The Collapse of the Empire

By Monday morning, the corporate tower of Moretti Global was in a state of silent, trembling panic.

Down on the forty-second floor, executive assistants walked on eggshells, whispering in hushed tones around the water coolers. Luca Moretti hadn't slept a wink. After fleeing the restaurant on Saturday, he had spent the entire weekend locked in his private study, drinking scotch in the dark, staring at old photographs and medical files that now looked like a cruel joke.

The door to his corner office burst open without a knock.

Marcus Vance, Luca’s chief legal counsel and oldest confidant, strode in with a stack of encrypted dossier folders. Marcus stopped dead in his tracks, taking in the empty liquor glasses scattered across the glass desk and the wild, bloodshot look in Luca’s eyes.

“Jesus, Luca,” Marcus muttered, tossing the files down. “The board meeting is in twenty minutes. You look like you went ten rounds with a heavyweight champion.”

“Shut the door, Marcus,” Luca rasped from behind his executive chair. His voice was raw, ruined by hours of silent screaming and regret.

Marcus locked the heavy oak door and leaned against it. “Word is already leaking from Aurelia. Society columns are calling me asking if you and Evelyn are splitting up because you had some kind of breakdown in the middle of the dining room over a woman and two kids. Care to tell me what the hell happened?”

Luca slowly raised his head. He looked older—ten years older than he had on Friday afternoon.

“They were mine, Marcus,” Luca said.

Marcus frowned, crossing his arms. “What are you talking about? Whose kids?”

“Nia’s.”

The silence that followed was absolute. Marcus’s jaw went slack. He stared at Luca as if his boss had finally lost his mind. “Nia? Your ex-wife? Nia Carter?”

“Twins,” Luca continued, his voice dropping into a hollow whisper. “A boy and a girl. Around five years old. They have my eyes, Marcus. They have my face. I looked at them, and I saw myself at six years old staring back at me.”

Marcus rubbed the bridge of his nose, panic suddenly flashing in his eyes. “Hold on. Hold the damn phone. When did you two divorce? Six years ago, right? If they’re five years old…”

“She got pregnant right after we split,” Luca finished for him, slamming his fist against the mahogany desk so hard the crystal decanter rattled. “She carried my children for nine months, gave birth to them in secret, raised them in Chicago under my damn nose, and never said a single word to me!”

“And you’re angry at her?” Marcus snapped, abandoning his usual corporate diplomacy.

Luca snapped his head up, his eyes flashing with sudden fury. “Of course I’m angry! She kept my children from me! She denied me my legacy!”

“Luca, pull your head out of your ass!” Marcus yelled, stepping forward and slamming his hands on the desk. “Who drove her away? Who spent six months complaining that she was broken? Who let our medical consultants plant the seed in your head that she was defective so you could feel justified walking away to marry a trophy wife with a better pedigree?”

Luca flinched as if he had been physically struck.

“You walked away, Luca,” Marcus said, his voice dropping to a harsh, unforgiving register. “You handed her divorce papers while she was vulnerable, and you didn't look back. You didn't ask for fertility testing until two years ago when you and Evelyn couldn't conceive, and even then, the doctors told you your count was low, but you buried that report too, didn't you?”

Luca stared down at his desk, his hands trembling.

“She didn't steal your children, Luca,” Marcus said quietly. “She protected them from the monster you were back then. And now? Now you’re going to figure out how to fix it, because if you try to drag her into court, she will rip you to pieces in front of a judge, and the press will crucify Moretti Global by Tuesday morning.”

Before Luca could answer, his private intercom buzzed.

“Mr. Moretti?” his secretary’s nervous voice filtered through the speaker. “You have a visitor in the lobby. She insists on seeing you immediately.”

“Who is it?” Luca barked.