Chapter 11 - The Devil's Proposal
"She has David's chin," Sofia murmured softly, keeping her distance near the threshold, her hands buried deep within her coat pockets.
Julian instantly stepped in front of the incubator, blocking her view with his wide, defensive frame. "Get out. Before I call the guards to throw you into the street."
"The guards won't touch me, Julian," Sofia replied flatly, her voice exhausted and cracked. "The hospital board chairman is on my executive advisory committee. Arthur was only doing his job, but I came here to speak to you woman-to-man."
"There is nothing left between us to discuss," Julian spat, venom dripping from every syllable. "You used my desperation to execute an inheritance heist. You used my wife's womb like an incubator for your dead husband's trust fund."
Sofia took a slow breath, stepping closer until she stood just three feet away, looking at the tiny baby fighting for life behind the glass.
"David was the only man I ever loved," Sofia said, her voice dropping into an unsettling, hypnotic whisper. "When he died, his brothers and cousins looted his company. They pushed me off the board because I was just the widow without a biological child. For five years, I watched them dismantle everything we built together."
"That has nothing to do with Emilia!" Julian growled.
"It has everything to do with her!" Sofia shot back, her dark eyes flashing with fire. "I didn't steal your life, Julian. I offered you a partnership. You keep Emilia. You raise this child in your home. You give her a mother and a father. All I want is the voting proxy attached to her trust fund shares. Sign the legal guardianship of her corporate inheritance over to me, and I will dissolve the custody injunction tonight."
Julian stared at her, stunned by the cold, monstrous brilliance of the offer.
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"You don't want the baby," Julian realized, his stomach turning in revulsion. "You never wanted the baby. You only want the forty percent voting shares."
Sofia looked him dead in the eye. "Choose, Julian. Give me the corporate empire, or watch me take your daughter away forever."
