Chapter 4 - ADRIANA’S VERSION
Adriana requested dinner.
Victor almost laughed when Anthony told him.
“Dinner?”
“She says she’ll explain everything.”
Victor agreed.
Not because he wanted explanations from her.
Because people talked when they believed they still had leverage.
They met in the small formal dining room.
No guests.
No music.
Two security officers outside.
Adriana wore black now.
No wedding gown.
The transformation was almost insulting in its elegance.
Victor sat opposite her.
“Luca Rossi.”
Her expression did not change.
“So he called.”
“Yes.”
“That was stupid.”
Victor stared.
“For whom?”
She smiled.
“You think he’s yours.”
“I think we’ll test.”
“You should.”
Too confident.
Victor noticed.
“What do you want?”
“What I wanted this morning.”
“Marriage?”
“Yes.”
“After you pushed Lily toward stairs.”
Adriana lifted a wine glass.
“She was never going to fall.”
Victor’s expression became lethal.
“Do not tell me what almost happened to my daughter.”
She set the glass down.
“Fine.”
“Why Luca?”
“He matters.”
“To what?”
“The Santoro Legacy Trust.”
Victor frowned.
He knew dozens of family trusts.
Not one by that exact name.
Adriana leaned forward.
“Your father created it nineteen years ago.”
“For what?”
“An heir he didn’t trust you to raise.”
Victor’s hand tightened.
Adriana smiled.
“Angelo knew Elena was pregnant before you did.”
That tracked.
“He wanted the child protected from your life.”
“By stealing him from it?”
“You and your father had different definitions of protection.”
Victor thought of Rosa.
The gate.
The baby in Elena’s arms.
“What is in the trust?”
“Property.”
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“Number.”
“Roughly eighty million.”
Victor stared.
Adriana continued.
“Commercial property. Old investment accounts. Shares your father moved before his death.”
“And Luca controls it?”
“At eighteen.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because Elena named a temporary guardian after her death.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“You?”
Adriana smiled.
“No.”
“Then?”
“She never updated the document.”
Victor waited.
“The guardian is your late father.”
Victor almost laughed.
“So there is no guardian.”
“Exactly.”
“What does that have to do with marrying me?”
Adriana slid a document across the table.
The marital succession agreement.
“If Luca is confirmed as your son before eighteen, you become his natural successor guardian for trust purposes.”
Victor read.
“And if we marry?”
“You can appoint your spouse as co-trustee.”
Victor looked at her.
“There it is.”
Adriana did not deny it.
“You were going to use my son’s trust.”
“I was going to stabilize it.”
“With your name on the accounts.”
“With professional management.”
Victor leaned back.
“And Lily?”
Adriana’s expression cooled.
“Lily complicates everything.”
“How?”
“Your current estate plan names her your sole heir.”
“Because she is my only known child.”
“If Luca is confirmed, challenges begin.”
“Not from me.”
“From everyone else.”
Adriana’s voice hardened.
“Your board. Your cousins. Trustees. People who will say Lily’s mother had one claim, Elena another, Luca another.”
Victor stared.
“You wanted one child gone.”
“No.”
“You released the brake.”
Adriana looked away for the first time.
“Don’t romanticize what you are, Victor.”
He said nothing.
“You’ve made decisions that ruined people.”
“Yes.”
The immediate answer surprised her.
Victor continued.
“But I don’t push infants toward staircases.”
Adriana’s face tightened.
“She took everything.”
Victor frowned.
“What?”
“From the moment Lily was born, you changed.”
Victor stared.
“You canceled meetings.”
“She was in neonatal care.”
“You canceled our wedding twice.”
“She was sick.”
“You rewrote your estate.”
“She is my daughter.”
Adriana laughed bitterly.
“And I became invisible.”
Victor finally understood something.
The trust was motive.
But jealousy was fuel.
Adriana had not wanted only money.
She wanted centrality.
Lily displaced her.
Now Luca threatened to complicate her plan further unless she controlled him too.
Victor stood.
“We are done.”
Adriana looked up.
“If you walk away from me, Luca loses everything.”
“No.”
Victor picked up the document.
“You lose access.”
She smiled again.
“Ask Evelyn Chase what happens if the trust is challenged.”
Victor paused.
Adriana continued.
“Ask what happens if Luca’s paternity becomes public before the sealed letter is opened.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“You know what’s in the letter.”
“No.”
“But Elena told me what she feared.”
“What?”
Adriana leaned back.
“That Angelo did not create the trust for Luca.”
Victor stared.
“Then for whom?”
She smiled.
“Ask your father.”
“He’s dead.”
“I know.”
May you like
Then:
“That’s why everyone has been able to lie for so long.”
