Home / He Claimed Her Baby. I Ended Our Marriage. / Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

All Chapters of He Claimed Her Baby. I Ended Our Marriage.: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

45 Chapters

Chapter 11

Before we landed, Matteo sent a message.Do you want to see what we found?I stared at it for a moment.Then I typed yes.An audio file arrived, followed by photographs and a short written explanation.The name at the top stopped me.Dario Ferro.I had heard it in the warehouse.He had been one of the men guarding us. He was also the man who brought Sofia out of the other room.Later, someone had photographed him visiting the apartment where she stayed.Matteo had traced those visits to an investigator originally hired by the building’s owner over an unrelated private dispute. The investigator had kept his records.I put in my earbuds.At first, there was a key turning and the sound of footsteps.Then Sofia spoke.“I told you not to come here.”A man laughed.“My kid’s about to become a Vito. I’m not allowed to ask how that’s going?”My grip tightened around the phone.The conversation was short.Sofia said Luca had agreed to establish a trust. If the family accepted his announcement a

Chapter 12

Claire’s last video ended just after Luca shattered a glass against the floor.I’ve left, she wrote. Let them handle the rest. Don’t keep watching.I didn’t ask for more.When the plane landed, Dad and Matteo were waiting beyond the tarmac.Dad looked thinner than I remembered. The wind had pulled his coat open, but he seemed not to notice.The moment I reached him, he took my bag.“You’re home.”I had prepared explanations.Why I hadn’t told them.Why every phone call had sounded fine.Why I wasn’t quite as broken as I knew I must look.None of the words came.Dad wrapped his arms around me, careful of the healing wound near my forehead.“Let’s get you home.”In the car, Matteo spread a blanket across my legs.“Sofia’s at the hospital,” he said after a while. “Luca lost control and shoved her. His guards separated them.”I looked at him.“We don’t know about the pregnancy yet.” His expression hardened. “And we’re not going to treat that as something to celebrate.”“I know.”I hated wh

Chapter 13

Mom didn’t ask why I had lost so much weight.She held me and rubbed my back the way she had when I was little and came home upset.I had meant not to cry.Then she said, “Dinner’s still warm.”That undid me.For weeks, I had found my own water, taken my own medication, and waited alone for test results.Even leaving the estate had required careful thought about how not to inconvenience anyone.My mother only wanted to know whether I was hungry.Roast chicken and vegetable soup waited on the table.Dad pulled out the chair closest to the fire.My sister-in-law, Leah, filled my bowl and sat beside me without staring at the bandage or wearing an expression that made me feel more damaged.“Your room’s ready,” she said. “We washed the curtains last week.”I nodded.My spoon trembled.Matteo saw. Without commenting, he tore a piece of bread into smaller portions and moved the plate closer.After dinner, the family doctor examined me.There was more to record than my parents had expected: th

Chapter 14

The day Matteo went to the Vito estate, I spent most of the morning by the window.I hadn’t asked to go.Thinking about those corridors still made my stomach tighten. I wasn’t ready to walk into them again, and I no longer wanted to confuse forcing myself with being strong.That afternoon, Leah called on video.The camera showed my old studio.Cabinet doors stood open. Boxes covered the floor. My university easel leaned against a wall, a smear of blue paint still visible on one leg.“All of this?” she asked.“Yes. And the box under the sill.”She crouched and began packing.Then an argument started outside the room.Luca.“Why won’t she answer my calls?”My fingers tightened around the phone.Leah looked toward the door.“Do you want me to hang up?”I shook my head.For once, I wanted to hear what he said when there was no Sofia to interrupt.Matteo answered.“Because she doesn’t want to.”“I need to explain.”“She doesn’t need an explanation.”Luca spoke faster.“I didn’t know Sofia w

Chapter 15

Leah ended the call a few minutes later.“We’ll bring everything,” she promised. “You should rest.”I said I would.Instead, I stayed awake until their headlights swept across the drive.I went to the landing in my robe.Matteo’s knuckles were bandaged. Leah looked exhausted.“Did you get the sketchbooks?”“They’re in the car,” he said immediately. “A couple of catalogs are missing. The housekeeper will keep looking.”I nodded, then glanced at his hand.“Don’t do that again.”He froze.“I’m not worried about him,” I said. “I don’t want anyone else getting hurt over this marriage.”He looked down at his knuckles.After a moment, he said, “All right.”Leah helped me unpack the sketchbooks upstairs.The first one had come with me when I married.On the opening page was a drawing of Luca in profile.The tenderness in the lines almost embarrassed me.I closed it and set it aside.“What else did he say?”Leah paused.“Do you really want to know?”“Yes. That doesn’t mean I want to go back.”S

