Chapter 10 - The Paternity Challenge
When Henry told me, I thought I had misheard him.
“She’s claiming Luca isn’t mine?”
“Yes.”
Elena went white.
Then angry.
“She knows that’s a lie.”
“It doesn’t matter whether she believes it. She only needs delay.”
That was Viola.
When truth stopped serving her, she attacked identity.
Her lawyers demanded genetic testing.
Elena looked at me.
“You don’t have to do this.”
I took her hand.
“I do.”
Not because I doubted her.
Because I wanted Viola to lose this argument permanently.
The test came back exactly as expected.
I was Luca’s biological father.
Probability greater than 99.9 percent.
The judge admitted it.
Viola’s counsel moved on immediately.
No apology.
No shame.
But the damage to Elena was real.
After court, she sat in the car staring straight ahead.
“I hate her.”
I had never heard Elena say that about anyone.
“She wanted you to doubt me.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
She started crying anyway.
“She wanted to make Luca look like he didn’t belong.”
I reached for her.
“He belongs.”
“He’s fourteen months old and they’ve already fought over his name, his blood, his money—”
“No more.”
She looked at me.
“No more what?”
“No more Russo tradition if Russo tradition means this.”
That night I made a decision.
I would not raise Luca inside the mansion where every hallway held a power struggle.
I called a realtor.
Elena stared at me.
“You’re selling?”
“My share of the mansion interest.”
“To whom?”
“Anyone except Viola.”
For the first time in weeks, Elena laughed.
Then Henry called.
The court had ruled.
Carlo’s actions triggered the forfeiture clause.
His controlling shares would move into Luca’s irrevocable trust.
Viola’s remaining influence fell below the threshold needed to control the board.
The empire she had spent decades dominating had shifted because of the exact act she thought would scare Elena into submission.
And there was still one final hearing ahead.
The forged documents.
The destroyed evidence.
The fraud.
May you like
Viola was finally going to answer for what she had done herself.
👉 Viola tried to use Luca as leverage—and instead handed him the very power she had spent years trying to keep away from him.
