Chapter 3 - THE PRICE OF A SECRET
By the time I reached home, three television vans were parked at the end of my block.
My first feeling was not fear.
It was rage.
Marcus met me inside the garage before the door finished closing.
“The kids haven't seen anything.”
“Where are they?”
“Upstairs watching a movie.”
I shoved my phone toward him.
He had already read the article.
“I called a lawyer.”
“I have a lawyer.”
“You have a lawyer who handled your apartment lease and your business incorporation.”
“I know.”
“You need someone who has fought billionaires.”
I looked at him.
“Preferably this billionaire.”
Before Marcus could answer, my doorbell rang.
Then it rang again.
Then someone knocked hard enough to shake the front entry.
Marcus checked the camera.
“Not press.”
“Who?”
He looked at me.
“Luca.”
Of course.
I walked to the door.
Marcus caught my arm.
“Think.”
“I have been thinking for six years.”
“That is not what I mean.”
I opened the door.
Luca stood beneath the porch light with snow beginning to collect on the shoulders of his black overcoat.
No driver.
No security.
No lawyer.
His face looked like he had aged another ten years since lunch.
Behind him, reporters shouted from the sidewalk.
“Nia, let me in.”
“Did you leak this?”
His expression flashed with anger.
“No.”
“Your lawyers contacted me three hours ago.”
“My lawyers sent a private letter.”
“The article knows the children's names.”
“I know.”
“Only a handful of people know their full names.”
“I said I did not leak it.”
He glanced toward the street.
“Please.”
The word sounded so unlike him that I stepped aside.
Luca entered.
Marcus did not bother hiding his hostility.
“You have five minutes.”
Luca looked at him.
“Marcus Reed.”
“You remember me.”
“I remember everyone who spent time with my wife.”
“Ex-wife.”
“Not helping,” I said.
Luca's gaze returned to me.
“Where are they?”
“Upstairs.”
“Are they safe?”
The question infuriated me.
“They were safe until your face appeared beside theirs on the internet.”
His jaw tightened.
“I have people tracing the source.”
“I don't want your people anywhere near my children.”
“If someone sold that photograph, this is already bigger than what you want.”
“You don't get to come into my house and explain reality to me.”
He looked around the modest living room.
His eyes caught on two backpacks by the stairs, a pile of picture books, a pair of tiny sneakers.
Something in his face softened and then hardened again.
“I want the test tomorrow.”
Marcus laughed without humor.
“There he is.”
I held up a hand.
“You will not dictate the schedule.”
“Nia, if someone is leaking information, uncertainty makes this worse.”
“For your stock price?”
“For them.”
He pointed toward the stairs.
“Do not use my children as a shield for your urgency.”
His eyes locked on mine.
“If they are mine, they are not only yours.”
The room went very still.
I had known he would say it eventually.
I had not expected the words to cut so deeply.
Marcus stepped forward.
“Watch yourself.”
Luca ignored him.
“I missed six years.”
“You think I don't know that?”
“You chose that for me.”
My temper snapped.
“I came to your office.”
Luca stopped.
Marcus stopped.
Even I seemed to stop after hearing the words spoken aloud.
Luca stared at me.
“What?”
“Seven weeks after I left, I came to Moretti Global.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, you didn't.”
“I stood outside your executive office with an ultrasound in my purse.”
His face emptied.
“I was there for forty-three minutes.”
“I would remember.”
“You never saw me.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor Kane stopped me.”
The name hit him like a physical blow.
Luca stepped closer.
“What did Victor do?”
“He told me you were in a critical meeting and did not want to be disturbed.”
“What else?”
“I gave him a letter.”
Luca's voice dropped.
“What letter?”
“The one where I told you I was pregnant.”
Luca staggered back half a step.
It was so slight Marcus might not have noticed.
I did.
“He said he destroyed it.”
For the first time in my life, I saw Luca Moretti look truly dangerous.
Not loud.
Not wild.
Still.
“What do you mean, he said?”
“He called me today.”
Luca's eyes sharpened.
“You spoke to Victor today?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“Not your concern.”
“Everything he did concerning my children is my concern.”
“You did not know they existed five hours ago.”
“And now I do.”
His voice cracked on the last word.
That stopped me.
Luca turned away and pressed both hands against the back of a chair.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then a small voice came from the staircase.
“Mom?”
We all looked up.
Mila stood three steps from the bottom wearing purple pajamas and holding her stuffed rabbit.
Leo was behind her.
They had heard enough to know something was wrong.
I went to them.
“Why aren't you watching the movie?”
“The internet stopped,” Leo said.
Of course it had.
Someone outside was probably clogging every network around the block.
Mila looked past me at Luca.
“Restaurant man.”
Luca's entire expression changed.
He lowered himself slowly until he was closer to her height.
I almost told him to stop.
Then Mila asked the question herself.
“Are you our dad?”
No adult in the room breathed.
Luca looked at me.
For once, he did not answer without permission.
