Chapter 5 - NICO FINALLY CHOSE SOMETHING BEFORE HIS EMPIRE
By sunrise, I was in a private recovery suite under another name.
Lila slept beside me.
Two hospital security officers guarded the maternity floor.
Three Moretti men waited downstairs.
Federal agents had been contacted because the threat crossed state lines and involved financial coercion.
Nico hated involving federal agents.
Angelo hated it more.
I didn’t care.
Nobody was turning my daughter into leverage for a shipping terminal.
Matteo was found at 2:40 a.m.
Not outside my apartment.
Inside.
He had used Nico’s family access code.
He was searching the safe.
Vincent called from the scene.
“What was in it?” he asked.
I looked at Nico.
He already knew.
“Our passports.”
“What else?”
“Lila’s original prenatal paternity acknowledgment.”
Vincent went quiet.
When I was five months pregnant, Nico had signed a voluntary acknowledgment for private estate planning.
I had thought it was unnecessary.
He had insisted.
That document linked Lila to him before birth.
If someone wanted to challenge the succession trust, destroying it would be useful.
“What did Matteo say?”
“He says he was protecting it.”
Nico laughed bitterly.
“From who?”
“Victor Vale.”
“By breaking into my apartment?”
“He says Victor told him another team was coming.”
That was confusing enough to almost sound possible.
Angelo arrived twenty minutes later with an attorney.
He sat across from Nico.
“Matteo says he has been taking Vale money.”
Nico’s expression hardened.
“So Serena was right.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Angelo looked older.
“To gamble.”
Silence.
Nico blinked.
“What?”
“Sports. Private cards. Online accounts.”
My stomach turned.
Four million dollars.
“He owes Victor?”
“More.”
“How much?”
“Seven point eight.”
Nico stood.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Dad.”
“I did not know.”
Angelo’s voice hardened.
“He hid it.”
Nico looked toward the wall.
The Morettis loved control because chaos embarrassed them.
Tonight, every secret they had ignored was crawling into the light.
Angelo continued.
“Victor began using the debt six months ago.”
“For information?”
“Yes.”
“What information?”
“Trust structures. Schedules. Port negotiations.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Lila?”
Angelo hesitated.
“Yes.”
Nico turned slowly.
Something in his face became dangerous.
I said:
“No.”
Both men looked at me.
“Nico.”
He stared.
“If you leave this hospital planning to hurt your brother, don’t come back.”
His jaw tightened.
“Ava.”
“I mean it.”
“He endangered you.”
“Yes.”
“He gave Vale information about our child.”
“Yes.”
“He—”
“And violence will fix what?”
He had no answer.
Angelo looked at me differently.
Not offended.
Almost thoughtful.
Nico rubbed both hands over his face.
“What do you want me to do?”
I stared.
“Why are you asking me?”
“Because I don’t trust myself right now.”
That was honest.
“Then do nothing until you do.”
He sat.
Angelo nodded once.
“Good answer.”
I looked at him.
“Apparently somebody has to raise all of you.”
For the first time that night, Angelo laughed.
Very briefly.
Matteo agreed to speak with federal investigators.
Victor Vale had instructed him to remove the paternity acknowledgment and locate any documents related to Lila’s trust status.
He claimed Victor never ordered physical harm.
Just pressure.
But the threatening texts proved someone was willing to imply more.
Nico’s attorneys moved fast.
The Moretti family trust filing was completed at 8:05 a.m.
Lila’s birth certificate had not even been finalized.
Yet her existence already triggered voting rights.
Twenty-two percent shifted into Nico’s control.
Then something happened nobody expected.
Nico refused them.
Angelo stared at his son across the hospital consultation room.
“What do you mean no?”
“I mean transfer them into an independent voting trust.”
Vincent stopped.
“That’s not what the instrument says.”
“Then amend it.”
“You can’t amend Grandfather’s trust overnight.”
“Watch me.”
Angelo’s expression darkened.
“Nico.”
Nico looked at Lila through the glass nursery wall.
“I missed my daughter’s birth because Victor Vale thought those shares made me predictable.”
He turned.
“And he was right.”
Nobody spoke.
“He knew if he threatened Pier Nine, I would stay at the table.”
His voice became quiet.
“He knew business could compete with Ava.”
I looked down.
That admission hurt.
“He knew reputation could compete with fatherhood.”
Nico faced his father.
“I’m done proving him right.”
Angelo stared.
“What are you proposing?”
“The twenty-two percent goes into trust.”
“For Lila?”
“Eventually.”
“Who votes it?”
“Independent fiduciaries until she’s twenty-five.”
Vincent frowned.
“You would lose effective control of Moretti Maritime.”
“Yes.”
“That could cost us the board.”
“Then earn the board.”
Angelo’s expression changed.
Nico continued.
“No one ever uses my daughter’s existence to decide whether I’m powerful again.”
My throat tightened.
This did not repair us.
But it mattered.
Angelo asked:
“Are you doing this because Ava asked?”
“No.”
Nico looked at me.
“She didn’t.”
Good.
He was finally choosing something himself.
By noon, the trust lawyers had drafted an emergency arrangement.
The shares would be held independently.
Nico retained economic benefit until Lila was older but no unilateral voting control.
The filing destroyed Victor Vale’s leverage.
The alliance covenant became irrelevant.
Pier Nine might still be lost.
For the first time in Nico’s adult life, he chose a person before a port.
That should have made me happy.
Instead, I felt exhausted.
He came to my room afterward.
“It’s done.”
“I heard.”
“You’re angry.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
I looked at him.
“You keep doing things now that I needed you to do before she was born.”
His face fell.
“I know.”
“You’re becoming exactly the man I begged you to be.”
“I know.”
“And I hate that it took another woman’s mouth and my blood on a hospital floor to get you here.”
He closed his eyes.
“I know.”
I started crying.
“I don’t want to hate you.”
“You should.”
“No.”
I wiped my face.
“Don’t tell me what I should feel.”
“Right.”
He sat across from me.
“I don’t know what happens to us.”
“Neither do I.”
“Do you want me gone?”
I looked at Lila.
“From me?”
“Yes.”
“For now.”
His face tightened.
“From her?”
“No.”
Relief hit him so visibly it almost hurt me.
“But there are rules.”
“Anything.”
“You don’t come without calling.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t use your family to pressure me.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t buy me a house.”
His mouth opened.
I gave him a look.
“Fine.”
“No cars.”
“Fine.”
“No security following me unless there is an active threat and I agree.”
“That one is harder.”
“Nico.”
“Fine.”
“And you do not ever make Lila responsible for repairing what you did to me.”
His face went still.
“I won’t.”
“She gets to love you without protecting me.”
“Yes.”
“And if we fail as a couple, you still show up as her father.”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“Then start there.”
Nico looked at our daughter.
“Can I hold her?”
I hesitated.
Then nodded.
The nurse helped him.
He held Lila as though she were made of glass.
She opened her eyes.
Nico smiled through tears.
“Hi, trouble.”
I almost laughed.
“She was twelve minutes old when you became the worst man in my life.”
His eyes met mine.
“I know.”
Then he looked back at her.
May you like
“I have a lot of work to do.”
For once, the Moretti heir was talking about something money could not buy.
