Black Opal’s Three Tests of True Love Chapter 07

Leandro practically tumbled down the stairs.

Standing in the entryway, however, was Vivienne.

His face instantly turned murderous.

“What the hell are you doing here? How do you know this address? Who gave you the code?”

Vivienne blinked, recovering quickly as she stepped forward to loop her arms around his neck.

“That little gold–digger gave it to me, of course. She finally knew her place and backed off, so I-

Before she could finish, Leandro ripped her arms away and shoved her down onto the couch.

He loomed over her, his voice dropping to a terrifying register.

“You told Odessa you were pregnant with my child?”

Vivienne turned sheet–white.

Leandro closed the space between them.

“When the fuck did I ever touch you?”

She hadn’t anticipated this level of unhinged fury.

That little bitch actually told him!

She wasn’t pregnant.

It was an easy lie to chase Odessa out of the picture so the Voss–Whitmore merger could proceed

smoothly.

“I…”

Vivienne chewed her lip, raw panic finally seeping into her eyes.

“Don’t be mad, Leo. I did it for our future-”

“Our future?”

Leandro let out a savage laugh, rage detonating in his chest.

“Get out.”

He pointed toward the door.

“Get the fuck out of my house before I have you thrown out!”

Tears spilled down Vivienne’s cheeks. She clamped her hand over her mouth and fled into the hall

slam.

The tall man sank heavily down onto the couch. Staring at the crumpled pregnancy documents in his palm, he didn’t move for hours.

Regret.

Raw, suffocating regret.

He’d always gotten whatever he wanted, without once having to face the consequences,

Yet right now, the ghost of Odessa’s smile, the image of her slipping away alone in the dark, the thought of her lying cold on a clinic table terminating their unborn child…

It ripped through his chest like shrapnel.

Leandro buried his head in his hands.

He had destroyed the only thing that mattered.

Meanwhile, at the Moretti estate on Long Island’s North Shore.

Alaric stumbled into the great room, looking like a ghost.

His parents were pacing the floor anxiously.

Seeing him alone, his mother rushed over.

“Where is Odessa? Why isn’t she with you? Did you tell her the truth? She’ll never have to struggle a

day in her life again!”

Alaric looked up with hollow, bloodshot eyes.

“She’s gone.”

His mother froze.

“What do you mean, gone? Speak clearly! Where could she go?”

Alaric collapsed onto an armchair, his voice cracking.

“She heard everything the night before last. She left the city. No one can find her.”

His voice dropped to a barely audible whisper.

“Mom… Odessa was pregnant. And she terminated the baby. She’s never coming back.”

His parents stared at him in stunned silence.

His mother’s knees buckled, and his father barely caught her before she hit the floor.

“What did you say…?”

She looked down at the velvet folder in her trembling hands.

It held the paperwork for Odessa’s twenty–fifth birthday gift–a fifteen percent equity stake in the Moretti holding conglomerate.

She had planned to use it to erase every year of hardship her daughter had endured.

“How did this happen?”

She buried her face in her hands, her wails echoing through the cavernous estate.

“Odessa… Mom was wrong… God, we were so wrong…‘