Damien
Ihead into the garden and take a seat by the greenhouse. It’s well into September. The days are getting shorter, and the sun has already set. I sit on a bench under a dusk sky, turn my phone on, and call my brother back.
Cristiano picks up on the first ring. “Listen,” I tell him. “If it’s about the company and my ultimatum to Mama, I don't really want to—”
“No,” he interrupts. “It's not about that. I heard what happened, and I fully support you. So does Vicky. It's about time you put your foot down. No, this is about something else.” He sucks in a breath. “Liz called. She wants to reevaluate our agreement.”
I sit up. Lizbeth Bernal is Cristiano and Magnus’ surrogate. She’s three months pregnant. “What does she want?” I ask. “Does she want to keep the baby?”
Technically, Lizbeth doesn’t have any parental rights. It was Magnus’ sperm and a donor egg. Cristiano and Magnus went through an agency. The agreement they signed with Liz specified that they were responsible for her medical costs, in addition to a mid-six-figure compensation. But the law is one thing, and feelings are another. The woman is carrying a child. She’s doing one of the most generous things I can think of for someone else. Cristiano might be frustrated, but he needs to be gentle.
“No,” he replies grimly. “That’s not it, Damien. She found out who I was. She wants fifteen million dollars, and she wants to change the agreement to have parental rights. Or else.” He sighs. “It’s extortion, of course. I’d pay it, but I don’t think it’s a one-time thing.”
No. Sophia went through something similar with her birth mother. Even now, there’s so much pain in her voice when she talks about how afraid she was that she’d be torn from her home.
I see red. I’ve had a long, frustrating day, and this is the last straw. I’m done playing nice. Liz is trying to blackmail Magnus and my brother, and I won’t stand for it. “We have lawyers,” I grit out through clenched teeth. “We have money. Lizbeth made an agreement with you, and she needs to honor it. If she doesn’t, she’ll find out what we’re made of. Our detectives will dig through her life. We will talk to everyone from her past. If she continues down this path, we will destroy her.”