Chapter 3 - THE CHILD HE NEVER KNEW
“My sister.”
Mark's answer was so quiet that I almost missed it.
Luca stopped beside the fireplace.
“What did you say?”
“Rebecca Hale. Vanessa arranged for my sister to leave Chicago.”
I knew Rebecca's name.
During our marriage, Mark had occasionally mentioned his younger sister. They hadn't been close, and he always blamed her for it.
But one thing I remembered clearly.
Rebecca had a little girl.
Luca looked toward Vanessa.
“Why would I care where Mark's sister lives?”
Vanessa pressed her fingers against her engagement ring.
“Because Rebecca was involved with Enzo.”
The name changed everything.
I had worked for the Morettis long enough to know there were certain subjects nobody discussed at dinner.
Enzo Moretti was one of them.
Luca's older brother had died seven years earlier.
I'd seen his photograph in the restaurant's original dining room.
Two young men stood behind a kitchen counter, wearing white aprons and laughing at something outside the frame.
One was Luca.
The other looked enough like him to make the resemblance painful.
Now Luca stared at his fiancée.
“What does Enzo have to do with this?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Rebecca has a daughter.”
“I understand that.”
“She's Enzo's daughter, Luca.”
Nobody spoke.
Even the kitchen staff had stopped moving.
Luca slowly gripped the back of a chair.
“My brother didn't have children.”
“He had one,” Mark said. “Her name is Lucy. She's eight.”
I watched the color drain from Luca's face.
For a moment, he looked nothing like the powerful man who'd crossed the restaurant to protect me.
He looked like someone who'd just discovered another piece of his brother was still alive.
“Where is she?” he asked.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“Darling, please let me explain.”
“Where is my niece?”
Vanessa's eyes filled.
“I was going to surprise you after the wedding.”
“A child isn't a wedding present.”
His voice cracked on the last word.
I lowered my eyes.
Whatever Vanessa had planned, she hadn't expected that reaction.
Mark gave an impatient sigh.
“Can we finish this? Vanessa promised to pay me tonight.”
Luca turned so sharply that Mark stopped speaking.
“Pay you for what?”
“For helping Rebecca move. And getting Natalie to leave.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“That isn't what we agreed.”
“It's what you paid me to do.”
Daniel stepped between Mark and the table.
The restaurant manager had already contacted the police. Two employees were waiting downstairs to direct the responding officers to the private entrance.
Luca looked at Daniel.
“Keep him away from Natalie. Let the officers handle the key.”
Then he faced Vanessa again.
“Start from the beginning.”
She pulled a folded photograph from her purse.
A little girl with dark curls stood outside a brick school building.
She wore a yellow raincoat and held a man's silver pocket watch.
Her smile looked painfully familiar.
Luca accepted the photograph with trembling fingers.
“Enzo,” he whispered.
Vanessa nodded.
“I found Rebecca through a family attorney. She's been struggling financially. Lucy needs stability.”
“Does Rebecca know you're bringing her daughter here?”
“Of course.”
“Then why is Rebecca leaving Chicago?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“There's a job-training opportunity in Milwaukee.”
“Does she want to go?”
“She agreed it would be best.”
I had heard that phrase before.
Mark used to say he'd made decisions for my own good whenever I objected to something.
He'd say it so confidently that eventually I stopped trusting my own judgment.
I looked at Vanessa.
“Did Rebecca actually agree?”
Her expression hardened.
“Natalie, this doesn't concern you.”
Mark laughed.
“That's why you wanted her gone, Vanessa. She keeps asking questions.”
Luca moved beside my chair.
“She has every right to ask.”
Then he looked toward Mark.
“The woman Natalie recognized at the restaurant. Tell me about her.”
“Margaret Vale. She's a family attorney.”
“Your attorney?”
“No. She represented Rebecca.”
I remembered that courthouse hallway.
Mark standing beside a woman in a gray coat.
I'd assumed she was there for his divorce hearing.
Now I understood why Vanessa had been frightened when I recognized her.
After the wedding, Margaret was supposed to become the Moretti family's supposedly independent adviser for Lucy's care.
But she had already been meeting privately with Vanessa.
If I recognized her connection to Mark and Rebecca, I might ask why an attorney supposedly protecting the child was helping arrange a separation nobody had discussed with Luca.
“Margaret never agreed to lie for Vanessa,” Mark added. “That's why Vanessa wanted everything settled before they met.”
Vanessa spun toward him.
“You don't know what you're talking about!”
“Then why did you need Natalie out of town?”
Luca's gaze returned to me.
“Natalie, did you know Rebecca?”
“Only from what Mark told me. He said his sister stopped speaking to him because she couldn't forgive something he'd done.”
Mark's face darkened.
“That's private.”
“So was my apartment,” I said.
For once, I didn't lower my voice.
Luca studied Mark, then looked toward the hallway.
“Daniel, please make sure the police know about Natalie's protective order and the apartment key. I want everything documented.”
Daniel nodded.
Vanessa reached for Luca's arm.
“Please. I was trying to give you back something you lost.”
Luca pulled away.
“You don't give someone back his brother by taking a little girl away from her mother.”
Vanessa began crying harder.
“You haven't even met Rebecca. You don't know what she's capable of.”
“Neither do you, apparently.”
He looked down at the photograph.
“Where is Lucy?”
Vanessa glanced toward the dining room doors.
I saw the hesitation.
The calculation.
Then Mark answered for her.
“She's downstairs.”
Luca froze.
“What?”
“In the restaurant's coatroom. Vanessa had someone bring her here early.”
I looked toward the staircase.
A little girl was waiting somewhere beneath us, surrounded by strangers, while adults argued over what would happen to her life.
“How long?” Luca demanded.
Mark glanced at his watch.
“Forty minutes. Maybe longer.”
Vanessa whispered, “She wasn't supposed to meet you tonight.”
Luca's face tightened.
“Then why bring her here?”
May you like
Mark looked directly at him.
“Because Vanessa already told Lucy that you're the man who's going to send her mother away.”
