Page 148 of Baby Surprise for my Brother's Best Friend

Today, I’m not the Marchetti heir charming clients over cocktails. I’m not the reckless playboy with a smirk and a temper.

Today, I’m the man who left the woman he loves.

And I’m the man who’s going to make it right.

The silence in the lobby is thick.

The receptionist barely makes eye contact as she leads us to the boardroom, and I feel it already, the shift. The way they’ve erased Sophie. Like she was never part of this place. Like she never dedicated her life to this place at some point in her career.

They sucked whatever they needed from her and discarded her like it was nothing.

My jaw ticks as I step inside.

The boardroom is sleek, glass-walled and cold. A shark tank.

And Eva? She’s the apex predator waiting at the head of the table, polished in a white blazer and blood-red lipstick.

She stands but doesn’t offer a hand. "Mr. Marchetti. We weren’t expecting a visit."

"Clearly."

My attorney, Marcus, a sharp-tongued man in his fifties with a folder full of ammunition, takes the seat to my right.

I unbutton my suit jacket. "Let’s skip the pleasantries. You and I both know why I’m here."

Her smile is razor-thin. "Then by all means, enlighten me."

I slide a copy of her article across the table. "This isn’t journalism. This is personal."

She lifts a brow, unbothered. "I report on powerful people abusing power. Your family has a long, colorful history."

"And Sophie? What did she ever do to you?"

Something flickers in her expression. Just a flash of something darker. Bitterness. Old hurt.

"A casualty of war. She climbed a ladder she didn’t build."

My hands curl into fists under the table. "She earned her place ten times over. Everything she did for this firm, for this merger. She gave her loyalty to this place, and you repaid her with betrayal."

I toss a folder on the table, a stack of signed affidavits, timelines, communications, proof that contradicts her article’s most damning claims.

"You’ve got twenty-four hours to issue a retraction. Public. Prominent. Or I’ll take this to court and to every media outlet that’ll run the truth."

Her gaze doesn’t waver, but I see it now, the crack. The faintest tremor of doubt.

"You think this will fix her? She’s broken. And I didn’t do that. You did."

That lands like a punch, but I don’t flinch because I know she's baiting me. Trying to get a reaction out to use against me.

"That’s between her and me. Not you. And don’t think you don’t have any blame on anything that happens to her, because what you did was twist a knife in her back."

The room is suffocating with tension.

Eva sits with that same smug, sleepless smile stretched tight across her face, like it’s the only thing holding her together.

Next to her, the publisher of the media house flips through documents, flanked by corporate lawyers on either side.

"You ran a hit piece full of inaccuracies, and you’ll retract every word. Or I will personally make it my mission not just to go after you personally, but also this entire firm. And I will bring you down, With the truth. Because unlike you, I’m not all full of smoke, mirrors, and spiteful lies."

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