All Chapters of OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Laurabeth POVThe words poured out of me like a dam had finally broken. I sat on the hospital bed with my hands trembling in my lap. Vinicio stood before me like a storm about to break. His green eyes burned with a mix of fury and deep hurt that cut me deeper than any knife could. I had just told him the worst truth. I had been sent to spy on him from the very beginning. My mother had used me as a pawn to steal the vault access code and destroy his empire alongside Teresa."I did not know who to trust at first," I sobbed. My voice cracked badly. "My mother said we were bankrupt. She convinced me you were part of the plan to ruin us. She told me to find the key and save our family. I was only eighteen Vinicio. I was scared and naive. I crept through the mansion at night searching for anything that could help us. But then everything changed. You changed me."He did not move. He did not speak. That silence hurt worse than shouting. His tall powerful frame cast a long shadow over the bed.

Vinicio POVThe morning light filtered cold and gray into the medical tent turning everything a pale sickly color. I lay on the cot watching Laurabeth as she sat beside me. Her hand rested gently on my arm. My body ached from the crash but seeing her there kept the pain at bay. My mind kept circling back to the name Alex had mentioned. D. Marchetti. It sounded like a ghost from the past but this was real and it meant death.I stirred slowly. Pain shot through my ribs but I ignored it. My eyes snapped open and locked on hers. That hard possessive glint returned instantly. "Pumpkin," I rasped. My voice sounded rough from the smoke and the screams during the crash. I reached out with a shaking hand and grabbed her wrist pulling her down toward me. "Do not leave my side. Not for a single second.""I am right here," she promised, leaning into my touch. She did not tell me everything Alex had shared yet. I was still too weak and I could not bear to see defeat in her eyes. "You need to rest

Laurabeth POVThe words the boy is mine by blood hung in the air like poison. I could not breathe. I could not think. I could only stare at Vinicio as his face turned into a mask of cold stone. He was my husband. The man who claimed me in the darkness. The man who called me his pumpkin. The man whose child grew inside me. Yet in that moment he felt like a stranger."What does he mean?" I whispered. My voice sounded thin and distant. "Vinicio tell me. Why would Marchetti say that? Our baby is yours. He has to be yours."Vinicio did not answer at first. He walked to the window. His movements stayed stiff from pain. He stared out into the dark empty hills where danger waited. Then he turned back to me. His green eyes burned with desperate dark fire. "Marchetti is a liar," he growled. A slight tremor betrayed him. "He says anything to tear us apart. He wants me to doubt you Laurabeth. He wants me to turn on you so he can take everything.""Then prove him wrong," I said. Panic rose in my v

Vinicio POVThe safehouse reeked of gunpowder and blood. I stood in the main room with my pistol still warm in my hand. Bodies of attackers lay where they had fallen. My remaining guards moved quickly securing the perimeter. Laurabeth stayed close behind me. Her hand gripped my arm tightly. The steel panic room had saved us but the real enemy was still inside these walls. The mole who had opened the gates."Bring every member of the staff here now," I ordered Alex. My voice cut like a blade through the tense air. "No one leaves. No one makes a call. We interrogate them one by one until the traitor breaks."Alex nodded. His face stayed grim. "Yes sir. We start with the inner circle."One after another they were brought in. The cook. The groundskeepers. Maids who had served us for years. Each sat in the same chair under the harsh light. I loomed over them. My injured side throbbed but rage kept me standing tall. Trust had shattered completely. Every familiar face now looked like a poten

Laurabeth POVThe hours after the breach dragged on in a haze of paranoia and icy dread. We moved through the safehouse like ghosts. Vinicio's security team swept every room and corridor but the atmosphere had turned rotten. Every shadow in the hallway felt like Teresa watching us. Every creak of the floorboards sounded like footsteps of another traitor. My mind looped endlessly around the missing paternity envelope. Who had taken it? Teresa herself hiding in the walls or one of the servants I once trusted to bring me breakfast?I paced the length of our reinforced bedroom. My hands trembled as they pressed against my stomach. Our baby kicked restlessly, clearly sensing the stress rolling off me in waves. Vinicio was in the study barking orders into the phone. His voice carried low and guttural as he demanded they tear the mansion apart until the thief was found. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to trust that he would recover the results and prove what I already knew in my soul. The