Chapter 8 - The True Lineage
By November, the Fairchild Bakery account was more than secure, but the real transformation was taking place in the old records office of the Providence family court.
Cassian sat in a private consultation room, his legal team surrounding the small table with stacks of genetic reports and old hospital logs from the Warwick clinic. Rosalind sat beside him, holding Poppy in her lap, the little girl happily coloring a picture of a giant brown bear on the back of a legal pad.
“The DNA results are absolute, Mr. Belmonte,” the senior attorney said, sliding a document across the table. “Poppy shares ninety-nine point nine percent of her genetic markers with the maternal line of Julian Belmonte. Legally, she is your niece. The city registry has updated her certificate to reflect her true parentage, listing Julian as her father and placing her under your permanent legal guardianship.”
Cassian looked at the document, his fingers tracing the name printed in elegant court script: Poppy Julianna Belmonte.
He looked up at Rosalind, his green eyes filled with a quiet, reverent gratitude. “She keeps the Fairchild name as her middle line, Rose. She belongs to the Hill. She belongs to you.”
Poppy looked up from her coloring pad, her green eyes darting between the two adults. “Am I a Belmonte now, Mommy? Like the scary boss on the news?”
May you like
Rosalind leaned down, kissing the top of the little girl’s dark curls, her eyes wet with tears of pure relief. “You are a Belmonte, sweetheart. But you’re not scary. You’re just the luckiest girl on Federal Hill because you have a whole neighborhood—and a dad’s brother—to keep you safe.”
Cassian reached across the table, his large, scarred hand closing over Rosalind’s flour-creased fingers. This time, there was no dough between them. There were no sixteen years of lies, no forged letters, and no dead man’s crown. There was only the solid, unyielding reality of a future they were building together from the ground up.
