Chapter 170
Elara’s POV
55 vour mm
Elara stepped between Luca and the cribs instinctively, her body blocking his view of Alexander and Catherine even though they were too young to understand what was happening.
“Get out,” she said, keeping her voice low. “You have no right to be here.”
“I have every right. I’m their grandfather.” Luca tried to move around her but Elara shifted to block him again. “Elara, please. I just want to see them. Just for a moment.”
“Why? So you can figure out how to use them against me too? So you can calculate their value for your next blackmail scheme?”
Luca flinched like she’d slapped him. “That’s not fair. I made mistakes, I know that. But I’m trying to make amends.”
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“Make amends?” Elara felt fury rising in her chest, hot and sharp. “You blackmailed me while I was pregnant. You threatened to destroy my marriage and ruin my husband’s career unless I paid you a freaking million dollars. You worked with Penelope knowing she was trying to sabotage everything Marcus built. And now you want to make amends?”
“I was desperate. Your mother’s treatment had bankrupted me and I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You could have asked for help like a normal person! You could have come to me and explained the situation instead of threatening me!” Plus you did nothing for mum.
Marcus appeared in the doorway, his expression cold and controlled in a way that was somehow more frightening than anger. “How did you get into this building?”
“I told security I was Elara’s father. They let me up.”
“They let you up because we haven’t updated the visitor list since the babies were born. That’s being fixed right now.” Marcus pulled out his phone. “You have thirty seconds to leave before I call the police and have you arrested for trespassing.”
“I’m not trespassing. I’m visiting my daughter and my grandchildren.”
“You lost the right to call yourself my father when you tried to extort me,” Elara said. Her voice was shaking now but she didn’t care. “A real father would have been happy I found love and built a family. A real father would have supported me through the pregnancy complications and celebrated when the babies were born. You did none of those things. All you did was try to profit from my happiness.”
Luca’s face crumpled. “I know I handled things badly. I was scared and stupid and I let Penelope convince me that Marcus was just using you, that the marriage was fake and you deserved compensation. But I see now that I was wrong. You love him. He loves you. And these babies are my grandchildren whether you like it or not.”
“Being biologically related doesn’t make you a family. Family shows up when things are hard. Family supports you instead of bleeding you dry. You’re not family, Luca. You’re just a man who shares my DNA.”
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Chapter 170
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“Elara, please.” Luca took a step toward her and Marcus moved between them immediately. “I’m sorry. I’m genuinely, truly sorry for everything I did. But those babies in there are my blood. My legacy. You can’t just cut me out of their lives.”
“Watch me.”
“I have rights. Grandparents have legal rights in New York.”
Marcus laughed and it wasn’t a pleasant sound. “You want to talk about legal rights? Let’s talk about the confession you gave to my lawyers detailing every aspect of your blackmail scheme. Let’s talk about the money Penelope paid you to harass my wife. Let’s talk about how you’re currently facing potential charges for extortion and conspiracy to commit fraud.”
Luca went pale. “You said if I cooperated I’d get immunity.”
“You got immunity from prosecution. That doesn’t mean the evidence goes away. Any judge looking at your case for grandparents’ rights is going to see that you extorted the mother while she was pregnant with high- risk twins. Good luck getting visitation after that.”
“You’re bluffing. No lawyer would try to deny grandparents’ rights based on a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” Elara felt something snap inside her. “You call threatening to destroy my marriage and demanding a million dollars a misunderstanding? You call working with a woman who murdered Marcus’s mother a misunderstanding?”
“I didn’t know about the murder. Penelope never told me that part.”
“But you knew she was trying to take down Marcus’s company. You knew she was planning to use our contract marriage against us at the shareholder meeting. You knew all of that and you helped her anyway because she was paying you.”
Luca’s shoulders slumped. “I was desperate. Can’t you understand that? I’d lost everything. My business failed. my savings were gone. Penelope offered me a way out and I took it without thinking about the consequences.”
“The consequences are that you don’t get to know your grandchildren. That you don’t get to pretend you’re a loving grandfather when you tried to extort their mother while she was carrying them. That you don’t get a redemption arc just because you feel guilty now.”
Catherine started crying in her crib, probably picking up on the tension in the room. Elara immediately turned away from Luca and went to pick up her daughter, cradling her against her chest and making soft soothing sounds.
Luca watched with an expression of longing that might have moved Elara if she wasn’t so angry. “Please. Just let me hold her for a moment. Let me meet my granddaughter.”
“No.”
“Elara-”
“No! You don’t get to hold her. You don’t get to meet her. You don’t get anything from me except the knowledge that you destroyed our relationship for money and it wasn’t worth it.”
17:04 Mon, May 11 M…
Chapter 170
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Alexander started crying too, upset by his sister’s distress. Marcus picked him up and the two of them stood there holding their babies while Luca looked on like he was watching something precious slip through his fingers.
“I’m calling security,” Marcus said, his voice flat. “You need to leave now.”
“This isn’t over. I have rights and I’m going to exercise them. I’ll sue for grandparents’ rights if I have to.”
“Good luck with that. I have the best lawyers in New York and unlimited resources to fight you. All you have is a failed extortion scheme and a history of putting money and alcohol before family.”
Marcus stepped into the hallway and Elara heard him speaking quietly to someone, probably security. She focused on Catherine, rocking her gently until the crying subsided to small hiccups.
Two security guards appeared in the doorway, large men in suits who looked very serious.
“Mr. Vance, we need you to come with us,” one of them said.
“I’m not leaving until I get to see my grandchildren.”
“Sir, you’re trespassing in a private residence. You can leave voluntarily or we can call the police and have you removed. Your choice.”
Luca looked at Elara one more time, his expression desperate. “Think about what you’re doing. Those babies deserve to know their grandfather. They deserve to have a family.”
“They have family,” Elara said coldly. “They have parents who love them and a grandfather who’s trying to make amends for his mistakes. They have Mimi who’s been more of an aunt than you ever were a father. They don’t need someone who sees them as leverage or a second chance to fix his own failures.”
The security guards moved to either side of Luca, not touching him but making it clear he needed to leave. He let them guide him toward the door, his movements slow and defeated.
But when he reached the doorway he turned back one last time.
“You haven’t seen the last of me!” His voice was loud enough to echo down the hallway. “I’m going to fight for my rights as a grandfather and no amount of money or lawyers is going to stop me! Those are my grandchildren and I deserve to be in their lives!”
The security guards hustled him out and Elara heard the elevator doors closing on whatever else he was shouting.
Marcus locked the front door and came back to the nursery where Elara was still standing frozen with Catherine in her arms.
“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.
“No. But I will be.” Elara looked down at her daughter who’d finally stopped crying and was looking up at her with those serious blue eyes. “He’s really going to sue for grandparents’ rights, isn’t he?”
“Probably. But he won’t win. New York’s grandparents’ rights laws are very limited and they definitely don’t
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Chapter 170
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favor grandparents who extorted the parents.”
“I can’t believe he had the audacity to show up here. To demand to see the babies like he hasn’t spent the last few months trying to destroy our lives.”
Marcus put Alexander back in his crib and then wrapped his arms around Elara and Catherine both. “He’s desperate. People do stupid things when they’re desperate. But we’re not going to let him anywhere near our children. I promise.”
Elara leaned into Marcus’s warmth and tried to believe him. Tried to feel safe despite Luca’s threats echoing in her head.
But she couldn’t shake the feeling that this was just the beginning of another battle they’d have to fight.
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