Chapter 3 - Blood and War
Victoria Cole didn't back down. She had spent forty years commanding high society and building the Cole fortune alongside her late husband. She adjusted her diamond ring and looked at her son with a mixture of anger and cold calculation.
"Don't be foolish, Adrian," Victoria said, her voice dripping with dismissive authority. "You bring three illegitimate children into your penthouse without consulting the family board? Do you have any idea what the press will do to Cole Enterprises if this leaks?"
"They are not illegitimate," Adrian snapped, taking a step toward her, his presence towering and oppressive. "They are my daughters. My blood."
"They are the children of a penniless waitress who ran away seven years ago!" Victoria hissed, lowering her voice so the guards couldn't hear. "I paid that woman to leave you! She took the money and fled because she knew she didn't belong in our world!"
"She didn't take your money, Mother," Adrian said softly, though the words carried the weight of a sledgehammer. "She fled because you threatened to use our legal team to steal her unborn babies from her. She told me everything before she went into ICU."
Victoria’s eyes flickered with a brief moment of surprise, but her icy facade quickly repaired itself. "I did what was necessary to protect this family from a conniving social climber! Look at her now—sick, bankrupt, burdening you with three mouths to feed!"
From behind Adrian, a soft snip of fabric sounded.
Chloe had squeezed behind Adrian’s leg, holding her stuffed bunny close to her face, trembling. Maya stood up on the sofa, her tiny hands clenched into fists, staring at Victoria with fierce, defensive anger that mirrored Adrian’s own.
"Don't talk about our Mama like that!" Maya yelled, her small voice echoing through the penthouse. "She works hard! She bakes cakes and sews our dresses! She's better than you!"
Victoria blinked, stunned that a seven-year-old child had dared to raise her voice at her. "Listen to me, little girl—"
"No, you listen to me," Adrian interrupted, stepping directly into his mother's path, cutting off her line of sight. "You will never speak to my children like that again. You will never set foot near them, and you will never go near Sienna's hospital room again."
"Adrian, be reasonable!" Victoria demanded, her composure finally cracking into frustration. "If those girls are indeed Coles, they need proper elite upbringing, not the chaotic influence of that sick woman! We can quietly hire nannies, put them in proper boarding schools, and settle this out of court before the media finds out!"
"Boarding schools?" Adrian let out a bitter, cold laugh. "You think I'm going to let you raise my daughters the way you raised me? Cold, detached, surrounded by money and devoid of love?"
"I built you into the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar empire!"
"And you almost turned me into a monster who missed the first seven years of his children's lives!" Adrian shouted, the emotion pouring out of him like a dam breaking. "Leave. Right now. If you attempt to contact my daughters, use your legal influence against Sienna, or step onto this property again, I will strip you of your board seat at Cole Enterprises by morning. You know I have the shares to do it."
Victoria gasped, staring at her son as if seeing a stranger. For the first time in her life, she saw that Adrian wasn't just managing a business—he was ready to burn the entire empire to the ground to protect the three little girls standing behind him.
Without another word, Victoria turned on her heel and swept out of the penthouse, her heels clicking angrily against the floor.
When the heavy doors slammed shut, the silence returned, thick and heavy.
Adrian turned around slowly. His shoulders slumped, the exhaustion of the last thirty hours finally catching up to him. He looked at the three girls.
Maya was still breathing hard, her small chest heaving. Chloe was crying quietly into her bunny. Lily was watching him, her grey-blue eyes searching his face.
Adrian walked over, sat down on the floor right in front of them, and did something he hadn't done since he was a child himself.
He opened his arms.
"I'm sorry," Adrian whispered. "I won't let her hurt you. Ever."
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After a long pause, Chloe stepped off the couch first, burying her small face into his shoulder. Then Maya joined, wrapping her arms around his neck with a fierce grip. Finally, Lily slid off the sofa and rested her head gently against his knee, holding her notebook close.
Adrian held his three daughters in the middle of his empty, luxurious living room, feeling the quiet, overwhelming weight of a responsibility he was finally ready to carry.
