Chapter 2 - The Weight of Blood
The infant fit into the crook of Nathan’s arm like he had been custom-made for it, though Nathan’s rigid, trembling muscles made him feel like he was holding spun glass. The baby—the boy with the exact knuckle dimple Nathan had carried since childhood—stirred against his chest, letting out a soft, fluttering sigh.
A wave of emotion so profound, so terrifyingly fierce washed over Nathan that it knocked the wind completely out of his lungs.
This was his son.
Not a stock portfolio. Not a glass-fronted skyscraper. Not a headline in Real Estate Weekly. Flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood. A human being he had helped create, whom he had left to freeze on a park bench while he sat in a penthouse overlooking Central Park, drinking twenty-year-old scotch and congratulating himself on being a self-made man.
“His name is Leo,” Caroline whispered softly, her eyes fixed on the baby’s face. “The girl is Maya. And the other boy is Noah.”
“Leo, Maya, Noah,” Nathan repeated the names like a prayer, memorizing the cadence of each syllable. He looked up at Caroline, his heart bleeding. “How did you survive? After... after my mother cut you off, how did you live?”
Caroline looked away, her gaze drifting toward the barren branches of the oak tree overhead.
“We didn't live, Nathan. We just didn't die,” she said quietly. “My family’s bakery was foreclosed on six months after you left. My father had a stroke from the stress and passed away before Leo was born. My mother spent every dime we had on medical bills until she followed him two years ago. I worked cleaning offices at night while pregnant, hiding the bump under oversized sweaters, and during the day I watched toddlers in a damp basement apartment until the landlord evicted us last month.”
Every word she spoke was a physical blow to Nathan’s chest, each one heavier than a sledgehammer.
“Why didn't you reach out to me?” Nathan asked, his voice breaking. “Even after all that... why didn't you find a way to break through my security?”
“I tried,” Caroline turned back to him, her eyes flashing with a sudden, sharp fire. “I stood outside your corporate headquarters downtown six months after the twins were born. I watched you get out of a black town car, surrounded by armed PR handlers and investors. You were wearing a three-thousand-dollar suit, talking on a satellite phone, looking like a king who had conquered the world. A man in a tailored suit walked past me, looked at my patched coat and my crying babies, and told me to move away from the revolving doors so I wouldn't block the clients.”
She let out a hollow, defeated breath.
“I realized then that you weren't my Nathan anymore. You belonged to a different world. A world where people like us didn't exist.”
Nathan swallowed hard, the taste of copper and ash flooding his mouth. He looked over his shoulder at his mother, who was standing a few yards away, wringing her gloved hands in silent panic.
“Mom,” Nathan said, his voice dropping into a register so cold and devoid of warmth that it sounded like winter wind. “Get out.”
Margaret blinked, startled. “Nathan, don't be absurd. It’s freezing out here, let’s take the car back to the townhouse and discuss this like a family—”
“You are no longer my family,” Nathan interrupted, standing up slowly while cradling baby Leo safely against his chest. He turned to face her fully, his dark eyes burning with an unholy fury. “You committed fraud. You intercepted mail, you blackmailed a private citizen, and you knowingly allowed my children to starve on the streets while you sat in a penthouse bought with blood money.”
“I did it for Brooks Development!” Margaret cried out, her voice cracking with desperate entitlement. “I built this empire with you! I sacrificed everything so you wouldn't be weak!”
“Weak?” Nathan let out a sharp, joyless laugh. “No, Mom. True weakness is what you did. True weakness is being so terrified of the world that you have to destroy everyone around you to feel safe. Our relationship ends today. If you ever come within five miles of Caroline, or Leo, or Maya, or Noah, I will personally ensure that every asset, every trust fund, and every penny of inherited wealth you possess is stripped away by federal prosecutors before sundown. Do you understand me?”
May you like
Margaret stared at him, her face twisting in horror. She opened her mouth to argue, but one look into Nathan’s eyes told her the boy she had molded into her image was gone. He was a man now—and he had just declared war.
Without another word, Margaret turned and hurried away down the path, her designer heels clicking frantically against the frozen pavement until she disappeared into the morning fog.
