Chapter 5
The custody hearing drew reporters despite sealed juvenile records.
Gerbick Maritime succession mattered to markets. The existence of twins mattered to criminal families. The courthouse steps became a theater of cameras, security details, and whispered alliances.
Navina arrived in a white suit with one attorney and three archival boxes. Marco waited in black with five lawyers behind him. His gaze moved over her slowly — possessively — then softened in a way the cameras caught.
“Settle,” he said when she reached the stairs.
“Withdraw. I want scheduled access. Not custody.”
“Your petition asks for security control broad enough to imprison us.”
“Name your terms.”
“Thirty percent of Gerbick Maritime transferred to a trust controlled by the twins and me.”
His attorneys reacted exactly as she expected. Marco did not.
“If I agree — ”
“For the first time.” Navina’s voice was ice. “You’re proving that you still think everything can be priced.”
“I would burn the empire if it purchased one morning with them.”
“That is not devotion. It is another transaction.”
She walked into court.
The hearing lasted six hours. Marco’s attorneys argued that biological paternity was virtually certain and that his resources offered unmatched protection. They emphasized Navina’s secrecy and relocation across state lines. Voychek did not argue that the divorce agreement erased fatherhood. He argued something stronger.
Marco could pursue paternity through proper procedure. But biology did not justify emergency custody, unilateral surveillance, or removal of nursing infants from their primary parent.
Navina testified about the marriage — the rushed agreement, the medical privacy clause, the armed convoy at her gate. She played Wioletta’s recorded threat. She showed the attempted access to her obstetric records. She detailed Goran’s demand that the boy be separated from his sister.
Then Marco took the stand.
His attorney asked whether he had known about the pregnancy when he signed.
Marco looked at Navina. “She asked me whether I knew.”
“Did she explicitly tell you she was pregnant?”
“No.”
“Then she concealed a material fact.”
Marco’s jaw tightened. “I chose not to ask because I had already decided her concerns were inconvenient.”
His lawyer went still.
“Mr. Gerbick,” the judge said, “answer only the question asked.”
“Respectfully, Your Honor — the answer matters. I had the opportunity to know. My arrogance prevented it.”
Navina stared at him.
“Your Honor,” his attorney tried again, “do you believe Miss Burk is an unfit mother?”
“No.”
“Do you believe the children are unsafe in her care?”
“No.”
“Then why seek emergency authority?”
Marco’s gaze lowered. “Because I am accustomed to controlling what I fear losing.”
The courtroom became silent. His grandfather hissed something from the gallery.
Marco turned toward him. “And because my family taught me to call possession duty.”
The admission destroyed his emergency argument more efficiently than Navina’s attorneys could have done.
During a recess, Goran cornered Marco outside the courtroom. “You are surrendering your heirs to that woman.”
“They are not a shipment.”
“The boy carries the organization.”
“The boy carries a bottle and sleeps three hours at a time. You shame your father’s blood.”
Marco stepped close enough that Goran’s guards looked away. “Threaten Navina or either child again — and every captain loyal to you loses his route before sunset.”
Goran paled.
“Touch them,” Marco said, his voice dropping further, “and you will learn how little blood protects a man from me.”
Navina heard everything. The dangerous promise rippled through her. This was the man she had loved — ruthless, absolute, terrifying in defense of what he claimed. But when he turned and saw her watching, he stopped.
“I heard,” she said.
“I meant it.”
“They are not yours to claim.”
Pain tightened his face. “They are mine to protect — if you permit it.”
May you like
That correction mattered. It did not decide the case.
Navina’s forensic report did.
