Chapter 6 - The Price Of An Heir
Dr. Elias Moretti stepped through the smoke.
The missing physician.
His coat was dirty.
His face bruised.
And in his hand was the printed ultrasound image stolen from my medical file.
Cassian raised his gun.
"Stop."
Moretti raised both hands.
"I'm not with Renato."
"You're carrying my child's ultrasound."
"I took it back from him."
Marco moved toward the door.
Moretti shook his head.
"Don't. The corridor is wired."
Cassian's expression didn't change.
"Explain."
Moretti had accepted money from Renato.
That part was true.
But not for the reason we assumed.
Renato had approached him after discovering I was pregnant.
He wanted access to my records.
Moretti pretended to cooperate while secretly sending information to Vittorio.
The payments we found were part of the cover.
"Then why disappear?" I asked.
"Because Renato realized I was feeding him false appointment schedules."
Cassian looked at Vittorio.
"You knew?"
"Not everything."
"That's becoming a family motto."
Moretti explained the trap.
Renato wanted us trapped long enough to destroy the vault records.
The fire was controlled.
Smoke.
Heat.
Panic.
Not intended to kill us immediately.
He needed Cassian to surrender the evidence.
Then Renato's voice returned through the speaker.
"One folder."
Cassian looked up.
"You want the evidence against you."
"I want Alessandra's original ledger."
"And then?"
"You walk out."
Cassian laughed once.
"No."
"Celia is pregnant."
His expression changed.
Renato continued.
"How long do you think she can breathe smoke?"
Cassian looked at me.
I hated the fear in his eyes.
"Don't."
He lowered his voice.
"I won't risk you."
"If you give him that ledger, he walks free."
"I don't care."
"Cassian."
"I care about you."
The words silenced me.
He looked at the shelves.
"Which one?"
Vittorio grabbed his arm.
"Think."
"I am thinking."
"Your mother died for that evidence."
"My wife isn't dying for it."
Vittorio stared at him.
Then slowly released him.
That was the moment Cassian became different from his father.
He chose the living.
Not the war.
He found Alessandra's original ledger.
Held it toward the ceiling camera.
"Open the door."
A click.
The main vault door unlocked.
Marco checked the corridor.
Safe.
We moved.
Cassian carried the ledger.
But as soon as we reached the annex lobby, Renato appeared with four armed men.
He looked remarkably ordinary.
That was what disturbed me most.
The man at the center of decades of fear wore a navy suit and looked like someone's wealthy grandfather.
"Give it to me."
Cassian stepped in front of me.
"You paid doctors to lie to me."
Renato shrugged.
"A necessity."
"You killed my mother."
"A complication."
Vittorio lunged forward.
Weapons rose.
Cassian stopped him.
"Don't."
Renato smiled.
"Your father always had more emotion than sense."
Cassian handed over the ledger.
Renato looked surprised.
"So easy?"
Cassian glanced toward me.
"Some things matter more."
Renato took it.
Then made his mistake.
He began talking.
Powerful men often do when they believe they've won.
He admitted the false diagnosis.
The payments.
Alessandra's murder.
The manipulation of my father's debt.
He mocked Vittorio for hiding five years while his son inherited a lie.
He talked for nearly four minutes.
Then blue lights appeared through the annex windows.
Renato stopped.
Cassian smiled.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing."
Dominic stepped out from behind a federal vehicle outside.
He held up his phone.
Streaming.
Everything Renato had said had been transmitted directly to federal investigators working the financial case.
Renato's face changed.
"You."
Dominic looked at his father.
"Me."
The armed men began lowering their weapons.
Renato grabbed me.
It happened too quickly.
One second I was behind Cassian.
The next Renato had an arm around my throat and a gun near my stomach.
Cassian froze.
Every weapon in the room pointed toward us.
"Let her go."
Renato backed toward the exit.
"You destroyed your own family for this woman."
Cassian's voice became eerily calm.
"No."
His eyes locked on mine.
"I'm building one."
Renato dragged me backward.
I remembered something Marco had taught me weeks earlier.
Not combat.
Movement.
If grabbed, don't fight the strongest point.
Attack balance.
I stepped hard on Renato's foot and dropped my weight.
His grip shifted.
Cassian moved.
A gunshot exploded.
I screamed.
Renato fell.
For several seconds I couldn't understand what had happened.
Then Cassian was beside me.
"Celia."
"I'm okay."
"Are you hit?"
"No."
"Baby?"
"I don't know."
That terrified us both.
An ambulance rushed me to the hospital.
The bullet had struck Renato's shoulder.
Cassian had shot him without hitting me.
Renato survived.
For once, survival was his punishment.
He would face trial.
At the hospital, doctors monitored the baby for hours.
Finally the obstetrician smiled.
"Strong heartbeat."
Cassian closed his eyes.
I cried.
Our daughter kicked for the first time while his hand rested over my stomach.
He looked at me in shock.
"Was that—"
"Yes."
Again.
A tiny movement.
The feared Cassian Raldi laughed like a child.
I had never loved him more.
But our problems weren't finished.
Two days later, federal agents arrested Renato.
Several corrupt physicians were charged.
Two agreed to cooperate.
Bianca testified.
Dominic entered protective custody temporarily.
Vittorio began negotiating his own legal exposure.
Cassian publicly announced he would divest from every illegal operation associated with the Raldi organization.
Some applauded.
Others saw weakness.
And somebody decided Cassian shouldn't live long enough to complete the transition.
Three months before my due date, we returned home from a prenatal appointment.
A white envelope waited on our dining table.
No one knew how it got there.
Cassian opened it.
Inside was a photograph of him leaving the hospital.
A red X covered his face.
On the back were six words.
RENATO WAS NEVER THE ONLY ONE.
Cassian looked toward the security cameras.
All were working.
Then we heard a sound upstairs.
A nursery music box began playing.
We hadn't bought one.
Cassian reached for his weapon.
May you like
The nursery door was already open.
And somebody was sitting inside beside our baby's empty crib.
