He Chose Another Heir Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 57
My mother was standing in the foyer, one hand on her caregiver’s arm.
She had only recently left the hospital. Her face was still pale, and she looked painfully thin beneath her coat. Dante stood on her other side, one arm hovering behind her back without touching her, ready to offer support.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Vincent said, striding over.
Maria sidestepped his hand.
“My two daughters are here. Why shouldn’t I be?”
Ophelia’s shoulders trembled.
“Mom…”
“When I adopted you, you had a high fever and you clung to my clothes so hard you wouldn’t let go.” Maria looked at her. “I told you then that from that day on, you were my daughter, just like Elena.”
Tears streamed down Ophelia’s face.
“But they never thought so.”
“Then you should have hated the people who put you on the bargaining table—not dragged another girl down to prove that her place belonged to you.”
My mother’s voice was soft, but no one dared interrupt.
“And Milo never should have had to bear the weight of your choices.”
Ophelia’s lips trembled.
“I was just afraid of losing everything.”
“While you were afraid, Elena was at the airport, alone, snapping her SIM card in half,” Maria said. “What she lost was no less than what you did.”
Ophelia slowly lowered her head.
The Rossi advisor took back the crumpled documents. The guards didn’t drag her away; they simply escorted her to begin formal proceedings.
As she passed me, she paused.
“Are you satisfied now?”
“No.”
I looked at the pale circle on her finger where the ring had once been.
“Your punishment won’t give me back those six years. And I don’t need to watch you fall to feel like I’m living a better life.”
The last of the defiance in her eyes flickered out.
The door closed behind her.
I turned off the projection, and the dining room dimmed.
Vincent still stood by my mother’s side, as if he wanted to support her but didn’t dare reach out.
“Maria, everything I did was for the De Luca family.”
“And that meant you could lock our daughter in her room, choose a husband for her, and then, after learning the truth, push all the blame onto Ophelia?”
My mother looked at the man she had spent decades of her life with.
“Vincent, before the surgery, what I feared most wasn’t dying. It was that after I died, Elena would once again be left standing alone at the end of your table.”
The color drained from his face.
I took the proof of payment for my mother’s medical treatment and set it beside the statement about my distributions.
“The hospital bills are mine. Her life in Paris is mine to arrange. Mom is coming with me while she recovers.”
Vincent looked at me.
“Elena, I’m your father.”
“Then learn to be just my father,” I said. “Not my head of family.”
His mouth opened, but no order came out.
Salvatore had been silent this whole time.
After a long while, he had the advisor bring over a new authorization for my distributions.
This time, there were no marriage conditions, no residence restrictions, and no requirement for annual approval. The portion that belonged to me was being returned to me. Whether I accepted it and how I used it would be my decision alone.
I read every page before signing the last one.
“This is not the price of my return to the De Luca family.”
“I know.” Salvatore’s voice was old. “It’s what should have been yours all along.”
I handed the documents to my lawyer.
Part would pay for my mother’s long-term care. The rest would establish an independent educational trust for Nora and Milo, managed by an outside institution. Two children would no longer be bargaining chips for any family.
I didn’t trade them for an alliance.
I just took the rope that had once bound me and turned it into a road they could use to walk away.