Chapter 19 - The Christmas Table Changes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The following December, the Bellini mansion looked different.
Still beautiful.
Still extravagant.
But different.
The Christmas ballroom had no elevated family table.
No special section reserved for people with the Bellini name.
Long tables crossed the room instead.
Security guards ate beside executives.
Housekeepers sat beside attorneys.
Drivers brought spouses.
Children ran between chairs.
Victor’s old-school relatives complained quietly.
Victor ignored them.
Rose and Gabriel were twenty-one months old.
Walking.
Running.
Destroying expensive decorations.
Rose wore red velvet again.
Gabriel wore a tiny black jacket he repeatedly tried to remove.
Rebecca remained part of his life.
She was no longer his legal guardian.
But Victor made sure she never disappeared simply because the truth had been discovered.
“You raised my son for nine months,” Victor once told her.
“That doesn’t become nothing because I found him.”
Rose’s nanny remained too.
The twins had more adults loving them, not fewer.
At dinner, Victor sat between the children.
Rose attempted to eat mashed potatoes with her hand.
Gabriel stole her roll.
She screamed.
Victor separated them.
Jonathan watched from across the table.
“The future of the Bellini empire.”
Victor looked at the chaos.
“We’re doomed.”
Everyone laughed.
Then the kitchen staff brought the children’s meals.
Victor inspected both bowls.
A habit he still had.
Rebecca noticed.
“You know nobody here is Marina.”
“I know.”
“You check every time.”
“I know.”
She didn’t tell him to stop.
Some habits faded slowly.
After dinner, Victor carried both twins toward the Christmas tree.
Rose pointed toward a framed photograph beneath it.
Elena holding both babies.
Victor had placed it there permanently every Christmas.
“Mommy,” Rose said.
It was a word the nanny had taught her gently.
Victor swallowed.
“Yes.”
Gabriel touched the frame.
Then pointed at Victor.
“Dada.”
Victor’s face changed.
Rebecca looked away to give him privacy.
Rose immediately copied her brother.
“Dada!”
Victor laughed.
“Of course you both do it at once.”
He crouched.
Both toddlers crashed into him.
For a moment, the legendary Victor Bellini disappeared under two small children and wrapping paper.
Then Jonathan approached with a sealed envelope.
Victor groaned.
“No legal documents on Christmas.”
“It isn’t legal.”
“What?”
“It was recovered from Elena’s old storage.”
Victor took it.
On the front:
FOR THEIR FIRST CHRISTMAS TOGETHER.
Victor stopped breathing.
Elena had prepared something before the twins were born.
And somehow, it had arrived exactly when they finally celebrated a Christmas together.
May you like
👉 Victor thought Elena had already left her final message—but one unopened envelope had been waiting for the Christmas Rose and Gabriel finally spent side by side.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
