Chapter 2 - The Ring in Vivian’s Hand
Vivian did not give Frank the ring back.
She closed her fingers around it and walked into the house with Leo.
Behind her came voices.
Damon calling her name.
Frank ordering someone to close the gates.
Guests whispering.
Vivian kept moving.
Leo’s hand was cold inside hers.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Am I in trouble?”
The question almost broke her.
She stopped in the hallway and crouched.
“No.”
“But Grandpa was mad.”
“Grandpa being angry doesn’t mean you did anything wrong.”
Leo stared at her.
“Why did he say Olivia could be me?”
Vivian’s stomach tightened.
“What exactly did he say?”
Leo looked toward the backyard.
“He said sometimes families choose better kids.”
Vivian became very still.
“When?”
“Before the game.”
“Who was there?”
“Dad.”
That one word hurt.
“Your father heard him?”
Leo nodded.
Vivian kissed his forehead.
“All right.”
She needed to get Leo away from the estate.
But when she reached the foyer, one of Frank’s security men stood near the front entrance.
Vivian stopped.
“Move.”
The guard looked uncomfortable.
“Mrs. Rossetti—”
“Move.”
“Mr. Rossetti asked everyone to remain until—”
“Until what?”
No answer.
Vivian took out her phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
The guard immediately stepped aside.
“Vivian.”
Damon’s voice came from behind her.
She turned.
He had followed them inside.
“Tell your father’s people never to block me again.”
“They misunderstood.”
“No, Damon. They understood perfectly.”
Leo moved behind Vivian.
Damon noticed.
Pain flashed across his face.
“Leo, buddy—”
The boy backed away.
Damon stopped.
For the first time, he seemed to understand what his laughter outside had cost him.
Vivian opened the front door.
“Wait.”
Damon’s voice had changed.
“Please.”
She looked at him.
“What?”
He glanced toward the guard.
“Not here.”
“Then start talking.”
Damon lowered his voice.
“The ring isn’t what you think.”
“What do I think?”
“That Dad was replacing Leo.”
“Was he?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Vivian opened her palm.
The little gold ring caught the light.
“Then why does this exist?”
Damon stared at it.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You knew something.”
He looked away.
That was enough.
Vivian stepped closer.
“What did you know?”
Damon rubbed his forehead.
“Dad has been obsessed with succession.”
Vivian almost laughed.
“Succession? This isn’t a kingdom.”
“To him, it is.”
The Rossetti family controlled a sprawling collection of construction, hotel, and property companies founded by Damon’s grandfather. Frank had spent his entire adult life treating the business like a dynasty.
Leo was Frank’s only grandson.
Until recently, Vivian had believed Frank’s intense interest in the boy came from pride.
Now it looked different.
“What does Olivia have to do with succession?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who is she?”
“You know who she is.”
Olivia was the daughter of Claire Mercer, one of Frank’s longtime business associates.
At least, that was what Vivian had always been told.
“Why does she have a Rossetti ring?”
“I said I don’t know.”
Vivian stared at him.
Then Leo spoke.
“Dad?”
Damon looked down.
Leo’s eyes were wet again.
“Why were you laughing?”
Damon’s expression collapsed.
The question was more devastating than anything Vivian could have said.
“I thought it was a joke, buddy.”
“I was scared.”
“I know.”
“You laughed.”
Damon crouched.
“I’m sorry.”
Leo did not go to him.
Vivian took her son outside.
This time Damon did not stop them.
Twenty minutes later, Vivian drove through the estate gates.
She kept checking the rearview mirror.
Leo eventually fell asleep.
The ring sat in the cup holder beside her.
She should have gone home.
Instead, Vivian drove to her mother’s old house on the opposite side of town—a modest property she had kept after her mother died.
Almost nobody in the Rossetti family knew she still had a key.
She carried Leo inside and placed him on the couch.
Then she photographed the ring.
The engraving contained more than the Rossetti crest.
Inside the band were three tiny letters.
O.C.M.
Olivia Claire Mercer.
Vivian’s skin went cold.
The ring had been made specifically for her.
Her phone rang.
Damon.
She ignored it.
Again.
Ignored.
Then a text appeared.
You need to come back before Dad realizes what you took.
Vivian stared at it.
Not before Dad gets angrier.
Not so we can talk.
Before he realizes what you took.
She called Damon.
He answered immediately.
“Where are you?”
“Why does Frank care so much about this ring?”
Silence.
“Damon.”
“You shouldn’t have taken it.”
“Why?”
“Because it proves something.”
Vivian’s heart began pounding.
“What?”
“I can’t tell you over the phone.”
“Then tell me now or I’m taking it to the police.”
“Vivian, listen to me.”
“No. You listen. Someone tied our son to a post, humiliated him, and told another child she could take his place. Your father had a Rossetti heirloom made for her. You stood there and laughed. I’m finished listening.”
Damon whispered something she barely heard.
“What?”
“I didn’t know about the game.”
“But you knew about Olivia.”
Another silence.
Vivian gripped the phone.
“What about Olivia?”
Damon finally answered.
“My father thinks she has a claim.”
“To what?”
“The family.”
Vivian looked toward sleeping Leo.
“What does that mean?”
“I found documents.”
“What documents?”
“I’ll bring them.”
“Where are they?”
“In Dad’s study.”
“Then get them.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Make me understand.”
Damon lowered his voice.
“I think someone has been changing the family trust.”
Vivian stopped breathing for a moment.
The Rossetti trust controlled almost everything Frank cared about.
Properties.
Shares.
Voting rights.
And eventually, Leo’s inheritance.
“Changing it how?”
“I only saw a draft.”
“Whose name?”
Damon hesitated.
“Olivia’s.”
Vivian looked at the ring again.
Suddenly the cruel game made horrifying symbolic sense.
One child tied up.
Another holding the bat.
A grandfather calling his grandson a prize.
A ring made for the girl who was supposedly replacing him.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because Dad won’t tell me.”
“Then why did you participate?”
“I thought if I played along with his stupid party stunt, he’d stop pushing me about the trust.”
Vivian closed her eyes.
“You sacrificed Leo’s dignity because you were afraid to confront your father.”
“I didn’t know they were going to tie him up.”
“But when you saw him tied there, you still laughed.”
Damon had no answer.
Vivian ended the call.
She walked to the kitchen and placed the ring beneath the brightest light.
There was something strange beneath the crest.
A tiny line.
She turned it.
An inscription.
Not Olivia’s initials.
Those were on the opposite side.
This was a date.
Vivian recognized it immediately.
The date was six months before Olivia was born.
She photographed it.
Then she searched old family records she had stored digitally after helping organize Frank’s anniversary celebration years earlier.
The date appeared once.
A corporate document.
On that day, Frank Rossetti had created a private holding company.
Its name made Vivian sit down.
Second Branch Holdings.
She stared at those words until Leo stirred in the next room.
Second branch.
Another branch of the Rossetti family?
Her phone vibrated.
An unknown number.
Vivian opened the message.
It contained a photograph.
Frank was standing outside a hospital.
Beside him was Claire Mercer.
The photograph was dated the day Olivia was born.
May you like
Underneath it was one sentence.
Ask Frank who Olivia’s father really is.
