Chapter 2 - THE SECRET IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Michael looked at his older brother.
His hands were gripping the edge of the dining table so tightly his knuckles were white.
"Because she was carrying my child, Luca."
The words dropped into the silent room like stones.
Vanessa gasped, stepping backward until she hit the edge of a serving cart.
The wine glasses rattled.
"Shut up, Michael," she hissed. "You're drunk. You don't know what you're saying."
But Michael didn't look at her.
He kept his eyes on Luca.
"I met her at a bar downtown. Eight years ago. I was twenty-eight. She told me she was a nursing student. We saw each other for three months. Then she told me she was pregnant."
Luca stared at him.
"You brought her to our mother."
"I panicked," Michael's voice broke. "I was terrified of Dad finding out. I was terrified of you. I brought her to Mom while you were out of the country. I begged Mom to help her."
Antonio wiped his face with a linen napkin.
"Elena gave her the necklace," the old man whispered. "She gave her twenty thousand dollars in cash. She told her to buy a house in a quiet neighborhood. To raise the baby safely. And that our family would quietly support her."
Luca's face was a mask of cold fury.
He slowly turned toward his fiancée.
"What happened to my brother's child, Vanessa?"
She crossed her arms, her diamond earrings catching the light as her chest heaved.
"There was no child."
Michael stood up.
"Don't lie!"
"I lost it!" Vanessa screamed, her perfect composure finally shattering. "I had a miscarriage two weeks after your mother gave me the money! I was broke, I was grieving, and I used the money to start a new life. Is that a crime?"
The room went dead silent.
A miscarriage.
It was the perfect excuse. It erased the evidence.
Vanessa smoothed her red silk gown, regaining her icy posture.
"I changed my name to move past the trauma. When I met you, Luca, three years ago, I didn't know you were Michael's brother. By the time I realized it, I was already in love with you. I begged Michael to keep my past a secret because I knew you wouldn't understand."
She looked around the table.
Playing the victim.
Playing the grieving mother.
Some of the guests actually looked sympathetic.
Luca looked at Michael.
"Is that true? Did she lose the baby?"
Michael lowered his head.
"That's what she told me. She disappeared. Six months later, she sent me a letter saying she lost the baby and to never look for her."
Vanessa took a step toward Luca.
"I was ashamed, darling. Please. I kept the necklace because it was the only piece of your family I had."
Luca stared at her.
The anger in his eyes was faltering.
Because if she had truly lost a child, punishing her for hiding it felt cruel.
She was winning.
She was manipulating the entire room.
And I was standing three feet behind her, holding Antonio's empty teacup.
That was when I saw it.
When Vanessa had stepped backward and hit the serving cart, her designer clutch had fallen open.
A few items had spilled onto the Persian rug.
A lipstick.
A compact mirror.
And a small, folded photograph.
I bent down to pick them up.
"Leave it," Vanessa snapped without looking at me.
But my fingers had already brushed the photograph.
It had flipped open.
And the breath completely left my lungs.
It was a picture of a little boy.
About seven or eight years old.
He had Michael's dark, curly hair. He had Vanessa's piercing blue eyes.
But that wasn't what made my heart stop.
I knew this boy.
He lived in apartment 1B. Right across the hall from my mother.
His name was Leo.
He was a foster child living with an older woman named Mrs. Gable. I gave him leftover cookies every Sunday.
Vanessa had a photograph of him in her purse.
"Sarah," Luca's voice broke through my shock. "Leave the purse. Please return to the kitchen."
He was dismissing me.
He was going to forgive her.
I looked at Antonio. The old man was crying, mourning a grandchild he thought had never been born.
I thought about my mother. I thought about the rent money.
Then I stood up.
I didn't walk to the kitchen.
I walked directly to Luca Moretti.
And I placed the photograph face-up on the mahogany table.
Vanessa turned.
When she saw the picture, the blood drained from her face.
"Where did you get that?" she shrieked, lunging for it.
Luca caught her wrist without even looking at her.
He picked up the photograph.
He stared at the little boy.
Then he looked at his brother.
Michael's jaw dropped. "That's... he looks exactly like me when I was a kid."
Luca looked at Vanessa.
His voice was terrifyingly calm.
"You told my brother you lost the baby."
She couldn't speak. She was trembling violently.
Luca turned to me.
"Sarah. Why did you put this on the table?"
My hands were shaking, but my voice didn't waver.
"Because he's alive, Mr. Moretti."
The entire room gasped.
Luca stood up, towering over the table.
"What did you say?"
"His name is Leo," I whispered. "He's eight years old. And I know exactly where he is."
Luca dropped Vanessa's wrist.
He didn't yell. He didn't make a scene.
He just looked at his head of security.
"Lock the doors. Nobody leaves this house."
He turned back to me.
"Take me to him."
Before I could nod, Vanessa let out a sound like a cornered animal.
"You can't go there!" she screamed.
"Why not?" Luca asked quietly.
Vanessa's eyes were wide with pure panic.
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"Because the man watching him doesn't work for me anymore. And if he sees you coming, he's going to kill the boy."
TITLE: THE EMPTY APARTMENT
