Chapter 6
"Tell me what you did, Claudia," Adrian commanded, his American accent devoid of any familial warmth. He was no longer a brother; he was the Boss of a criminal empire uncovering treason within his own bloodline.
"I did nothing!" Claudia sobbed, her heavy diamond earrings shaking as she shook her head frantically. "The doctors said your baby was stillborn, Adrian! You saw the death certificate! You attended the funeral! We buried an infant!"
"We buried a closed casket," Adrian countered, the memory burning like acid in his chest. "You handled the hospital arrangements. You told me the trauma to the body was too severe. You told me not to look."
"I was protecting you from the pain!" Claudia shrieked, tears ruining her immaculate makeup. "I was trying to save you from the agony of seeing your child like that!"
"You were protecting yourself," Adrian said slowly, the controlled pauses emphasizing his absolute certainty. "My wife wanted me out of the life. She wanted me to leave the syndicate. She threatened to take the child and disappear to the West Coast if I took the throne."
"She was a liability!" Claudia yelled, finally breaking under the immense pressure of his logic, her aristocratic arrogance flaring up in a sudden, desperate defense. "She was going to destroy everything our father built, Adrian! She was going to rip the family apart over her pathetic moral crusade!"
The entire room seemed to hold its breath. Even the hardened bodyguards standing at the door exchanged a quick, shocked glance.
"So you arranged for her to die on the delivery table," Adrian deduced, his voice dropping to a terrifying, freezing whisper.
"I did what was necessary for the survival of this family!" Claudia justified, her chest heaving as she glared at him. "The doctors were well compensated. Her heart gave out. It was clean."
"And the child?" Adrian asked, his heavily tattooed hands balling into fists at his sides. "What did you do with my daughter?"
Claudia looked at Elena, who was staring at the older woman with absolute horror. She then looked down at three-year-old Ruby, standing quietly in her yellow rain boots.
"I couldn't kill a baby, Adrian," Claudia wept, a pathetic attempt to garner sympathy. "I'm not a monster. But I couldn't let you raise her. If you had the child, you would have honored your wife's wishes and left the syndicate. I needed you to take the throne. I needed you to be ruthless."
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"So you gave her away," Adrian said, the pieces of the catastrophic puzzle finally locking into place.
"The maid was in the charity ward down the hall," Claudia confessed, her voice shaking violently. "Her baby didn't make it through the night. The nurses swapped them. They wrapped your daughter in the charity blanket, gave her the dead baby's paperwork, and handed her to the maid. I thought she would just disappear into the slums. I never thought Elena would end up working at this estate."
