Chapter 10 - The Sovereign Family
One year later.
The golden morning sun shone brightly through the soaring floor-to-ceiling glass windows of the top-floor penthouse office at Cole Enterprises.
The massive obsidian desk was spotless, reflecting the clear blue Seattle sky outside.
Sitting in the massive executive leather chair behind the desk was seven-and-a-half-year-old Amy. She was dressed in a pristine white school uniform, swinging her pink light-up sneakers happily as she carefully colored a picture of a massive castle with bright crayons.
The heavy office doors opened.
Ethan Cole walked into the room, wearing a tailored dark suit, holding two warm cups of hot chocolate. He walked over to the desk, placing one cup gently beside Amy’s coloring book.
“How is the empire looking today, boss?” Ethan asked with a warm, rare smile.
Amy looked up, giggling brightly. “Everything is clean, Daddy!”
Ethan’s heart filled with a profound, unshakeable warmth at the word Daddy. Three months ago, the adoption papers had been officially finalized in federal court, legally making Amy his daughter forever.
Suddenly, soft footsteps sounded from the doorway.
Sophie walked into the office.
She was breathtakingly beautiful, dressed in an elegant cream silk business suit, her dark hair falling softly over her shoulders. On her left ring finger, sparkling brilliantly under the sunlight, sat a massive ten-carat oval diamond ring—the mark of the Donna of Seattle.
Sophie had taken over as the President of the Cole Foundation, managing millions of dollars in charitable healthcare funds that provided free medical care and financial support to low-income working mothers across the entire Pacific Northwest.
She walked up to Ethan, wrapping her arms around his waist, leaning her head against his broad chest.
Ethan wrapped his long arms securely around her, pulling her close, kissing the top of her head softly.
“How was the foundation meeting, my love?” Ethan murmured gently.
“We just approved funding for three new children’s hospitals in Chicago,” Sophie smiled up at him, her hazel eyes filled with deep, eternal love and contentment. “No child will ever have to miss a meal while their mother is sick again.”
Ethan looked down at his beautiful wife, then over at his happy daughter sitting behind the obsidian desk, sipping her hot chocolate.
Thirty years ago, he was a starving, forgotten orphan boy in a dark alley, believing that fear and violence were the only ways to survive in a cold world.
Now, standing in the glass sky of the city he ruled, surrounded by the warmth of the woman and child he had claimed as his own, he knew the truth.
He was no longer just a feared CEO or a ruthless mafia boss.
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He was a protector, a husband, and a father.
And as long as he drew breath, the family that had begun with half a piece of toast would reign supreme, untamed, safe, and forever unbroken.
