Chapter 5 - The Ambush and the Declaration
Glass rained down across the room like glittering knives.
“DOWN!” Damian barked, his arm snapping out to grab my shoulder, throwing his body over mine and Mia’s as we hit the carpeted floor.
Automatic gunfire tore through the office, shredding the leather armchairs, shattering the computer monitors, and pulverizing the drywall into clouds of white dust. Lev and the other bodyguards instantly returned fire toward the shattered window, where a dark drone equipped with a mounted tactical rifle was hovering outside the forty-second floor.
“It’s a strike drone!” Lev yelled over the deafening roar of gunshots. “Bernardo’s men are on the roof!”
In the confusion, Arthur Vance screamed as a stray bullet caught him in the thigh. He collapsed near the desk, weeping and bleeding onto the carpet.
Damian didn't look at Arthur. He kept his body pressed firmly over mine, shielding Mia and me completely from the flying glass and concrete debris. I could feel the powerful rhythm of his heart beating against my back, steady and unhurried despite the chaos around us.
“Are you hit?” Damian asked into my ear, his breath warm against my neck.
“No,” I gasped, clutching Mia tight against my chest. “The boys—!”
I looked back. Lev had pinned himself against the thick marble pillar near the entrance, holding his body over the two boys’ carriers. Leo and Julian were crying loudly, terrified by the noise, but they were unhurt.
Damian pulled his pistol from his shoulder holster, rolled onto his back, and fired three rapid shots through the shattered window. The heavy 9mm rounds struck the drone’s optical sensors, sending the machine spinning out of control until it plunged forty stories down toward the street below.
Silence returned to the room, heavy and thick with the smell of gunpowder and ozone.
Damian stood up swiftly, pulling me to my feet in one smooth motion. He checked Mia quickly—she was shivering but unharmed—and then looked down at Arthur, who was clutching his bleeding leg on the floor.
“Bernardo knows we’re here,” Damian said, reloading his pistol with a crisp click. “The drone was a distraction. He’s trying to clear out the Hamptons vault before we get there.”
He turned to Lev. “Take Vance to the private clinic under guard. Put a tourniquet on his leg—he doesn't die until he signs a full confession in front of a judge.”
“Yes, Boss,” Lev acknowledged, hauling the weeping doctor to his feet.
Damian took my hand. His grip was tight, warm, and absolute. “We’re going to the Hamptons.”
“Damian,” I said, stopping him in the middle of the ruined office. “Bernardo has his entire army at that estate. If we walk in there, it’s a war.”
Damian looked down at me, his dark eyes ablaze with a terrifying, beautiful fury.
“Nora,” he said, his thumb gently wiping a fleck of drywall dust from my cheek. “For fourteen months, I thought I was raising orphans whose mother died giving them life. I lived with the guilt of her death every single day. Now I know that the woman who gave them life is standing right in front of me.”
He reached down, taking Mia’s little hand in his, linking the three of us together.
“Bernardo took your children. He tried to destroy your life. And today, I am going to take his empire apart piece by piece until every document, every record, and every scrap of your name is restored.”
Two hours later, we were sitting in the back of an armored SUV speeding down the Long Island Expressway.
The three children were finally fast asleep in their specialized car seats in the middle row, worn out by the morning’s chaos. I sat in the back row with Damian, a tablet computer resting on my lap, displaying live satellite imagery of the Marchetti compound in the Hamptons.
“This isn't just about birth certificates anymore, is it?” I asked quietly, looking at the complex security layout of the estate on the screen.
Damian leaned back against the leather seat, staring out the darkened window at the passing trees.
“Bernardo called an emergency meeting of the syndicate council for three o’clock today,” Damian revealed. “He intends to announce that I am unfit to rule because my children’s maternity is in question. He’s going to produce forged documents claiming Sophia bought children from an illegal adoption ring, using it as an excuse to strip me of my title and seize my assets.”
I felt a cold drop of sweat trace down my spine. “And if we show up?”
Damian turned to face me, a slow, lethal smile touching the corners of his lips.
“If we show up,” Damian whispered, “we walk into that council room with you holding our children, Dr. Vance’s signed confession, and the real DNA results.”
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He reached across the seat, taking my hand and pulling it to his lips, kissing the knuckles softly.
“We don't just defend ourselves, Nora. We take the throne.”
