THE MAFIA BOSS LEFT HIS OWN SUMMIT FOR HIS EX—THEN THE NURSE ASKED, “WHO’S THE FATHER?”

Adrien was already moving before Elena whispered his name.

Then he stopped.

Not because he was calm.

Because he understood that charging across the city would take thirty minutes, and the choice that mattered was happening on the other side of Elena's door right now.

"Do not open it," he said.

"I wasn't planning to."

"Call 911 from the other phone. Stay on with me."

Elena put him on speaker.

He heard drawers opening, Sofia beginning to fuss, Elena's breath coming too fast.

Marco knocked again.

"Elena, I know you're in there. Adrien isn't answering. I need to talk to you."

Elena picked up the emergency call on her old phone and gave the address.

Adrien stayed silent until she finished.

Then Marco spoke again.

"Please. This isn't what it looks like."

Elena's laugh came out thin and frightened.

"That's a terrible sentence, Marco."

He heard Marco exhale through the door.

"I know."

Police sirens were still distant.

Adrien gripped the steering wheel as Teresa drove. He had given her the keys because his hands were shaking too badly.

"Talk to him," Adrien told Elena. "Don't open the door. Just keep him there."

Elena swallowed.

"Why did you come?" she called.

Marco answered through the wood.

"Because Dorsey called me."

Adrien felt Teresa glance at him.

Elena said, "Why would he call you?"

A long pause.

"Because I paid him eight months ago."

Nobody in Teresa's car moved.

Elena's voice changed.

"For what?"

"To scare you."

Adrien closed his eyes.

The confession hurt in a strangely quiet way.

Marco continued before anyone could respond.

"I didn't tell him you were pregnant. He found out because he followed you to the clinic. I told him to make you understand that staying near Adrien was dangerous. I wanted you to leave the city."

Elena's breathing turned ragged.

"You threatened my baby."

"No. I told him never to mention the baby. He went too far. When you told me what he'd said, I panicked. I helped you leave because I was trying to fix what I'd done."

Adrien spoke into the phone.

"Why?"

Marco went silent.

"You can hear me," Adrien said. "Why?"

Marco's voice came through the hallway, smaller than Adrien had ever heard it.

"Because you were going to leave."

Adrien stared through the windshield.

"What?"

"You told me at Nico's engagement party. You were drunk. You said if Elena got pregnant, you were done. You were going legitimate. You were going to sell what you could and walk away."

Adrien remembered pieces of the conversation.

Not the promise.

Marco continued, "Your father had already started talking about succession. Vittorio was circling. Rinaldi was pushing the port deal. If you left, there would've been a fight. People would've died."

"So you frightened her away from me."

"I thought if she left, you'd stay."

There it was.

Not greed.

Not a hidden empire.

Fear.

Cowardice wearing the clothes of loyalty.

Marco's voice cracked.

"And you did stay."

Adrien looked down.

Eight months ago, after Elena disappeared, he had thrown himself into the family harder than ever. Marco's plan had worked.

That truth made him nauseous.

Elena whispered, "The break-in in Pittsburgh?"

"Not me."

"How did Dorsey know where I was?"

"I don't know. I swear to you. After you left, I cut him loose. When he called me today, he said police were asking questions and he wanted money. I told him no. He said if I didn't pay, he'd tell Adrien everything."

Adrien said, "So you came to Elena."

"I came to confess before he could use it."

Teresa turned onto Elena's block. Two police cars were already there.

"Marco," Adrien said. "Step away from the door. Put your hands where they can see them."

Marco laughed once, hollowly.

"You're calling cops on me now?"

"Elena called them."

"And you're letting her?"

Adrien looked at his mother.

Teresa's eyes stayed on the road.

"Yes," he said.

He heard Marco breathe in.

Then footsteps moved away from the door.

By the time Adrien reached the second floor, Marco was on his knees in the hallway with his hands behind his head.

Detective Brooks stood over him.

Elena's door remained closed.

Adrien did not look at Marco.

He knocked once.

"It's me. Police are here."

The locks turned.

Elena opened the door with Sofia against her chest.

Adrien stepped inside.

He wanted to touch Elena, hold the baby, promise impossible things.

Instead he asked, "What do you need?"

Elena looked at him for a long moment.

"Take her. My arms are shaking."

He took Sofia.

Behind him in the hallway, Marco began to cry.

While Teresa drove toward Elena's apartment, Vittorio called twice. Adrien ignored the first call and answered the second.

"If Marco did what you think, don't do anything stupid," Vittorio said.

Adrien almost laughed at the source.

"That's your advice?"

"My advice is that you will want ten minutes alone with him. Don't take them."

Adrien looked out at the wet streets.

"Why do you care?"

Vittorio was quiet.

"Because I spent twenty years thinking your father respected me more when he feared what I might do. He didn't. He just trusted me less. I figured that out late."

Adrien had never heard his uncle speak that way.

"You could've said that before tonight."