Chapter 10 - The Gold Coast Spring
Four months later, in late February, a snowstorm raged outside the Gold Coast estate, burying Michigan Avenue under eight inches of pristine white powder.
Inside the master suite, the fireplace crackled with a roaring oak fire, throwing warm amber light across the hardwood floor and the hand-carved mahogany crib standing near the bed.
Roman sat in the high-backed velvet wingchair, holding a small bundle wrapped in a blue flannel blanket against his massive chest.
The baby—named Leo Roman Valenti—was two weeks old. He had a mop of dark black hair like his father’s, but his eyes, wide and clear as he stared up at the firelight, were the bright, pale blue of his mother’s.
Claire lay in the center of the big bed, propped up on three down pillows, wearing a soft wool cardigan, watching her husband with a peaceful smile.
Roman moved with absurd, comical care, holding the seven-pound infant as if he were made of Venetian glass. He rocked slowly in the chair, humming a low, wordless melody—an old Italian lullaby his mother had sung to him forty years ago.
“You’re going to drop your phone if you keep trying to check dock reports while holding him,” Claire teased softly from the bed.
Roman looked up, a rare, brilliant grin breaking across his dark face. “I’m not checking dock reports. I sold the dock shares to Marco’s foundation this morning.”
Claire blinked, sitting up slightly. “You sold the docks?”
“I sold the shipping lines, the warehousing contracts, and the transport licenses,” Roman said calmly, looking back down at his son’s tiny face. “Silvano took the North Side operations. Marco took the security firm. I kept the real estate and the import business.”
“Roman...” Claire breathed, her eyes widening. “That was your family’s entire empire.”
“No,” Roman said, standing up slowly and carrying the sleeping baby across the room toward the bed. He sat down on the edge of the mattress, leaning close to her so that their shoulders touched.
He looked down at Leo, who let out a tiny, soft sigh and snuggled deeper into the woolen blanket against Roman’s arm, then turned his eyes to meet Claire’s.
May you like
“That was just business,” Roman whispered, taking her hand and pressing her knuckles against his cheek. “This is the empire.”
Outside, the Chicago wind howled against the iron gates and the tall stone walls, but inside the warm house on the Gold Coast, the fire burned steady, the dark was gone, and Roman Valenti’s family was finally home.
