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For My Final Claim, I Asked Him for a Baby

For My Final Claim, I Asked Him for a Baby

Short Story · Mafia
By:  ChelseaUpdated just now
Language: English
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Synopsis

Feel-Good Story

Plot Twists

Counter Attack

Mafia

Girl Power

Bias

Revenge

Winning Back the Wife

Face Slapping

Five years into my marriage, my private investigator sent me photos while I was at a foundation gala. Adrian was supposed to be in Paris closing an acquisition. But the photos showed his private jet parked in Aspen. He was walking down the stairs with his arm around a young dancer everyone had been talking about. I looked through them all and forwarded them to my lawyer without making a fuss. [He's broken Clause Seven again.] Adrian had added that clause himself before the wedding, back when we were still in love. For each act of infidelity during our marriage, I could choose one of his personal assets. The first time, I took the penthouse in Tribeca. After that came a winery in Napa, a private island in the Caribbean, and his thoroughbred farm in Kentucky, among other things. It stopped being interesting. He had enough assets to cheat his way through the rest of his life. He sat across from me and asked, without a care in the world, what I wanted this time. I took my time before answering, "Adrian, I want a baby. "Yours."

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10 Chapters
Chapter 1
"What?"Adrian looked away for half a second, then raised an eyebrow.I walked over to him and hooked a finger under his loosened tie."I want a baby with you."He looked down at my hand as if he finally understood, and the corner of his mouth lifted."So that's what you're after tonight."The next second, he grabbed my waist and pulled me against him.He smelled of liquor and his familiar woody cologne.Before I could steady myself, he lowered his head and brought his lips to my ear."Elena."If you want me to stay, you can just say so."His hand slid from my waist and settled on my thigh through the fabric of my dress."You... haven't come on to me like this in a long time."Come on to him? I let out a cold laugh and pressed a hand to his chest to hold him back. "Adrian."I said I want to get pregnant."He went completely still."You're serious?""Completely."He leaned back on the couch, but his hand remained on my waist.Over the past few years, I'd taken plenty from him under that
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Chapter 2
Over the next month, Adrian was surprisingly cooperative.All I had to do was send him one word.[Tonight.]Wherever he was, he'd be back before dawn.Sometimes, he came home with someone else's perfume on him and liquor on his breath.He never asked why I had suddenly become so willing.Then, in the third week, he pinned me against the bedroom door and bit my earlobe."Elena, you've been working hard lately."I didn't answer. I grabbed his collar, stood on tiptoe, and kissed his jaw.That pleased him. He gave a low laugh and rested his palm against my waist. "I like you like this."We never made it to the bed that night. It all happened against the wall.Halfway through, his phone rang.The first time, he ignored it and sank his teeth into my shoulder.The second time, he frowned and swore under his breath.The third time, he reached over and picked it up.A name lit up the screen.Sienna Monroe.He answered, his other hand still gripping my waist."What's wrong?"Whatever she said, h
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Chapter 3
The Vale family began treating me very differently once I got pregnant.Margaret replaced my security team and arranged for New York's most sought-after obstetrician to oversee my care.She even had the family lawyers review every insurance and trust document in my name more than once."Nothing can happen to you now."That was what she said most often.Adrian was barely around.After her Lincoln Center debut, Sienna was supposed to leave for Chicago with the company right away.She canceled at the last minute.I soon heard why.Her contract was the problem.She had only just gotten her big break, and her former management company still had the right to represent her commercially for the next three years.Adrian personally put together a new legal team for her. It took him two weeks.In the end, he paid an absurdly high termination fee to free her from the contract.Then he took her to Monaco.No assistant, no PR team. He even postponed the quarterly meeting.Just like an ordinary coupl
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Chapter 4
By my seventh month of pregnancy, I had a regular seat at Vale Hospitality's operations meetings.Adrian showed up less and less.By contrast, Sienna was becoming involved in more and more Vale projects.She became the face of the group's new seasonal arts partnership.It never went through a full brand review.When Marketing first objected, Adrian said offhandedly, "Sienna's worth it."Nobody said anything after that.Soon she had her eye on the new Vale resort in Miami. She wanted to premiere her dance documentary there.The venue had already been booked by a jewelry brand.Sienna didn't like that.So Adrian had the contract rewritten.The brand ended a two-year partnership the same day.When the news reached the conference room, everyone exchanged long looks, but no one dared look at me.I closed my folder."Have legal calculate the breach-of-contract damages. I'll handle the brand."By then, this was normal.Adrian's job was to keep Sienna happy. Mine was to keep the bill down.Ove
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Chapter 5
