Chapter 3
Gavin wanted a permanent Ferrante position.
Not associate.
Not husband.
Family command.
That was what he told me when I brought him upstairs under guard.
“You’ve always treated me like an outsider.”
“You are one.”
His face hardened.
“I married Sienna.”
“You married my daughter.”
“Exactly.”
“No.”
I leaned back.
“You think that sentence means ownership.”
He laughed bitterly.
“It means I’ve spent six years around this family without one seat that matters.”
“So earn one.”
“I did.”
“By what?”
Silence.
Good.
He had no answer because proximity had become his qualification.
Marjorie stepped in.
“My son gave you grandchildren.”
I looked at her.
“Mila is not currency.”
She rolled her eyes.
“There you go again. Protecting the girl because she cries.”
My hands tightened.
Then she made her mistake.
“The next baby changes everything.”
I looked at Sienna.
Her face went pale.
“What does that mean?”
Marjorie realized too late.
Nothing.
I stood.
“Say it again.”
She lifted her chin.
“If Sienna gives Gavin a son, the family finally has a proper male continuation through their household.”
My expression went still.
Ferrante already had male relatives.
That was not what she meant.
She meant a child close enough to me that Gavin could claim a path into succession.
I looked at him.
“You’ve been telling people this child is my future heir.”
“No.”
Too fast.
I almost smiled.
“Then who has?”
Nobody answered.
Sienna did.
“His mother.”
Marjorie stared at her.
Sienna continued.
“She tells people you’re getting older. That you’ll want family close. That Gavin will naturally handle things while I recover.”
My daughter was thirty-eight weeks pregnant.
They had planned around the weeks after delivery before she had even given birth.
May you like
Not because they cared for her.
Because they expected her to be exhausted enough to stop resisting.
