Chapter 3 - The Truth Buried in the Moretti Mansion
I had spent three years teaching myself not to be afraid.
Fear had ruled the first months after I left Chicago.
I changed buses four times before reaching Ohio. I paid cash for a motel under a false name, cut my hair in the bathroom, and watched every vehicle that slowed outside my window.
When the pregnancy test showed two lines, I sat alone on the motel floor until morning.
A doctor in Columbus found two heartbeats.
Twins.
The news should have filled me with joy. Instead, I imagined Luca taking them away.
The Moretti name opened courtroom doors that remained closed to ordinary people. Luca had money, influence, and attorneys who could turn facts into questions. If Vanessa stood beside him and claimed I was unstable, what judge would believe the frightened wife who had vanished without explanation?
So I kept moving.
I eventually reached Gray Hollow after my car broke down outside Pike’s Bakery. Martha found me asleep behind the steering wheel, six months pregnant and too proud to ask for help.
She gave me coffee.
Then a job.
Then the apartment upstairs.
When the twins were born during a snowstorm, Martha sat beside me at the hospital because there was no one else to call.
I signed the birth certificates with the father’s name left blank.
Now the past had followed me into the bakery.
Martha unlocked the door only after Luca placed his phone and whatever weapon he carried on the hood of his sedan. He entered slowly, hands visible, rainwater dripping onto the tile.
Lena peered over my shoulder.
Ash refused to look at him.
“Who was in the SUV?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
“My security team is tracing the license plate.”
“I don’t want your security team near my children.”
“You already have someone photographing them.”
“Because you led them here.”
The accusation struck its target.
Luca lowered his head.
“That may be true.”
Martha folded her arms.
“You have five minutes, Mr.—”
“Moretti,” I said.
Her eyes widened.
She had heard the name. Almost everyone had. Moretti Holdings owned hotels, shipping companies, commercial properties, and enough of Chicago’s political history to make rumors thrive around it.
Martha glanced at Luca’s abandoned phone.
“You’re that Moretti?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You look less impressive wet.”
Lena giggled.
For one startled moment, Luca smiled.
It was the first expression I recognized.
Then Lena buried her face against my shoulder, and the smile vanished.
“Vanessa disappeared after being questioned by federal investigators,” Luca said. “They believe she was connected to financial crimes involving one of my former executives.”
“What executive?”
“Damian Vale.”
I knew the name.
Damian had been Luca’s chief financial officer during our marriage. He was polished, charming, and always slightly too interested in the weaknesses of other people. Vanessa used to flirt with him at family dinners, though she flirted with anyone who could give her something.
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Damian stole from the company for years. When I started finding irregularities, he needed a distraction. Vanessa helped create one.”
“The bedroom.”
“Yes.”
I held Lena tighter.
“You expect me to believe my sister destroyed my marriage to protect an accountant?”
“Not only to protect him.”
Luca’s gaze hardened.
“She believed you would leave. She believed I would become vulnerable. And she believed she could replace you.”
I almost laughed.
“That was always her favorite dream.”
Memories returned before I could stop them.
Vanessa borrowing my clothes without permission.
Vanessa pretending she had forgotten my birthday and then crying until our parents comforted her.
Vanessa telling every boyfriend I had that I was controlling.
When Luca proposed, she hugged me for nearly a minute. Later that night, I found her trying on my engagement ring while I showered.
I had called it childish jealousy.
I had invited it into my marriage.
“Why is she threatening the twins now?” I asked.
“Because Damian is facing trial. He kept records of everything, including payments to Vanessa. If she believes you or the children can be used against me, she’ll try.”
“Used how?”
“To force me to destroy evidence or change testimony.”
Martha looked between us.
“You two can discuss your ruined marriage later. Right now, someone followed those children.”
She turned to me.
“You cannot stay upstairs.”
“I’m not going anywhere with him.”
Luca said nothing.
That restraint unsettled me more than an argument would have.
Martha placed both hands on the counter.
“My sister has a cabin near the state line. Nobody uses it in summer. You and the babies can stay there.”
“They’re not babies,” Lena announced.
Martha looked at her solemnly.
“My apologies, Miss Lena.”
“I’m three.”
“An extremely advanced age.”
Lena nodded.
Ash leaned against my leg.
Luca watched the exchange like a starving man outside a restaurant window.
I hated the ache it created inside me.
He did not deserve tenderness simply because he looked wounded.
My phone rang.
The number was unknown.
Everyone in the bakery became still.
Luca took one step toward me.
“Don’t answer.”
“It could be a customer.”
“Sarah.”
“I don’t take orders from you.”
I answered.
For several seconds, there was only static.
Then my sister laughed.