Chapter 16

Two days later, Matteo told me there had been a fire at the Vito estate.I was washing an old palette when he spoke.Water loosened the dried paint. Blue and brown swirled toward the drain.For several seconds, I watched without answering.“Was anyone hurt?”“The staff got out.”He paused.“Luca has burns on his arm and shoulder.”I turned off the tap.After Matteo and Leah left, Luca had stayed upstairs. An electrical fault started a fire near the study, and flames spread through the old wood paneling.His guards got him outside.Then he went back.For our wedding photograph.I looked down at the paint on my fingers.I remembered the picture.We had been standing on the steps of an old church. Wind lifted my veil, and Luca reached to settle it.The photographer caught him smiling at me.At the time, I had believed that moment would last us.“Did he get it?”Matteo studied my face.“Part of it. The glass broke. The frame burned.”I nodded.That afternoon, the estate’s housekeeper calle

Chapter 17

Word of the birthday party spread quickly among the families.Some wanted to treat it as a private embarrassment: discuss it behind closed doors, express appropriate disapproval, and then quietly move on.The Vitos’ lawyers proposed a statement admitting that the previous account of my circumstances had been “inaccurate.”I read the word twice.Inaccurate.As though someone had misremembered a dinner reservation.As though they hadn’t allowed strangers to use my pregnancy as proof that I was dirty.Dad placed the draft in front of me.“You don’t have to agree to this. What do you want changed?”I picked up a pen and crossed out a paragraph.“Don’t call it a misunderstanding between us.”Our lawyer nodded.“I want the timeline stated clearly. I was pregnant before the abduction. Luca knew. The claims made about the pregnancy had no basis.”“We can say that.”“And I don’t want my complete medical records published.”I had no intention of surrendering every appointment and private detail

Chapter 18

At first, I didn’t want updates about the Vitos.But our families had shared investments and arrangements connected to the marriage. Those ties couldn’t vanish because I wanted never to hear Luca’s name again.Dad asked me to attend one meeting.“You don’t have to make decisions today,” he said. “But you should know what concerns you.”I sat at the long table while the lawyer explained each item.My personal assets had been separated.My position at the charitable foundation was being transferred.Projects funded jointly by both families would receive new oversight so the people relying on them wouldn’t become collateral damage.That last part mattered to me.I didn’t want a scholarship withdrawn because my marriage had failed.Then Matteo mentioned Luca.His father, Antonio, had returned from Europe and taken control of the principal meetings and businesses.Several people who had supported Luca were angry about his plans for Sofia’s child.Not all of them cared how he had treated his

Chapter 19

My aunt came for dinner during my second week at home.She embraced Mom, praised the garden, and handed a bottle of wine to the housekeeper.Her smile paused when she saw me at the table.“Elena. You look better.”“Thank you.”For the first half of dinner, she discussed my cousin’s engagement.The groom’s family worked in shipping. They were deciding where the couple would live and how soon the wedding could be arranged.Then she looked at me.“What are your plans?”“Recover first. Then work.”“Painting is lovely,” she said. “But you can’t stay with your parents indefinitely. You’re young. It would be better to start again before people make this uglier.”Mom set down her knife.I looked up.My aunt seemed unaware that she had said anything worth stopping for.“I’m thinking of her future. Families like ours have to consider appearances. Her younger cousins still have matches to make.”“What does Elena have to do with that?” Mom asked.“You understand.”“No. Explain it.”The table went

Chapter 20

My grandfather’s secretary called twice after that dinner.The first invitation was to a private lunch attended by a property heir who had recently ended an engagement.The second concerned an old friend’s son, newly returned from abroad, who supposedly wanted to take me to an exhibition.I declined both.After Mom refused the second invitation, my grandfather asked to speak with Dad.I wasn’t trying to listen.But as I passed the study with a tray of coffee, I heard my name.“She cannot stay here forever.”Dad answered quietly.“Why not?”“You know what people will say.”“They’ve already said enough. We don’t need to help them.”I stopped outside the door.My grandfather spoke about connections, the family’s standing, and making sensible arrangements while I was still young.Dad didn’t raise his voice.“She isn’t a way to demonstrate that everything is normal again.”Silence.“If she wants to marry, we’ll support her. If she doesn’t, that isn’t a problem to solve.”I carried the tray

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