Chapter 6 - THE NAME ON THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE
The paper slipped from my trembling fingers, fluttering to the floor like a dead leaf.
Caroline Moretti.
My mind violently rejected the information. It was impossible. My mother was Mary Sullivan. She had raised me. She had cried with me tonight at the warehouse.
But the official seal on the birth certificate glared up at me from the carpet.
“No,” I whispered, backing away from the bed. “No, this is a mistake.”
The door to my small room clicked open.
Luca stood in the doorway. He had changed out of his ruined suit and was wearing a simple grey sweater, looking deeply, profoundly exhausted.
He saw the paper on the floor. He saw the terror in my eyes.
“It’s not a mistake, Emma,” Luca said softly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him.
I shook my head frantically. “My parents are Mary and William. They raised me. I look like them!”
“You look like Caroline,” Luca corrected gently. “I didn’t see it at first. But when you refused to put that chair away... when you stood up to Vanessa... I saw her fire in you.”
I grabbed the edge of my small dresser to keep from collapsing.
“How?” I choked out. “Caroline was your wife. Sophie is seven. I’m twenty-five!”
Luca walked over and picked up the birth certificate, holding it with a reverence that broke my heart.
“Caroline was a teenager when she had you,” Luca explained, his voice thick with sorrow. “She lived in a terrible neighborhood. She was completely alone. When you were born, the hospital social worker arranged a private, closed adoption. She gave you to the Sullivans.”
Tears spilled hot and fast down my cheeks.
“She didn’t want me,” I sobbed.
“She loved you,” Luca said fiercely, closing the distance between us. He gently grasped my shoulders. “She never stopped loving you. She kept tabs on you your entire life. She hired private investigators to make sure you were safe, that you were happy.”
“Then why didn’t she ever come find me?!” I yelled, the pain of a lifetime of struggle exploding out of me.
“Because she married into the mafia, Emma!” Luca pleaded, his dark eyes begging me to understand. “She married me! If my father, or Victor, knew she had a secret daughter out in the world, they would have used you as leverage. They would have dragged you into this violent, miserable life. She stayed away to keep you pure.”
I covered my face, weeping uncontrollably.
The white cardigan. The empty chair. Caroline wasn’t just my employer’s dead wife. She was my mother.
And she had died trying to dismantle the very syndicate that kept us apart.
Luca wrapped his strong arms around me, pulling me into a desperate, comforting embrace. I buried my face in his chest, letting the grief and shock wash over me.
“How did you find out?” I whispered against his sweater.
“When Victor took your parents,” Luca murmured, stroking my hair. “I dug into Arthur Vance’s old blackmail files to find leverage against him. I found the original adoption records. Victor knew. He targeted your father’s shipping company to financially ruin the Sullivans, hoping it would flush Caroline’s secret out.”
Victor had orchestrated my family’s financial ruin just to hurt Caroline.
“Does Vanessa know?” I asked, pulling back slightly.
“Vanessa knew Caroline had a daughter, but she didn’t know it was you,” Luca said. “When Vanessa fired you tonight, she wasn’t being cruel. She was terrified. She knew the syndicate was imploding, and she wanted you out of the house before the bullets started flying.”
Everyone had been trying to protect me. And I had fought them all.
Luca reached into the wooden box on the bed and pulled out the vintage diamond bracelet.
He gently took my wrist and clasped it around my arm.
“Caroline bought this for you ten years ago,” Luca said softly. “She planned to give it to you on your wedding day. But since she can’t be here... I wanted you to have it.”
I looked at the sparkling diamonds, a profound, agonizing peace settling over me. My mother had loved me.
“Thank you,” I whispered, looking up into Luca’s eyes.
The fierce, terrifying mafia boss looked back at me with a tenderness that made my heart flutter. The dynamic between us had irrevocably shifted. I wasn’t his maid anymore. I was family.
But as the silence stretched between us, comfortable and heavy, a sharp knock on the bedroom door shattered the moment.
Daniel stood in the hallway, looking incredibly pale.
“Boss,” Daniel said, his voice unusually tight. “We have a problem.”
Luca’s protective instincts instantly flared. “What is it?”
“The FBI just called,” Daniel swallowed hard. “The transport carrying Victor to the federal penitentiary was ambushed ten minutes ago.”
My stomach dropped into my shoes.
“Is he dead?” Luca demanded.
“No,” Daniel grimaced. “He escaped. And he didn’t just take his men. He raided the evidence locker before he left.”
“What did he take?” I asked, stepping out from behind Luca.
Daniel looked at me, genuine fear in his eyes.
“He took the original adoption file, Emma. He has the legal proof of your bloodline.”
Luca cursed violently, pacing the small room. “If Victor leaks that file to the remaining mafia families, they’ll know Caroline had a secret heir. They’ll hunt Emma to the ends of the earth to claim leverage over the Moretti fortune.”
The nightmare wasn’t over. It had just evolved.
“We have to get you out of the country,” Luca said, turning to me with absolute, panicked resolve. “I’ll prep the private jet. We fly to Switzerland tonight.”
“No,” I said firmly, standing my ground.
“Emma, this isn’t a negotiation,” Luca argued, grabbing my hands. “Victor will kill you to hurt me.”
“If I run, he wins,” I said, looking deep into Luca’s eyes. “He’ll spend the rest of his life hunting me. He’ll hurt my adoptive parents. He’ll hurt Sophie. I’m not running from a coward.”
“Then what do we do?” Luca asked, terrified of losing me.
I looked at the diamond bracelet on my wrist.
May you like
“We don’t run,” I said, a dangerous, new resolve hardening in my chest. “We invite him to the wedding.”
TITLE: The Invitation To The Enemy
