Chapter 2 - The Wife With the Dead Family NameSebastian drove them home himself.
No driver.
No bodyguard beside them.
Just the two of them in the back seat with six inches of silence between them.
Maggie sat by the window.
Her hands were folded tightly in her lap.
Sebastian watched her reflection.
“How much do you remember?”
“About what?”
“Your family.”
She swallowed.
“Enough.”
“Tell me.”
“I don't know everything.”
“Tell me what you do know.”
Maggie remained silent for several seconds.
Then she said, “My father was Adrian Moretti.”
Sebastian's jaw tightened.
Adrian Moretti had been one of the most feared men in Chicago thirty years ago.
Not because he was loud.
Because he was strategic.
He had disappeared after a fire destroyed a Moretti estate.
Three bodies were recovered.
Adrian wasn't among them.
“Your mother?”
“Clara.”
“She survived?”
“No.”
“How?”
“She was killed the week before the fire.”
Sebastian looked at her.
Maggie's voice remained steady.
“She told me to hide.”
“How old were you?”
“Eight.”
His expression changed.
Eight.
The same age his nephew had been when his own family tragedy occurred.
“What happened after?”
“A woman took me.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“Where?”
“Michigan.”
“Did you stay there?”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Until college.”
“And then?”
“I changed my name.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to be nobody.”
Sebastian looked away.
The answer hurt unexpectedly.
He had married a woman who had deliberately erased herself.
Not because she was ashamed.
Because she was trying to survive.
“Why did you marry me?”
Maggie looked confused.
“What kind of question is that?”
“An honest one.”
She hesitated.
“Because you were the first man who didn't ask who I was.”
Sebastian looked at her.
“I asked.”
“Not when we met.”
He remembered.
They had met in a used bookstore.
She had been trying to reach a book from a high shelf.
He had taken it down.
She'd thanked him.
He had asked her name.
“Maggie.”
Only Maggie.
Nothing else.
No family.
No history.
He had fallen in love with the quiet woman who drank tea and read old newspapers.
And apparently, there had been an entire history behind the eyes he hadn't looked deeply enough into.
“Did you marry me because I was a Rinaldi?”
“No.”
“Did you know who I was?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I recognized your name.”
“Then why stay?”
“Because you weren't your family.”
The answer silenced him.
They arrived home.
Maggie went upstairs.
Sebastian remained in his study.
Theo entered.
“She told you.”
“Yes.”
Theo closed the door.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
Theo exhaled.
“We should have known.”
“Why?”
“Moretti records were sealed after the fire.”
Sebastian looked at him.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“How long?”
“Three months.”
Sebastian's gaze sharpened.
“And you didn't tell me?”
“I wasn't certain.”
Sebastian stood.
“She is my wife.”
“I know.”
“You keep secrets from me about my wife?”
Theo sighed.
“I kept secrets because I thought someone might still be watching her.”
That stopped Sebastian.
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
Sebastian's phone vibrated.
An encrypted message appeared.
She has been found.
Then another:
The Moretti daughter is alive.
Sebastian stared.
He looked up.
Theo had seen it.
“They know.”
“Who?”
“Malcolm.”
Sebastian's expression hardened.
“Then he didn't freeze Lake Street because of my chair.”
“No.”
Theo looked toward the ceiling.
“He froze it because she sat beside you.”
That evening Sebastian found Maggie in the library.
She was reading.
“You knew Malcolm would recognize your family name.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I thought he wouldn't.”
“But he did.”
“Yes.”
“Were you scared?”
She smiled faintly.
“I've been scared for twenty-four years.”
Sebastian stepped closer.
“You don't have to be anymore.”
She looked at him.
“You don't know that.”
“I do.”
“Sebastian.”
“I mean it.”
He reached for her hand.
She let him.
Then the lights went out.
A shot shattered the library window.
Sebastian pulled Maggie down.
Security rushed in.
Another shot.
Then silence.
Maggie looked at the broken glass.
Sebastian looked at her.
“You were right.”
“About what?”
“This wasn't about Lake Street.”
He touched the back of her head.
“Someone wants you dead.”
Maggie stared at him.
“No.”
May you like
Sebastian frowned.
“I think someone wants me to look dead.”
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