Chapter 5 - The War for Leo
"No."
Anna's answer was absolute. It dropped between them like an iron curtain.
Vincent remained on his knees in the mud, the rain drenching him, his breath coming in ragged white plumes. "Anna, he has my blood. He has my face."
"He has my strength," Anna countered, descending one step. Her eyes were hard, devoid of the mercy he was begging for. "He has none of your cowardice. You gave up the right to be his father the second you calculated that Sophia’s life was worth more than mine."
"It wasn't a calculation!" Vincent yelled, staggering to his feet. His hands were raw, caked in dirt. "It was panic! Pure, unadulterated stupidity! I thought I could get her out in five seconds and come right back for you! I misjudged the fire! I misjudged everything!"
"And what if there hadn't been an explosion, Vincent?" Anna demanded, taking another deliberate step down. "What if the plane had just sat there smoking? How was I supposed to look at you that night? How was I supposed to let you put your hands on my pregnant stomach, knowing that when death looked us both in the eye, you picked her?"
Vincent had no answer. The truth choked him.
He had asked himself that exact question in the blackest hours of the night for over a thousand days. There was no defense. There was no clever corporate spin. In the crucible of life and death, he had failed the only test that mattered.
"You can't keep him from me forever," Vincent said, his voice dropping into a desperate, warning tone. "I am Vincent Moretti. The courts—"
"Do not threaten me with the legal system, Vincent," Anna interrupted with a mocking smile. "You think you own Cook County? You think your judges can touch me? Vance Global holds sixty percent of the debt on the Moretti maritime expansion. I can freeze your commercial credit lines in Frankfurt, Singapore, and New York by tomorrow noon. Try me in court, and I will air every single detail of your neglect, your mistress, and your plane crash on international television."
Vincent blinked, stunned. The woman standing before him was not the quiet, gentle painter he had married in a private chapel in Tuscany. This woman was an apex predator. She had built herself into an empire capable of crushing his own.
"I don't want a war with you, Anna," he said softly, defeat finally bleeding into every line of his posture.
"You already started one three years ago," Anna said. "Julian, call the local sheriff. Have Mr. Moretti removed from the property for criminal trespass."
She turned to walk back inside.
"Anna, wait!" Vincent lunged toward the gate, the iron bars rattling violently under his grip. "What about Sophia? What she did—she ensured we never found each other! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
Anna paused at the threshold of the heavy oak doors. She looked back over her shoulder, her profile sharp and beautiful against the warm interior light.
"Sophia is your problem, Vincent. You brought the serpent into our marriage. You let her sleep in my bed after I was gone. How you slaughter her is entirely up to you."
The door clicked shut.
A moment later, the sharp sirens of the Lake County Sheriff’s department began wailing in the distance, cutting through the autumn rain.
Vincent didn't fight the deputies when they arrived. He didn't invoke his name, his money, or his political influence. He let them cuff his wrists and lead him toward the back of the squad car like a common vagrant.
As they walked him down the gravel drive, he looked up at the second-floor window of the Vance estate.
Standing behind the sheer curtain was a small silhouette. Leo was looking down at the flashing red and blue lights, holding his stuffed bear.
Vincent’s heart tore clean in two. He stopped, staring upward through the rain until a deputy shoved him into the back seat.
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*I will get you back,* Vincent vowed silently into the dark interior of the police cruiser, his jaw set with terrifying resolve. *Both of you. Even if I have to burn this entire city to the ground to prove I’m worthy of standing in your shadow.*
***