That small restraint mattered more than I wanted it to.
I knelt beside Mila.
“We don't know everything yet.”
Leo frowned.
“You know.”
My son had inherited more than Luca's eyes.
“You know, Mom.”
I closed my eyes briefly.
Children could survive hard truths better than unstable lies.
“Yes.”
Mila hugged the rabbit tighter.
“Then is he?”
I looked at Luca.
His face was pale.
“Yes.”
The word changed the room.
Leo stared at Luca.
Mila stared at Luca.
Luca stared at both of them like a man watching his own heart walk around outside his body.
Mila spoke first.
“Where were you?”
Luca's eyes filled.
I had never seen Luca cry.
Not when his mother died.
Not when Moretti Global nearly collapsed in its first year.
Not when we signed our divorce papers.
Now his eyes shone beneath the light from my staircase.
“I didn't know,” he said.
Mila looked at me.
“Why didn't he know?”
There was no answer simple enough for a six-year-old.
“Because grown-ups made mistakes.”
Luca flinched.
Leo folded his arms.
“Big mistakes.”
“Yes.”
Marcus turned away, pretending to check his phone.
Luca stayed crouched.
“I am sorry,” he said.
Leo looked skeptical.
“For what?”
Luca swallowed.
“For not being there.”
“You didn't know.”
“No.”
“Then why are you sorry?”
Luca looked at me again.
Because there were things he could not explain without implicating both of us.
“Because I wish I had known.”
Mila considered him.
“Do you like pancakes?”
I almost laughed from pure emotional exhaustion.
Luca blinked.
“Yes.”
“Chocolate-chip ones?”
“Yes.”
“Then you can come Saturday.”
I opened my mouth.
Mila looked at me.
“If he's our dad, he should know pancakes.”
Luca's mouth trembled.
He stood slowly.
“I would like that.”
“You are not scheduling visitation through a six-year-old,” I said.
Mila frowned.
“What's visitation?”
“Bed.”
Marcus shepherded them upstairs before any of us could make things worse.
When they were gone, Luca faced me again.
“Thank you.”
“Do not thank me.”
“For telling them the truth.”
“I told them because they asked.”
“You could have lied.”
“I have done enough hiding.”
His gaze dropped.
The anger returned to me.
“You don't get to make me the villain tonight.”
“I am trying not to.”
“Try harder.”
He nodded once.
Then he pulled out his phone.
I stiffened.
“What are you doing?”
“Calling security.”
“No.”
“The reporters know where they live.”
“This is my home.”
“And I am not leaving two six-year-olds exposed because we are angry at each other.”
Marcus returned in time to hear that.
“He's right about the press.”
I glared at him.
“Traitor.”
“Temporary perimeter only,” Marcus said.
Luca made the call.
Within twenty minutes, two discreet black SUVs were parked at opposite ends of the block.
I hated how quickly his world could wrap itself around mine.
I hated how safe it made me feel.
Before Luca left, I gave him one condition.
“The test happens through an independent lab chosen by my attorney.”
“Agreed.”
“You do not announce anything.”
“Agreed.”
“You do not bring the children into your house, your office, your events, your press strategy, or your marriage until we have a plan.”
His face tightened at the word marriage.
“Agreed.”
“And you do not threaten custody.”
Luca was silent.
“Say it.”
“I will not threaten you with custody.”
That was carefully worded.
I heard it.
He knew I heard it.
He left anyway.
At midnight, after the twins were asleep, I received a call from my new attorney, Serena Park.
Marcus had reached her through an old client.
Serena had spent fifteen years handling high-profile family disputes.
She did not waste time.
“Do not delete anything,” she said.
“I won't.”
“Do not post anything.”
“I don't use social media.”
“Good.”
“Do you think he leaked it?”
“No.”
The certainty surprised me.
“Why?”
“Because the leak hurts him too much.”
My stomach tightened.
“Then who?”
“Someone who wants the two of you fighting before you compare notes.”
I thought of Victor's folder.
Serena continued.
“I also pulled the court docket.”
“What court docket?”
She hesitated.
“Nia, Luca's lawyers filed something tonight.”
My blood went cold.
“He promised not to threaten custody.”
“It isn't a custody petition.”
“What is it?”
“A request for an emergency confidentiality order protecting the children.”
I exhaled.
Then Serena said something else.
“He also filed a declaration under oath.”
“What declaration?”
“It says he only learned of Leo and Mila's existence today.”
“That is true.”
“I know.”
“So why do you sound worried?”
“Because attached to the filing is a copy of an email supposedly sent by you six years ago.”
My heart stopped.
“The fake email?”
“Yes.”
“But how does Luca have it?”
“I was about to ask you that.”
I looked down at my phone.
Victor had shown me the only copy he claimed to possess.
Yet Luca's lawyers had just filed the same email in court.
May you like
And according to Serena, it had come from Luca's archived records.
Someone had planted the lie in more than one place.
