Chapter 2 - The Boy Behind the Name
Nobody left the mansion.
Every exit was locked.
Every security camera was activated.
And every member of the dinner party was escorted into the ballroom while Luca questioned them one by one.
I stayed near Margaret.
Partly because she was frightened.
Mostly because she was the only person in the house who seemed to know a version of Luca that existed before the man everyone else feared.
Luca entered the small library around midnight.
“Margaret.”
She looked up.
“I’m here.”
He closed the door.
“No guards.”
I followed him anyway.
He looked at me.
“You too.”
I sat beside Margaret.
Luca remained standing.
“Start from the beginning.”
Margaret clasped her hands.
“I was a nanny.”
“For whom?”
“Your mother hired me.”
“Her name?”
“Isabelle.”
Luca frowned.
“My mother was Elena.”
Margaret nodded.
“That was the name she used here.”
The room became very still.
Luca stared at her.
“What was her real name?”
Margaret hesitated.
“Elena Moretti.”
He exhaled.
“Then why say otherwise?”
“Because your father told her she couldn't be found.”
“By whom?”
Margaret looked at the window.
“Your mother's family.”
Luca stiffened.
“My mother's family?”
“The Bellinis.”
I looked at Vanessa through the glass panel in the library door.
She stood across the ballroom beside her father.
Her arms were folded.
Her expression was unreadable.
Luca whispered,
“Why would the Bellinis want my mother dead?”
“They didn't at first.”
“What changed?”
Margaret’s eyes filled.
“Your mother learned what they were doing at the harbor.”
Luca leaned forward.
“What were they doing?”
“Smuggling.”
“Drugs?”
“Anything they could profit from.”
Luca’s jaw clenched.
“What did my mother discover?”
“She found account books.”
“And then?”
“She threatened to expose them.”
Margaret looked at me.
“That was when your father came.”
Luca stared.
“My father worked with the Bellinis.”
“Yes.”
“But my father was the founder of Moretti Security.”
“Later.”
Margaret's voice dropped.
“Before that, he was something else.”
“What?”
“A fixer.”
Luca took a step backward.
“That's impossible.”
“He worked for people who solved problems.”
“Including my mother's family?”
“Yes.”
I watched Luca absorb each new piece of information.
His world was unraveling in real time.
“What happened the night I disappeared?”
Margaret wiped her eyes.
“It was your sixth birthday.”
“The day of the cake?”
“Yes.”
“You made it?”
“I did.”
He looked at the toy car.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“The front door opened.”
“Who came?”
“Your father.”
“Alone?”
“No.”
“Two men.”
“Who?”
“One was Bellini.”
“Which Bellini?”
“Giovanni.”
Luca went still.
Giovanni Bellini.
Vanessa's grandfather.
One of the most feared men ever associated with the Chicago waterfront.
Dead for almost twenty years.
Luca whispered,
“My father told me Giovanni died before I was born.”
Margaret shook her head.
“Your father lied.”
Luca stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because your father took you away from your mother.”
“Why?”
“To save you.”
The answer made no sense.
“From whom?”
“Everyone.”
Margaret looked toward the ballroom.
“Your father believed you were the last thing your mother could use against him.”
“What does that mean?”
“She planned to leave him.”
Luca stared.
“My mother planned to leave my father?”
“She was taking you.”
“And he stopped her.”
Margaret nodded.
“Your mother tried to escape with you that night.”
“What happened?”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“She was shot.”
Luca's face became blank.
“Who shot her?”
Margaret didn't answer.
He repeated the question.
“Who?”
Her eyes moved toward Vanessa.
Vanessa saw.
She immediately looked away.
Luca turned.
“Victoria.”
Vanessa was brought into the library.
Her father followed.
Luca told the guards to keep him outside.
She entered alone.
He looked at her for a long time.
“Did you know my mother?”
“Yes.”
“As Elena Moretti?”
“Yes.”
“Did my family know my mother's name?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“And you still called me Luca.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because that was the name you were given.”
“By whom?”
“My mother.”
“Why would she rename me?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“She didn't.”
Luca frowned.
“Then who did?”
Vanessa whispered,
“Your father.”
The room felt colder.
“Why?”
“He said Anthony Moretti had to die.”
I stared.
“What?”
Vanessa turned toward me.
“Your boss was born Anthony Moretti.”
Luca's hand tightened around the back of a chair.
“But why Luca?”
“Because another child had died.”
“Whose child?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Your father arranged the identity change after the death.”
Luca looked at Margaret.
“Did my mother know?”
Margaret nodded.
“She fought him.”
“And?”
“She lost.”
Silence.
Luca's eyes hardened.
“What happened to her?”
Margaret whispered,
“She disappeared.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“She was taken to a hospital.”
“Which one?”
“I don't know.”
“Did she die?”
Margaret looked at the floor.
“I never found out.”
Luca stepped back.
All his life, he had believed Elena Moretti died when he was eight.
Her funeral had been private.
His father had told him she suffered a sudden illness.
But now nothing seemed certain.
Then I remembered something.
“Margaret.”
She looked at me.
“When we spoke in the kitchen, you said you'd been looking for him.”
“Yes.”
“How did you find this house?”
She shook her head.
“I didn't.”
Everyone turned.
“What do you mean?”
“Someone sent me.”
Luca narrowed his eyes.
“Who?”
Margaret pulled an old envelope from her coat.
It contained an address.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed a younger Elena.
On the back:
Find Anthony before Victoria marries him.
Luca stared.
“Who sent it?”
“I don't know.”
I looked at the envelope.
There was a symbol embossed in the wax.
Three black roses.
I had seen it before.
In the bottom drawer of the old study.
Luca noticed my expression.
“You recognize it.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“In your father’s old office.”
He turned to Daniel, his security chief.
“Open it.”
Daniel disappeared.
Ten minutes later, he returned with a box.
Inside were old ledgers.
Photographs.
And a newspaper clipping.
Missing Woman Found Dead Near Lake Michigan.
The victim's name was Elena Bellini.
Luca stopped breathing.
“My mother.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
Luca looked at her.
“That isn't her.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I saw Elena alive after that article was published.”
“When?”
“Three years later.”
“Where?”
Margaret swallowed.
“At a hospital.”
“What was she doing there?”
“Watching a child.”
“What child?”
Margaret stared at him.
“You.”
Luca's expression changed.
“You're saying my mother was alive after the funeral.”
“Yes.”
“And someone made me believe she was dead.”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Margaret looked at Vanessa.
“Her mother.”
Vanessa whispered,
“Stop.”
Margaret didn't.
“She changed Elena's records.”
“She changed everything.”
“Why?”
“Because Elena knew where the money was.”
Luca stepped toward Vanessa.
“What money?”
Vanessa started crying.
“The money your father stole.”
“From whom?”
She whispered,
“From your grandfather.”
Luca's eyes narrowed.
"My grandfather's dead."
“Yes.”
“But his accounts weren't.”
“No.”
She looked at Margaret.
“And your mother helped hide them.”
Margaret nodded.
“Until the day they came for you.”
Luca turned toward me.
“Emma.”
“Yes?”
“Go upstairs.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm about to learn something that could change this family forever.”
I didn't move.
He looked at me.
“Please.”
I nodded.
As I walked toward the stairs, I heard Vanessa say one sentence.
“There is a reason your father never let you see your birth certificate.”
I stopped.
Then Luca asked,
“Why?”
May you like
Vanessa answered,
“Because your name was never Luca Moretti.”
