Chapter 13 - MY GRANDDAUGHTER
Serena’s daughter was born at 5:42 a.m.
Six pounds, one ounce.
Healthy enough to scream like an insulted executive.
Serena named her Helena Mae Coletti-Montesi temporarily? Need surname legal. Perhaps Helena Mae Coletti, with Serena considering hyphenation later. Better: Helena Mae Coletti, because married surname? Serena Montesi maybe retained. Let's say Helena Mae Montesi-Coletti by parents' agreed birth certificate. But Bastian absent. Serena can choose under state rules. Keep simple: Helena Mae Montesi, with parentage to Bastian recorded after acknowledgment. Could surname be Montesi. Fine.
She named her Helena Mae Montesi.
Bastian was notified after delivery.
He arrived at the hospital.
Serena allowed him one supervised visit in the nursery consultation room.
I stayed outside.
He held his daughter and cried.
That mattered.
A bad husband can still love his child.
Whether he could become a safe, reliable father would be determined by behavior.
Not my anger.
Then Sterling.
Helena Mae entered the descendant class automatically under the trust upon live birth and documentation.
No ceremony.
No chair.
No ring.
No male requirement.
The trust officer sent one boring confirmation letter.
Serena laughed when she read it.
“This is the heir paperwork?”
“No heir,” Meredith corrected. “Beneficiary-class confirmation.”
Even better.
Then Faye gave birth four months later to a son.
Miles Mercer.
Paternity testing after birth confirmed Bastian as father.
He signed acknowledgment.
Child support proceedings began.
Miles was Bianca’s grandson.
Bastian’s son.
A Coletti descendant.
Not a Montesi trust beneficiary.
No shame.
No lesser child.
Just different maternal family rights.
That distinction became important because people online started calling one child “the real heir.”
We released no statement about infants.
None.
Then Serena’s divorce moved forward.
Temporary parenting schedule:
Bastian two supervised visits per week with Helena initially because of instability, not because adultery itself made him unsafe.
Evaluation later.
He complied.
Good.
Then with Miles:
Separate support and parenting arrangement through Faye.
Bastian suddenly had two newborn children in two households.
Consequences were not only legal.
They were logistical.
Night calls.
Support.
Diapers.
Responsibility.
No glamorous male heir.
Just fatherhood.
Then Bianca petitioned to see Helena.
Serena opposed temporarily due assault.
Court deferred.
No automatic grandparent right.
Bianca could revisit after probation and therapy.
Then she saw Miles frequently because Faye initially allowed.
Faye soon restricted unsupervised access after Bianca called him “the boy who should have carried everything.”
Good boundary.
Then East Harbor.
Independent report recommended against full merger.
Coletti Freight’s debt made acquisition risky.
Alternative:
Montesi buys selected contracts and facilities, not company.
Coletti uses proceeds to reduce debt.
Bastian loses expected executive role.
Business solution.
Then regulators.
They referred misleading investor materials for civil enforcement review.
No criminal charge yet.
Then Harold Venn sued? No. He sent a sworn declaration that his memorandum was shortened without consent.
Metadata showed Bastian’s assistant created the seven-page version.
Did Bastian instruct?
Assistant said yes.
Bastian admitted removing “irrelevant historical caveats.”
That phrase was bad.
Civil fraud exposure.
Then Serena’s marital settlement.
She did not seek Bastian’s entire company stake.
She wanted clean separation.
Independent valuation.
She kept more liquid assets and the residence? They sold house. Better: house sold, equity split under settlement with adjustment for unauthorized consulting expenses from joint funds.
Bastian reimbursed Serena half of the $86,000 succession consulting paid from marital account.
Specific.
No ruin.
Then one night I held Helena Mae while Serena slept.
The baby’s hand wrapped around my finger.
I thought of Bianca’s sentence:
That chair belongs to the real heir’s mother.
There had never been a real heir.
Only children adults tried to turn into rankings.
Then my granddaughter opened her eyes.
Dark.
Maybe mine.
Maybe Serena’s.
Maybe nothing.
May you like
And for the first time in months, I understood how ridiculous every genealogy report had been.
She did not need to look like anyone to belong.
