THE MAFIA BOSS’S FIANCÉE ORDERED ME TO REMOVE AN EMPTY CHAIR FROM THEIR ENGAGEMENT DINNER—BUT WHEN I REFUSED, SHE HAD NO IDEA WHO NICO HAD RESERVED

The marble floor seemed to tilt beneath my feet.

"My mother?" I choked out, staring at the little boy. "Matteo, my mother has been dead for three years."

"She wasn't dead," Matteo said stubbornly, crossing his arms. "She gave me the bracelet yesterday. She said if I gave it to Nico, it would fix everything."

Nico looked at me, his eyes dark with confusion and suspicion. The trust that had just returned was instantly replaced by a wall of ice.

"Hannah," Nico said slowly. "Explain this."

"I can't!" I panicked, my heart racing. "I swear to you, Mr. DeLuca. My mother died in a hospice facility. I was holding her hand! I saw them take her body away!"

I turned desperately to Ruth, praying for help. "Grandma, tell him! Tell him Mom is gone!"

Ruth wasn't looking at me. She was staring at the gold bracelet in Nico's hand, her face completely drained of color. She looked older, suddenly, her frail shoulders slumping as if a heavy burden had finally crushed her.

"Ruth?" Nico asked, his voice dangerous. "What are you not telling me?"

Ruth closed her eyes. A single tear escaped, rolling down her wrinkled cheek.

"Mary didn't die three years ago, Hannah," Ruth whispered.

The air in my lungs vanished. "What?"

"I'm sorry, my sweet girl," Ruth cried, reaching out to me. "I'm so sorry."

I stumbled backward, away from her hand. "I was there! I watched her stop breathing!"

"You watched her go to sleep," Ruth corrected, her voice breaking. "We gave her a heavy sedative. The hospice doctor was an old friend of mine. We falsified the death certificate."

"Why?" I screamed, the betrayal tearing through me like glass. "Why would you do that to me?!"

"Because of him!" Ruth pointed a shaking finger at Nico.

Nico stood up, looking bewildered. "Because of me?"

"Because of your father!" Ruth corrected fiercely. "Fifteen years ago, Mary took in your brother, Leo, to hide him from your father's wrath. But your father found out. He threatened Mary. He told her if she didn't disappear, he would kill Hannah."

My breath hitched.

"Mary faked her death to protect you, Hannah," Ruth sobbed. "She went into hiding. She's been living in the shadows for three years, watching you grow up from afar."

"And the bracelet?" Nico demanded, holding up the heavy gold heirloom. "How does she have Leo's bracelet?"

Ruth looked Nico dead in the eye.

"Because Leo isn't missing, Nicholas."

The room was so quiet I could hear the grandfather clock ticking in the hallway.

"What do you mean he isn't missing?" Nico asked, his voice barely a whisper.

Ruth took a deep breath. She reached into her broken handbag one final time. She pulled out a small, folded piece of paper—a birth certificate.

She handed it to Nico.

"When Mary took Leo in," Ruth said softly, "he was terrified. He was traumatized by what your father had done to him. He didn't want to be a DeLuca anymore. He begged Mary to make him a new person."

Nico unfolded the paper. His eyes scanned the document, and I watched his hands begin to tremble violently.

"No," Nico whispered. "No, this is..."

"Mary adopted him," Ruth said. "She changed his name. She raised him as her own."

Nico looked up slowly, his eyes fixing entirely on me.

"Hannah," Nico choked out.

"What?" I asked, my voice cracking, tears streaming down my face. "What does it say?"

Nico turned the paper around so I could read it.

Name: Hannah Sullivan.

Adopted from: DeLuca.

The room spun wildly. The chandeliers blurred.