Chapter 5
983 Words
I stared at the ceiling tiles until they blurred into a chessboard. White squares, black squares, two kings waiting for my move. I wasn’t leaving this hospital as nobody. Not again. But choosing one meant losing the other, and I’d be damned if I surrendered half the kingdom. I needed both worlds: Elias’s polished empire and Enzo’s brutal shadows. Only one way to taste them: separately, on my terms.
I pressed the call button and the nurse materialized immediately as though her life depended on it. “Send Elias Arlington first.”
The door opened in seconds. Elias strode in, suit impeccable, eyes gleaming with the smugness of a man who believed being summoned first was victory. I let him savor it for three heartbeats.
Then I twisted the knife.
“I’m aborting.” My voice cracked like ice.
He dropped beside me.
Tears welled, real ones, hot and furious. “You r***d me. Both of you. Dragged me, drunk, to that suite. These babies are unwanted. Accidents. And you…” I jabbed a finger at his chest, “you’ll dispose of me the second I give birth and the crossfire starts. I know how this ends.”
His face drained of color. The boardroom mask shattered. “Samantha…”
“You think I’m stupid?” Sobs choked me now, theatrical and raw. “I’ll go to Enzo. He’ll protect me. Hide me. You’ll never find us.”
Elias’s hand shot out, gripping mine, not rough, but desperate. His palm trembled. “Don’t. Please.” His voice broke, a sound I’d never imagined from him. “I need this. Need to be called Father. Not Uncle. Not a donor. Father.” He swallowed hard. “I’ve paid for four kids who weren’t mine. DNA said no every time. This…” His free hand hovered over my stomach, afraid to land. “This is my blood. I feel it.”
I let the silence stretch, let him drown in it.
“Then prove it.” I wiped my face with the gown sleeve. “Buy me a house. A car. Now. I want to drive out of here in thirty minutes. Alone.”
“I can wire…”
“Go select them. Touch the keys. Sign the deeds. In person.”
His jaw worked. At the door, he paused. “You’re sending me away so you can leave with Enzo?”
I met his eyes, steady. “I’m driving myself out. No one else.”
He searched my face, found whatever he needed, and winked, half charm, half surrender. The door clicked shut.
I exhaled, a laugh bubbling up through the tears. A billionaire, jumping at my command like a trained pup. My heart raced with confusion and triumph, and a bit of terror braided tight.
The door opened again. Enzo slipped in, shoulders slumped, swagger stripped. The brute looked... small. “You chose him, didn’t you?”
I beckoned him closer. He obeyed, leather creaking. I took his scarred hand, pressed it to my cheek. “I choose me.” Fresh tears, this time for him. “But I need you too. Elias is buying pretty things. You give me power. Thugs. Bodyguards. I want to hurt someone today.”
His eyes ignited. “Name ‘em.”
“Matthew. His family’s logistics firm. Buy it. Beat him if you have to. I want to walk in as an owner.”
Enzo’s grin was slow, feral. “Apart from the muscle?”
“Make me boss. The babies need a legacy that bites.”
He kissed my knuckles, rough lips lingering. “Yes, my queen.”
“And when I leave? Alone. No tails.”
He nodded, already texting. The door closed behind him like a vault.
Thirty minutes later, discharge papers signed, I stepped into the corridor. Four mountains in black suits flanked me—Enzo’s thugs, earpieces glinting. A gleaming BMW idled at the curb. One thug opened the rear door; another slid into the front passenger seat. The remaining three piled into a trailing van.
The chauffeur met my eyes in the mirror. “Miss Jones. I’ll take you to your penthouse.”
My phone buzzed. Property transferred. Target neutralized. Keys en route.
“Change of plans. Take me to HarborFreight Logistics.”
The BMW purred through Summerville’s arteries. We stopped outside the squat brick building where I’d once begged for an internship. Matthew leaned against the wall, arm in a sling, face swollen purple. His father, red-faced, tie askew, clutched a ledger. Beside them, my ex-best-friend Chloe, blonde and wide-eyed, clutched Matthew’s good arm.
The thug opened my door. I stepped out, heels clicking like gunfire. The lawyer, a nervous ferret in a cheap suit, gestured at me. “Gentlemen, meet the new owner. Samantha Jones.”
Matthew’s jaw dropped. Chloe’s lipstick bled where she bit her lip. His father sputtered, “Samantha? What do you even do?”
I smiled, slow and sharp. “I date two billionaires for a living. Apparently, it pays.”
“You’ll regret this,” Matthew hissed, voice nasal through his broken nose.
I didn’t answer. Just swayed my hips as I walked past, the owner of HarborFreight Logistics, the queen of my own empire.
In the lobby, I paused by the window. Summerville glittered below in glass towers and dark alleys, Elias’s world and Enzo’s, both mine now. My hands rested on the curve of my stomach.
Who owns the twins? Enzo or Elias? Doesn’t matter. I’ll be a billionaire before delivery. Then I’ll cart away with the babies and the riches.
I fired off an email to both: See you at the next ultrasound. Separately. The babies want gifts.
***
Everything seemed to be in order, what I didn't know was that I was the only thing they've shared since their rivalry aired, and they want more of me.
- Writer