“Still stubborn,” Vanessa said.
My knees weakened.
Luca reached for the phone, but I moved away.
“Where are you?” I demanded.
“Closer than you think.”
“You stay away from my children.”
There was a pause.
“So he found them.”
Her voice changed when she said it. The softness disappeared, revealing something cold beneath it.
“You always did have perfect timing, Sarah. Even your secret pregnancy managed to ruin my life.”
“You ruined your own life.”
“No. You took mine before I was old enough to understand what was happening.”
I almost ended the call.
Instead, years of swallowed anger rose to my throat.
“What did I take from you?”
“Everything.”
“You were given everything.”
“I was given what you left behind.”
Her voice sharpened.
“Mom loved telling people how responsible Sarah was. Dad trusted Sarah with the family accounts. Teachers compared my grades to Sarah’s. Then you married Luca Moretti and stood in that mansion pretending you were surprised the world had chosen you again.”
“I never competed with you.”
“That was the cruelest part. You didn’t have to.”
Luca’s face had gone rigid.
I turned away from him.
“What did you do that night?”
Vanessa breathed slowly into the phone.
“You saw what I wanted you to see.”
“Did you drug him?”
Luca looked at me sharply.
Vanessa laughed again.
“You disappeared without giving him a chance to defend himself. That was your choice.”
“You were in my bed.”
“And he called your name while he was unconscious. Even then, it was always you.”
Pain twisted through her last words.
“Did he touch you?”
Silence.
“Answer me, Vanessa.”
“He didn’t have to.”
My eyes closed.
The answer mattered more than I wanted it to.
“You destroyed us for nothing.”
“Not for nothing. I had him for three years.”
My eyes opened.
“No, you didn’t.”
“I lived in his house.”
“Until he threw you out.”
“I stood beside him while he searched for you.”
“Because you wanted to make sure he didn’t find me.”
Her breathing changed.
I had finally struck the truth.
“Where are you?” I asked again.
“You should be asking where your son is.”
The bakery became soundless.
I looked down.
Ash was no longer beside me.
The rear kitchen door swung slowly on its hinges.
“Ash?”
Lena lifted her head.
“Ash went to get Blue.”
Blue was his stuffed elephant.
He had left it upstairs.
I ran.
The staircase behind the bakery led to the apartment. Halfway up, I heard the outer fire door slam.
“Ash!”
I reached the landing and found the apartment open.
Blue lay in the hallway.
The window at the end of the corridor was raised.
I rushed to it.
Ash stood in the alley below.
A woman in a red coat crouched in front of him.
Vanessa.
Her hair was shorter, and her face looked thinner, but there was no mistaking my sister.
She held out a piece of candy.
Ash did not take it.
He stared at her with his solemn amber eyes.
“Ash, come to Mama.”
Vanessa looked up.
Her smile was the same one I had seen from my bedroom three years earlier.
“You always did get the beautiful things,” she called.
Luca appeared in the alley.
He moved between Vanessa and the street, cutting off her escape.
“Step away from him.”
Vanessa rose.
“You found your little heir.”
Luca’s voice became dangerously calm.
“Step away.”
She placed a hand on Ash’s shoulder.
My son recoiled.
Luca took another step.
Vanessa opened her coat.
Something metallic flashed near her waist.
“Don’t,” I screamed.
Luca stopped.
Vanessa looked from him to me.
“See how quickly he obeys when there is something he actually loves?”
I gripped the windowsill.
“Ash, sweetheart, look at me.”
He raised his face.
“Come toward the stairs.”
Vanessa caught his wrist.
Ash made a small, terrified sound.
It was the first sound he had made since Luca entered our lives.
Luca’s expression changed.
He did not shout.
He did not threaten.
He simply looked at Vanessa and said, “If you frighten him again, there will be nowhere on earth you can hide.”
Vanessa’s smile trembled.
For all her cruelty, she remembered who Luca was.
She released Ash.
He ran toward the staircase.
I raced down and pulled him into my arms. His entire body shook against mine, but he did not cry.
Behind us, tires screeched.
The gray SUV turned into the alley.
Vanessa ran toward it.
Luca lunged for her, catching the back of her coat, but the fabric tore. She climbed into the moving vehicle, leaving the red coat in his hands.
The SUV vanished around the corner.
Luca stood in the rain holding the torn garment.
Something fell from one of its pockets.
A folded photograph.
He picked it up and stared.
“What is it?” I asked.
His eyes met mine.
Then he turned the photograph around.
It showed me asleep in a hospital bed after giving birth.
Lena and Ash lay beside me in their bassinets.
Someone had been watching us from the beginning.
On the back, written in Vanessa’s handwriting, were five words:
May you like
They were never really hidden.
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