Chapter 16 - The Child Victoria Never Carried
“No.”
The word left me before thought caught up.
Victoria had never been pregnant. I had seen her constantly in photographs over the last year. Charity galas. museum openings. hotel balconies. Designer dresses with no room to hide an eleven-day-old baby.
“That’s impossible.”
Gabriel smiled. “Surrogate.”
My stomach turned.
I looked at Claire. “Is it true?”
She nodded, tears in her eyes. “Ethan’s genetic material was taken years ago.”
“Without consent?”
“Yes.”
“And Victoria?”
“Her eggs were retrieved during a procedure she believed was for ovarian cysts.”
Rage replaced shock.
“So neither of them knew.”
“No.”
I looked at the baby in the second bassinet.
“He’s their biological child?”
“Yes.”
I felt something complicated and painful.
Not jealousy.
Violation.
For Ethan.
For Victoria.
For the baby.
“What’s his name?”
“He doesn’t have one,” Claire said.
Gabriel answered, “He does.”
I looked at him.
“Alexander.”
“Who named him?”
“I did.”
“You don’t get to.”
He smiled. “We’ll see.”
I stepped closer. “Give me Noah.”
“First, you call Ethan.”
“No.”
“He’s already here.”
My pulse jumped.
Of course he was.
Gabriel pressed a screen. Security footage appeared. Ethan, Daniel, and federal agents surrounded the perimeter.
“He never follows instructions,” Gabriel said.
“I love that about him.”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Gabriel noticed.
“So you do love him.”
“Unfortunately.”
He laughed. “Family trait.”
“Don’t call yourself his family.”
His face hardened. “I’m more his family than you are.”
“No. You share DNA. That’s not the same thing.”
That hit him.
Gabriel walked closer. “He got everything.”
“You think Ethan’s childhood was winning?”
“He got Alessandra.”
“She loved him.”
“She abandoned me.”
“She was told you died.”
“Another lie.”
“Yes.”
“Providence gave him New York.”
“Providence gave him trauma.”
“It gave him you.”
I stared. “That is not the compliment you think.”
Gabriel touched Noah’s blanket.
I moved instantly. “Don’t.”
He looked at me. “You would die for him.”
“Yes.”
“Would Ethan?”
“Yes.”
“Would he die for Alexander?”
I froze.
Gabriel smiled. “That’s the test.”
“What test?”
“Two sons. One father.”
“You’re sick.”
“No. I’m curious.”
He pressed another button. Doors locked. Alarms sounded.
Claire clutched Noah.
“What are you doing?”
Gabriel looked toward the second bassinet. “Meridian wants one Romano heir.”
I understood.
“No.”
“Ethan must choose.”
“No.”
He lifted a microphone.
“Brother.”
Speakers carried his voice outside.
“I have both your sons.”
Silence.
Then Ethan’s voice came through. “Gabriel.”
The sound was cold enough to freeze blood.
Gabriel smiled. “Finally.”
“Give me the children.”
“Which one?”
Ethan paused.
I closed my eyes.
Gabriel continued. “Noah, born to Isabella. Alexander, born from Victoria.”
Ethan’s voice changed. “What?”
“Surprise.”
Outside, I imagined his face.
Gabriel looked at me with satisfaction.
“Choose.”
Ethan said, “No.”
“One.”
“I don’t negotiate with men holding infants.”
“Two.”
“You want legitimacy? Walk outside.”
“Three.”
Nothing happened.
Then the glass wall exploded.
Ethan came through smoke and shattered glass like violence given human form.
Gabriel spun.
Daniel fired from the opposite doorway.
Claire dropped behind a table with Noah.
I ran to Alexander’s bassinet.
Gunfire erupted.
Gabriel tackled Ethan.
The resemblance between them was horrifying in motion.
Same height.
Same speed.
Same fury.
But Ethan fought like a man protecting something.
Gabriel fought like a man proving something.
Ethan slammed him into the wall.
“You took my son.”
Gabriel smiled through blood. “Which one?”
Ethan hit him.
“Both.”
I looked at him.
That one word changed everything.
He considered Alexander his son already.
Not property.
Not scandal.
His son.
Federal agents stormed the room.
Gabriel pulled a gun.
I screamed.
Ethan moved.
A shot fired.
Gabriel fell.
Blood spread across his side.
Agent Cole cuffed him.
Gabriel laughed. “This doesn’t end anything.”
Ethan picked up Noah.
I held Alexander.
For one surreal moment, we stood together with two babies who had become brothers before either of us understood how.
Victoria entered.
She stopped.
Her eyes found Alexander.
Her face collapsed.
“That’s him?”
I nodded.
She walked slowly toward me.
“Can I?”
I placed the baby in her arms.
She cried.
Not delicately.
Not socially.
She sobbed.
“My baby.”
Ethan looked at her. “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “You didn’t know.”
“Neither did you.”
I watched them.
Strangely, I did not feel threatened.
I felt angry for her.
For him.
For Alexander.
For Noah.
For every child Providence had turned into a plan.
Claire approached. “Isabella.”
I turned.
“You stole my son.”
“To save him.”
“You could have told me.”
“I didn’t know who Meridian had inside the hospital.”
“You still stole him.”
“Yes.”
I slapped her again.
She nodded. “Also deserved.”
Then Agent Cole shouted, “Down!”
A shot cracked from the upper balcony.
Claire jerked.
Blood bloomed across her chest.
She fell.
I caught her.
“Claire!”
Her eyes struggled to focus.
“Isabella.”
“Stay with me.”
She reached for my face.
“I’m sorry.”
“Stop apologizing and breathe.”
She smiled faintly. “You sound like Catherine.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“You said you’re my mother.”
“I am.”
“Then you don’t get to die five minutes after I find out.”
Her fingers tightened around mine.
“There’s something else.”
“Not now.”
“You have a sister.”
I froze.
“What?”
Claire coughed.
“Providence kept one more Bennett embryo.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
She whispered, “Meridian.”
Then her hand went limp.
As medics worked on Claire, Victoria sat on the floor with Alexander pressed to her chest. She kept looking down at him, then at Ethan, as if expecting someone to tell her the whole thing had been a mistake.
“I don’t know how to be his mother,” she whispered.
I sat beside her. “Neither do I.”
“You gave birth to Noah.”
“That didn’t come with instructions.”
She laughed through tears. “My father would have hired a staff.”
“Mine would have hired a laboratory.”
“That is somehow worse.”
Ethan crouched in front of us. He touched one finger to Alexander’s tiny hand.
“I didn’t know you existed,” he said quietly to the baby. “But I know now.”
Victoria looked up. “What happens next?”
Ethan glanced at me before answering. A small thing. A changed thing.
May you like
“We decide together.”
I heard the words and realized Gabriel’s test had failed before it began. He wanted blood to force a choice. Instead, the children had created a family none of Providence’s planners knew how to predict.
