CHAPTER 4 – SERAPHINA’S REAL GAME
Seraphina Duca had never believed in love.
Love was what weak men used to justify bad decisions.
Love was what got families burned to the ground.
Power, however—
Power was eternal.
She stood alone in the east wing of the Duca estate, the Atlantic stretching black and endless beyond the windows. The house was quiet in the way only very expensive places ever were—thick walls, guarded silence, nothing left to chance.
Her phone lay on the marble table beside her.
She didn’t touch it.
She didn’t need to.
The game had already begun.
Seraphina Had Known About the Baby Before Meline Did
The confirmation had come months earlier, buried inside an innocuous medical ledger purchased from a private data broker who believed discretion could be bought with diamonds.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Patient: Meline Hayes.
Repeat visits. Blood work. Ultrasound scheduling.
Seraphina had stared at the screen, lips curved in something almost like amusement.
A civilian mistress carrying Dominic Valente’s child.
An heir born outside a sanctioned union.
A liability.
Or—
A weapon.
Seraphina hadn’t alerted Dominic.
She hadn’t alerted her father.
She had waited.
Because patience separated queens from pawns.
The Engagement Was a Cage, Not a Promise
Dominic had believed the engagement announcement was leverage.
A stall tactic.
A temporary shield to keep Meline safe while he dismantled internal threats.
What Dominic never understood was that Seraphina Duca didn’t enter arrangements she couldn’t control.
The moment the engagement went public, Seraphina had quietly mobilized three independent contractors—men without affiliations, without loyalty, without fear of Valente retaliation.
Their instructions were simple:
Find the woman. Do not harm her. Do not touch the child. Deliver when ordered.
Not to Dominic.
To Seraphina.
Boston Was Never Meant to Be Safe
Seraphina sipped champagne in New York while reports filtered in.
“She’s cautious.”
“She doesn’t trust anyone.”
“She’s pregnant. Protective.”
Good.
Fear made people predictable.
Then came the complication.
Dominic Valente appeared in Boston.
Seraphina’s jaw tightened when she heard.
So he’d figured it out.
She had expected as much.
What she hadn’t expected was restraint.
Dominic didn’t take Meline.
Didn’t reveal himself.
Didn’t pull her into his orbit where Seraphina could cut her out easily.
He watched.
Protected from a distance.
Which meant Dominic hadn’t lost his edge.
Which meant Seraphina had to move faster.
The Call She Didn’t Expect
The phone rang just past midnight.
Seraphina answered immediately.
“Yes?”
A man spoke, breathless. “We lost two.”
Her eyes hardened. “Explain.”
“Valente,” he said. “He intervened. Personally.”
Silence.
Then Seraphina smiled.
“Of course he did.”
“We can still get her,” the man insisted. “She trusts no one. She’s isolated.”
“Not yet,” Seraphina said coolly. “You rushed.”
“She saw him,” the man argued. “She knows he’s involved.”
Seraphina’s smile faded.
That changed things.
“Pull back,” she ordered. “All assets. Immediately.”
A pause.
“That’ll cost—”
Seraphina’s voice cut like glass.
“You will be paid in full. Or you will disappear. Choose.”
The line went dead.
Seraphina turned back to the window, her reflection staring at her like a stranger.
Dominic had complicated her timeline.
Which meant it was time for the truth—
The version of it she wanted Meline to believe.
Meline Didn’t Sleep That Night
She sat on the floor, back against the couch, gun in her lap, staring at the door.
Every sound made her flinch.
Every shadow felt alive.
The baby was restless.
Too restless.
Her hands trembled as she rubbed her belly, whispering soft nonsense, anything to soothe the small life inside her.
“He found us,” she murmured.
Not just Dominic.
The whole world he belonged to.
Meline’s chest tightened.
She had been wrong.
Running hadn’t saved her.
It had just delayed the inevitable.
Her phone—new, cheap, prepaid—buzzed softly.
She froze.
No one had the number.
She stared at the screen.
UNKNOWN CALLER
Her instincts screamed.
Do not answer.
But another instinct—older, sharper—rose beneath the fear.
Information was survival.
She answered.
“Hello?”
A woman’s voice replied.
Smooth. Cultured. Amused.
“Meline Hayes,” the woman said. “Or do you prefer Clara Evans these days?”
Meline’s blood ran cold.
“Who is this?”
A soft laugh.
“My name is Seraphina Duca.”
The name landed like a gunshot.
Dominic’s fiancée.
Meline’s fingers curled into the carpet.
“I don’t want anything from you,” Meline said, forcing her voice steady.
“Oh, but you already have,” Seraphina replied lightly. “You’re carrying it.”
Silence.
Meline swallowed.
“What do you want?”
Seraphina’s tone shifted—gentler now. Almost kind.
“To help you.”
Meline nearly laughed.
“You tried to take me.”
“No,” Seraphina corrected. “I tried to secure you. There’s a difference.”
Meline’s hands shook violently now.
“You sent men after me.”
“Yes,” Seraphina admitted. “Because Dominic Valente is not the man you think he is.”
Meline’s breath caught.
Seraphina continued, her voice dripping concern.
“He will cage you,” she said. “Wrap it in protection and call it love. He will take your child and raise it in blood.”
“That’s not true,” Meline whispered, even as doubt clawed her chest.
“Isn’t it?” Seraphina pressed softly. “You heard him call you a civilian. A severance. A problem.”
Meline closed her eyes.
“I’m offering you an alternative,” Seraphina said. “Safety. Privacy. A future where your child doesn’t inherit enemies before it can walk.”
Meline’s heart pounded.
“And what do you get?”
Seraphina didn’t hesitate.
“Control.”
Honesty—sharp and naked.
“You want my baby,” Meline said.
“I want peace,” Seraphina replied. “Your baby is leverage. Against Dominic. Against war.”
Meline’s voice broke.
“You’re lying.”
Seraphina sighed softly, like a disappointed teacher.
“If I wanted the child, you wouldn’t be alive to refuse me.”
Silence stretched.
Then Seraphina delivered the final blow.
“He killed the men tonight,” she said calmly. “Right outside your building.”
Meline flinched.
“You saw him,” Seraphina continued. “You know what he is.”
Meline’s chest ached.
“What do you want me to do?”
Seraphina smiled.
“Nothing,” she said. “Yet.”
The call ended.
Meline stared at the phone.
Her world tilted.
Because Seraphina hadn’t threatened her.
She had warned her.
And that was far more dangerous.
Dominic Felt the Shift Immediately
Silas stood rigid across from him.
“Boss,” he said carefully. “Your fiancée made contact.”
Dominic’s expression darkened.
“With Meline.”
“Yes.”
Dominic slammed his fist into the desk.
“That’s a line,” he growled. “She crossed it.”
Silas hesitated. “What if she convinces her?”
Dominic’s jaw clenched.
“She won’t,” he said.
But even as he spoke, doubt whispered.
Because Seraphina didn’t need Meline to trust her.
She only needed Meline to fear him.
Dominic turned toward the window, city lights burning like warning signals.
Seraphina wasn’t trying to steal his child.
She was trying to force a choice.
War—
Or surrender.
And Dominic Valente had never been good at choosing peace.
The Chapter Ends with a Lie Taking Root
Meline lay awake as dawn crept through the narrow windows.
Seraphina’s words echoed in her head.
Cage.
Blood.
Protection disguised as love.
The baby shifted gently.
Meline pressed her palm to her belly.
“I won’t let anyone own you,” she whispered.
Outside, Boston woke unaware.
In Chicago, Dominic prepared to burn an empire.
And in New York—
May you like
Seraphina Duca smiled.
Because the real game had finally begun.
