Chapter 3
The hospital kept Adeline overnight.
Rocco stayed outside the room because doctors and police needed space to speak with her alone.
That annoyed him.
Then ashamed him.
A pregnant woman shoved down stairs by his sister did not need his authority filling the room.
She needed medical care and a statement no one could later say was shaped by him.
Adeline told Detective Ellison that Seraphine had been pressuring her for weeks.
Sign a delay agreement.
Support a family trustee instead of a corporate trustee.
Agree not to “humiliate” Rocco by letting outsiders audit Bellandi accounts.
Adeline refused.
“I told her my child wasn’t a shield for old money.”
Mara asked:
“What did she say?”
“That I didn’t understand what kind of family I married.”
“Did she threaten you?”
“Not directly.”
“What does not directly mean?”
Adeline touched her belly.
“She said some heirs never take their first breath.”
The detective’s pen stopped.
Rocco heard that later from his attorney.
He went completely still.
His lawyer said:
“Do not go near Seraphine.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Rocco looked through the glass at Adeline.
“I know.”
The will had an anti-harm clause.
Any beneficiary who intentionally harmed Adeline, the unborn child, or any future child lost all rights under the trust and could not serve in any management or advisory role.
That was why Rocco had said:
“The will says the opposite.”
No baby, no heir was not a path to Seraphine’s inheritance.
It was a path to her disqualification if anyone proved intent.
Seraphine knew that.
She had personally helped review the will years earlier.
May you like
So the shove was not ignorance.
It was desperation.
