Margaret looked up from the document, her gaze shifting from the paper to Adrian, and then to me.

Her eyes were wide, the cold composure completely gone.

Her phone, resting on the velvet pew cushion beside her, began to buzz violently.

An alert from the family office in Manhattan flashed on the screen.

Margaret swiped her thumb across the glass.

She held the phone to her ear, her face rigid.

“What is it, Marcus?” she asked.

The chapel was so quiet that I could hear the tinny, frantic voice of her chief financial officer leaking from the receiver.

“The filing went through ten minutes ago,” Marcus said, his voice breathless. “A certified birth certificate and a DNA match from Birch and Lowe were submitted directly to the surrogate court.”

Margaret’s hand tightened around the phone until her knuckles turned a stark white.

“What are the immediate administrative actions?” she whispered.

“The system triggered the Section Four covenant automatically,” Marcus replied. “The transfer protocols are already active. Thirty-two percent of the conglomerate’s voting shares have been placed into an escrow holding account for the child.”