Chapter 4 - THE COAT FROM MY APARTMENT
My lungs stopped working.
I let go of Noah’s hand and ran down the stairs.
“Where did you get that?” I screamed at Don Salvatore.
Luca’s father stepped into the foyer. He handed his wet umbrella to a terrified butler. He didn't look at me. He looked straight at his son.
“Luca,” the old man said. His voice was like gravel. “Clear the room.”
Luca stared at the blue coat. Then he looked at my panicked face.
“Where is my sister?” I demanded, running up to the old man. I tried to grab the coat, but one of his massive bodyguards stepped in my way.
“Emma,” Luca said sharply. He stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder, pulling me back. “Calm down.”
“That’s Chloe’s coat!” I cried, fighting against his grip. “She’s at home! She’s supposed to be studying!”
Luca looked at his father. “Explain. Now.”
Salvatore threw the damp blue coat onto a velvet chair.
“The girl’s sister is fine,” Salvatore said. “My men picked her up from her apartment ten minutes ago. She’s waiting in my car outside. Safe.”
I sagged against Luca. A breath of pure relief escaped my lips.
“Why did you pick her up?” Luca asked. His tone was dangerous.
Salvatore finally looked down at Vanessa, who was still on the floor, weeping quietly.
“Because,” Salvatore said, “Vanessa sent two men to that apartment tonight to silence the girl.”
The room erupted into gasps.
Vanessa’s head snapped up. “That is a lie! Salvatore, you promised me—”
“I promised you protection if you kept my son happy,” Salvatore interrupted, his voice booming. “But you couldn't even do that. You got sloppy. You let a nine-year-old child and a maid unravel a five-year-old problem.”
Luca let go of me.
He walked slowly toward his father.
“You knew,” Luca whispered.
The realization hit him like a physical blow.
“You knew Vanessa was in the car when my wife died.”
Salvatore didn't flinch. “I knew she was there. I did not know she orchestrated it. Until tonight.”
“Liar!” Vanessa screamed. She struggled against Daniel, but he held her tight. “You planned it, Salvatore! You hated her! You said she was making Luca soft! You wanted me to marry him to merge our families!”
Luca looked back and forth between his fiancée and his father.
The empire he had built was crumbling inside his own dining room.
“Emma,” Luca said without looking at me. “Go outside. Get your sister. Bring her inside.”
I didn't wait. I ran past the bodyguards, out the massive front doors, and into the rain.
A black SUV was parked in the driveway. The back door opened.
Chloe, seventeen and terrified, jumped out and threw her arms around my neck.
“Emma! What is going on? These men broke down our door!”
“Are you hurt?” I checked her face, her arms.
“No, they pulled me out the fire escape just as someone else kicked the front door in.”
I held her tight. Vanessa really had tried to have her killed. Because of me. Because I had defended Noah.
I guided Chloe back inside the mansion.
When we walked back into the foyer, the guests were gone.
Daniel had escorted the forty high-society friends out the back exits.
Only Luca, Noah, Vanessa, Salvatore, Frank, and the guards remained.
Noah ran over to me and hugged my waist. I put one arm around him and one arm around my sister.
“You said she was sloppy,” Luca was saying to his father. “What did you find?”
Salvatore reached into the pocket of his tailored suit.
He pulled out a folded piece of paper.
“Your wife,” Salvatore said, “was not stupid. She knew someone was following her for weeks before the crash. She hired a private investigator.”
Luca’s eyes widened. “She never told me.”
“Because she didn't trust you to handle it quietly,” Salvatore said. “She found out about Vanessa’s obsession with you. But she found something else, too.”
Salvatore unfolded the paper.
He walked over and handed it to me.
“Read it, Emma,” Salvatore said.
I looked at the paper. It was a birth certificate.
A photocopy, old and slightly faded.
I read the mother’s name.
Mary Anne Miller.
My mother.
I read the father’s name.
Blank.
Then I read the child’s name.
My heart completely stopped.
I couldn't breathe. The letters blurred in front of my eyes.
“Emma?” Luca asked, stepping toward me. “What is it?”
I looked up at Luca. My hands were shaking so hard the paper rattled.
“This is a birth certificate,” I whispered.
“For who?”
I looked at Vanessa. She was staring at me with pure disgust.
“For Vanessa,” I said.
I looked back at the paper.
May you like
“We have the same mother.”
TITLE: THE SISTER IN THE SHADOWS
