My Boss's Hidden Heir (Elara and Marcus) novel 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.”

56

“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.”

17:04 Mon, May 11 M…

Chapter 170

គ

56

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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.”

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