Chapter 5 - THREE CROOKED CROWNS
The radio hissed with static.
Team Bravo, respond. Did you eliminate the mother?
Adrien took the radio from Frank’s hand.
His fingers pressed against the plastic with enough force to crack the casing.
He keyed the mic.
"Victor."
The static died instantly.
The silence on the other end was absolute.
"Adrien?" Victor’s voice lost its smooth, aristocratic arrogance. It cracked like brittle glass. "You... you're supposed to be in the operating theater."
"My son is surviving his surgery," Adrien spoke into the radio, his voice low, steady, and terrifyingly cold. "My other two sons are looking at me right now."
A sharp intake of breath hissed over the speaker.
"Adrien, listen to me," Victor stammered. "You don't understand the board's position. The Italian syndicates—"
"Listen to me, Uncle," Adrien interrupted.
The room seemed to bend around his fury.
"Five years ago, you drove my wife into hiding. You made me believe she abandoned me. You tried to slaughter my children today in a kitchen pantry."
"Adrien, wait—"
"I am coming for you," Adrien said quietly. "Do not run. If you run, you will only die tired."
He crushed the radio against the counter until the circuit board snapped in half.
He tossed the plastic pieces into the trash can.
Julian and Noah watched him, their eyes wide.
Noah crept closer to my side, hiding his face in my damp sweater.
Julian, however, didn't shrink away.
He stood his ground, observing Adrien with the same analyzing gaze Adrien used on his rivals.
"Are you really our dad?" Julian asked.
Adrien looked down.
The murderous rage vanished from his face, replaced by an agonizing vulnerability.
He sank down onto one knee, leveling himself with the five-year-old boy.
"I am," Adrien said.
"Why didn't you come to our birthday?" Julian crossed his arms. "We had cardboard crowns. Leo wore the gold one. I had silver. Noah had blue."
Adrien’s throat hitched.
"Because I was stupid," Adrien replied truthfully. "Because I let wicked men tell me lies. And I spent five years looking at the wrong horizon."
Julian digested the answer.
"Mom said our dad was a king who fought monsters," Julian said softly.
Adrien looked at me.
His eyes held an ocean of grief, gratitude, and regret.
"Your mother told you that?" Adrien asked, his voice shaking.
"Yes," Julian said. "Are you fighting monsters now?"
Adrien reached out and placed a massive hand gently over Julian’s small shoulder.
"I'm going to finish them," Adrien promised. "So they never look at you again."
Frank stepped back into the room.
"Sir, we need to extract. Boston PD received multiple 911 calls regarding shots fired. They'll be on this block in three minutes."
"Take Mrs. Higgins to the private clinic in Cambridge," Adrien ordered Frank. "Put two guards on her door. Ensure she receives whatever she needs for life."
Mrs. Higgins dabbed her eyes, nodding weakly.
"Clare," Adrien said, standing up. "Pack one bag for the boys. Five minutes."
"I don't need five minutes," I said.
I grabbed the worn canvas backpack from the hook behind the door.
It held their birth certificates, their spare asthma inhalers, and the three preschool cardboard crowns tucked into a plastic sleeve.
I picked up Noah.
Adrien picked up Julian.
Julian hesitated for half a second before wrapping his small arms around Adrien’s neck.
I saw Adrien’s shoulder tense, then soften completely.
He held the boy as if he were made of spun glass.
We descended the back fire escape into the alley.
A second black vehicle—an armored Suburban—waited in the shadows with its engine running.
We piled into the rear seat.
The windows were tinted and three inches thick.
As the SUV pulled away from the curb, police sirens wailed in the distance, heading toward the ruined apartment.
I leaned my head against the headrest, closing my eyes.
My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
A warm, heavy hand covered mine.
Adrien interlaced his fingers with mine.
Five years ago, that touch would have calmed my entire world.
Now, it ignited a firestorm of complicated grief.
"Where are we going?" I asked, not opening my eyes.
"The Beacon Hill house," he said.
I stiffened.
"No."
I pulled my hand back.
"Clare—"
"That house has Victor's fingerprints all over it," I said, opening my eyes to look at him. "He walked through those front doors every Sunday for dinner. His associates know every room. I am not bringing my boys there."
Adrien watched me for a long moment.
A faint, bitter smile touched his lips.
"Not that house," Adrien said quietly. "The new one. The one I started building six months after you vanished."
"What are you talking about?"
"I bought forty acres on the bluffs in Marblehead," Adrien said, looking out at the driving rain. "Reinforced concrete. Private security perimeter. Off-grid power. A private medical bay."
He looked back at me.
His gaze was burning.
"I built it because I swore to God that if I ever found you, no one on this earth would ever be able to reach you again."
My breath caught in my throat.
Before I could reply, the driver’s console beeped.
"Call incoming from Boston Children's Hospital," the driver announced. "Doctor Vance."
Adrien pressed the speaker button instantly.
"Speak."
"Mr. Moretti? Mrs. Moretti?" Dr. Vance's voice was loud over the car speakers.
"Is Leo okay?" I screamed, lunging toward the console.
"The transfusion was successful," the surgeon said, breathing heavily. "The defect is patched. His heart rhythm has stabilized."
I dropped my head into my hands, sobbing with raw relief.
Noah stroked my hair with his small hand. "Mommy, is Leo awake?"
"Not yet, little man," Dr. Vance heard him and answered gently. "He's sleeping in the pediatric ICU."
Then the doctor’s tone changed.
It became hushed.
Urgent.
"Mr. Moretti... you need to get back here."
"What's wrong?" Adrien demanded, his voice turning deadly again.
"Someone from the Department of Children and Families just arrived on the floor," Dr. Vance whispered. "Accompanied by two corporate lawyers from Moretti Holdings."
My blood ran cold.
"What are they doing?" Adrien snapped.
May you like
"They have an emergency court order," Dr. Vance said, terrified. "Signed by a county judge forty minutes ago. They are claiming Clare Moretti is an unfit mother who abandoned her child, and they are transferring temporary custody of Leo to Victor Moretti."
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