Chapter 1 - The Bloodline
The heavy silence inside the corner office on the forty-second floor felt like a vacuum, sucking the oxygen straight out of my lungs. Outside the tinted floor-to-ceiling glass, helicopters drifted silently over the Hudson River, but inside, my world had narrowed down to two pairs of steel-gray eyes staring up at me from a double stroller.
"Elena..." The name tore through my throat, rough and barely audible. "Who are they?"
Elena didn't blink. She stood with her shoulders squared, her fingers white-knuckled around the stroller's leather handle. The plain navy dress she wore looked lived-in, stretched at the hips from carrying children, totally devoid of the silk and tailored cuts she used to wear as my wife.
"They're Noah and Gabriel," she said. Her voice was steady, but there was a tremor running underneath it that only someone who had spent seven years sleeping beside her could recognize. "They'll be two next month."
Two.
The math struck me like a physical blow, heavy and precise. Twenty-three months. Three years since she packed her bags and left our townhome in Gramercy Park. Which meant she was already pregnant when she walked out that door. Or she left because she knew.
"You had my children," I whispered. My knees felt weak—a feeling I hadn't experienced since I was a teenager starving in South Brooklyn before I built Marrow Holdings. "You had my sons, and you kept them in the dark for two years?"
"I didn't keep them in the dark, Tobias," Elena said, stepping around the stroller. She placed herself directly between me and the boys, a mother dragon protecting her nest. "I kept them safe. There's a difference."
"Safe from what? Safe from me?" The rage flared fast and hot, burning away the numbness in my limbs. I took a step toward her, my expensive leather soles striking the hardwood floor. "I am their father, Elena! You sat in this city—or wherever the hell you went—while I searched for you, while my lawyers hunted for you, and you let me believe you walked away because you hated my guts!"
"I walked away because of what you said!" she fired back, her green eyes flashing with a sudden, vicious fire. "Do you remember your last words to me, Tobias? 'Maybe I don't want children with someone who thinks love is enough.' You told me I wasn't fit to build a family with! Then three weeks later, I was throwing up in a diner bathroom in Upstate New York with a positive test in my hand!"
The serious boy in the left seat—Noah—let out a small, anxious whimper at the sound of his mother's raised voice. He reached up, his tiny, chubby hand catching the hem of her navy dress.
Instantly, the heat vanished from Elena's face. She dropped to her knees right there on my Persian rug, taking both of Noah's little hands in hers. "Shh, sweet pea. It's okay. Mommy's right here. Mr. Tobias is just... surprised."
Mr. Tobias.
The title felt like a blade twisting in my ribs.
I stared at the little boy. Noah had a faint cowlick at his hairline—the exact same cowlick I spent ten minutes taming in the mirror every morning. The other twin, Gabriel, had finally dropped his stuffed elephant and was currently looking around my immaculate office, his chubby fingers reaching out toward the glass coffee table.
"You brought them here to sign the papers," I said, the realization settling over me like cold concrete. "You brought them to force my hand."
Elena didn't look up as she adjusted Gabriel's blue cap. "Your mother found us three weeks ago, Tobias."
May you like
My entire body went rigid. "What?"
Elena finally looked up at me from the floor, her green eyes cold and full of terrible knowledge. "Victoria found us in Hudson. She offered me four million dollars to sign the divorce papers, give up my parental rights, and hand the boys over to the Marrow family trust."
