And when the subject of his daughters came up, she would deliver a line she and Diego had clearly crafted together: You built an entire empire, Arthur.

What a shame you have no son to carry on everything you created. Arthur, poor foolish, hollow Arthur, fell into it completely.

And when Mateo was born, Selina simply let him believe the boy was his.

Diego, meanwhile, ran a secret DNA test of his own, and confirmed what he already suspected: that Mateo was his.

But he felt no pull toward his son, only calculation.

Because he had realized that a son claimed by himself would earn, at most, a small allowance from Beatrice — while a son believed to belong to Arthur, the eldest brother, would become the family’s celebrated firstborn male heir.