The baby went straight to the NICU.Born at thirty-four weeks, he was so small that a nurse could almost hold him in one hand.I was still groggy from the anesthesia when the Vale lawyers arrived.The family trust has a strict identity verification process for next-generation beneficiaries.Samples, filings, and a separate trust account. Not a single step was skipped.The result came back the next afternoon.Adrian was the biological father.Margaret held the report, her eyes full of tears.Charles's face gave nothing away, but he clearly cared about the boy. He turned to the lawyer and asked, "When can the next-generation trust be formally activated?""As soon as the child is discharged."An argument was already underway outside the room.Adrian had arrived, and Sienna was with him.She wore sunglasses and a mask, her arm hooked through his the whole time.Margaret's face darkened the moment she saw her."Who let her into this hospital?"Adrian stepped in front of Sienna."Mom, enough
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Chapter 6
Adrian didn't return to the hospital after that, and he never asked about me or the baby.Margaret didn't call him either.It was probably the first time she hadn't called him.No matter how much trouble he had caused in the past, she always reached out within twenty-four hours.This time, she left her wayward son entirely on his own.She stood outside the neonatal unit and looked at the baby in the incubator."He looks like you."I turned my head toward her."Where?""The way his brow furrows. He has the same stubborn look you do."Charles stayed out of the conversation, going over the trust paperwork with the Vale lawyers instead.Forty-eight hours after the birth, the identity verification was complete.His name was formally added to the family beneficiary list.The lawyer handed me the papers."As his guardian, you'll have independent legal representation at any trust meeting that affects the child's interests."Margaret added, "The family covers the cost."I signed, and my phone b
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Chapter 7
When the board meeting ended, Adrian was still outside.He followed me into my office.The door slammed behind him."Elena, what exactly are you trying to do?"I set the laptop on the desk. My expression didn't change."My job."He stared at me, clearly not satisfied with that."You had my child. You got into the family trust. Now you're on the board."His breathing quickened. "What's next? What's your next move?"Replacing me?"I looked up, met his eyes, and smiled."Adrian, nobody is taking your seat."You're the one who kept disappearing into Sienna's arms and leaving it empty."He gritted his teeth."Don't act so noble, either."Without the Vale name, without that child, you wouldn't even have gotten into this room."I didn't get angry. I pulled the resolution the board had just passed from my folder."Then you should take a look at this."He took it from me.A few seconds later, his face changed.The board had suspended his independent authority to approve investments across the g
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Chapter 8
He was carrying an enormous gift box.The little boy had barely seen his father in three years, so he didn't recognize Adrian.He hid behind my legs and asked softly, "Mommy, who's that?"Adrian's smile stiffened at once."I'm your dad."The boy blinked, then turned back to the toy in his hands without giving this "Dad" another thought.Adrian started to step forward, but the little boy turned toward the house and shouted, "Grandpa! The train's broken!"Charles called back immediately from inside.Adrian stood there awkwardly, and the present in his hands suddenly seemed irrelevant.I stood off to the side with my arms folded and made no move to help him out.Over the past three years, he had missed his son rolling over for the first time, saying his first word, and taking his first steps.He had brought this on himself.After the party, he stopped me."Elena, I want to resume regular visitation.""Fine."I answered so fast it caught him off guard."You're not going to fight it?"I shr
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Chapter 9
Adrian didn't leave when the meeting ended.He followed me into the hallway."Elena, you used me!""Used you?"The word was absurd.Almost four years ago, Adrian sat in our living room.He told me a child wouldn't change our marriage or make him faithful.I said I knew, and I accepted it.He thought that was surrender.It took him until today to realize it was goodbye."If it makes you feel better," I said, "you can see it that way."He grabbed my wrist."I want to renegotiate custody.""Of course you can."I didn't pull away."My lawyer will cooperate."And we'll submit three years' worth of visitation records with the request."You canceled twenty-seven visits, nine of them on the day they were supposed to happen."The first time he was hospitalized, you were in Paris."On his second birthday, you were in Capri."Last Christmas, you had your assistant deliver a toy sports car, but you never showed up."His fingers loosened around my wrist, one by one."Elena—""You can go to court an
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Chapter 10
Two months later, Sienna attended the Vale family foundation gala for the first time as Adrian's fiancée.She had traded her flashy, youthful gowns for something far more appropriate.Before the gala began, her assistant came to the family office to confirm her seat at the head table.The staffer went through the list."Ms. Monroe, you're at table seventeen."Sienna thought she had misheard. She swore under her breath, then said, "But Adrian is at the head table.""He is.""I'm his fiancée."The staffer stayed polite."The head table is reserved for current trustees, foundation directors, and family members."Her gaze shifted."What about Elena?"The staffer glanced in my direction."Ms. Vale is a foundation director."Sienna followed his gaze.I was sitting to Margaret's right.Her expression froze."You're telling me I'm at table seventeen and she's sitting—""That's correct, Ms. Monroe," the staffer confirmed before she could finish.People nearby had started to look.Sienna noticed
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