you thought you couldn’t give her any.”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Pride.”
Adeline nodded.
“Men have built civilizations and ruined marriages with that word.”
Dante looked at her.
“What about you?”
“What?”
“Was there someone before me?”
She hesitated.
“One.”
“Ethan?”
She laughed.
“No.”
Dante seemed relieved.
She noticed.
His expression hardened again when he realized she noticed.
“His name was Julian Price.”
“What happened?”
“My father said Whitmore Shipping was in danger. He told me if I married you, hundreds of employees would keep their jobs.”
“So you left Julian.”
“Yes.”
“Did you love him?”
“I thought I did.”
“And now?”
Adeline looked at Dante.
“Now I think I was in love with the person I believed I could become beside him.”
He absorbed that.
“Do you regret marrying me?”
She looked down at her tea.
“Ask me six months ago.”
“I’m asking now.”
Adeline touched her abdomen.
“I don’t know.”
That answer was more honest than either expected.
Dante leaned back.
“I regret the reason.”
“Not the marriage?”
He looked at her.
“Not all of it.”
Her heartbeat changed.
He continued.
“I regret every day I made you feel like a contract.”
Adeline swallowed.
“You were grieving a life you thought you couldn’t have.”
“That wasn’t your punishment to carry.”
They sat closer than usual.
Not touching.
But not far apart.
For the first time their silence felt different.
Not empty.
Possible.
The next morning, Ethan returned with the full genetic analysis.
The baby’s paternity was clear.
Dante was the father.
Adeline cried when she saw the result.
Not because she doubted herself.
Because proof meant nobody could weaponize doubt against her again.
Dante stared at the paper for a long time.
Then he whispered, “My child.”
Adeline looked at him.
“Yes.”
He covered his face briefly.
When he lowered his hands, his eyes were wet.
Neither mentioned it.
Ethan also confirmed that Matteo DeLuca, adopted by Dante’s maternal grandparents and therefore unrelated by blood, was Adeline’s biological father.
Matteo had died seven years earlier in Argentina.
He had never known she existed.
Harold had known the donor identity for nineteen years.
He had hidden it.
Adeline refused his calls.
For several days, life inside the mansion almost settled.
Then a courier arrived.
The envelope was addressed to Dante.
Inside was a notarized statement from Salvatore.
Dante read the first page.
Then the second.
His expression changed.
“What?” Adeline asked.
He handed it to her.
Salvatore claimed Carlo had known Dante was fertile for years.
Not merely suspected.
Known.
Adeline read faster.
According to the statement, Carlo had secretly arranged a second fertility test when Dante was twenty-eight.
The result was normal.
Carlo buried it.
Dante stared toward the door.
“My father knew for six years before our wedding.”
Adeline’s throat tightened.
“Why would he still arrange our marriage?”
Dante turned the final page.
A handwritten note had been attached.
It contained only one sentence.
ASK CARLO WHY HE NEEDED ADELINE WHITMORE TO PRODUCE A RALDI HEIR.
Adeline looked up.
Footsteps sounded in the hallway.
May you like
Carlo’s cane struck the marble once.
Then the library door began to open.
