Chapter 11 - THE AIRPORT
We reached O’Hare with police already moving through Terminal 5.
Luca’s security team had located Adrian’s SUV in short-term parking.
No Adrian.
No boy.
I was running before anyone told me to.
“Nia!”
Luca caught up.
“Stay with me.”
“Don’t tell me to stay anywhere.”
“He may be dangerous.”
“He has my child.”
The words came out naturally.
My child.
I had never met him.
I had never held him.
Yet my body understood before my mind did.
Somewhere in that airport was an eight-year-old boy made from Luca and me.
A boy whose entire life had been built on a crime.
A police officer approached.
“Mr. Moretti, TSA flagged the passports.”
“Gate?”
“M18.”
We ran.
People turned.
Luca Moretti sprinting through an airport in a three-thousand-dollar suit would have been funny in another life.
Nothing was funny now.
At Gate M18, boarding had started for Rome.
Adrian stood near the counter.
Beside him was the boy.
The photo had not prepared me.
He was real.
Small.
Thin.
Dark hair falling over his forehead.
He was wearing a Chicago Cubs cap and holding a backpack.
My heart broke instantly.
“Adrian!”
Luca’s voice thundered through the terminal.
Adrian turned.
His face went white.
The boy looked terrified.
Adrian grabbed his shoulder.
“Stay close, Eli.”
Eli.
His name was Eli.
Luca stopped several feet away.
“Let him go.”
Adrian laughed nervously.
“Let my son go?”
“He isn’t your son.”
Eli looked up.
“Dad?”
Adrian’s face twisted.
“This man is confused.”
I walked forward slowly.
“Eli?”
He looked at me.
His eyes.
Luca’s eyes.
My mother’s nose.
I almost cried.
“My name is Nia.”
Adrian stepped between us.
“Stay away from him.”
Police approached from both sides.
Eli noticed.
“What’s happening?”
Adrian grabbed the boy’s arm.
Too hard.
Luca’s expression turned lethal.
“Take your hand off him.”
“You think biology gives you the right to walk in and destroy his life?”
“No,” I said.
Adrian looked at me.
“You think I wanted this?”
“Then tell me the truth.”
His face cracked.
“Rebecca was supposed to carry a child for Celeste. That was all I knew.”
“You knew the child was ours.”
“Not until after he was born.”
“Then why keep him?”
Adrian looked down at Eli.
“Because I loved him.”
That stopped me.
His voice broke.
“Rebecca loved him. I loved Rebecca. When she got sick, I promised I would raise him.”
Luca said, “You could have told us.”
“And let Celeste destroy all of us?”
“She paid you.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“She paid everyone.”
Then he looked at Luca.
“Including the doctor who told you Nia was probably infertile.”
Luca froze.
I felt something inside me crack.
“What?”
Adrian stared at me.
“The doctor knew both of you were fine.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“He lied?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian looked toward Luca.
“Because Celeste wanted the marriage broken before the trust deadline.”
Luca went white.
Eight years.
Every appointment.
Every negative test.
Every night I cried.
Every time Luca pulled away.
Celeste had engineered the whole thing.
Then Eli suddenly jerked free.
“Stop talking about me!”
Everyone went silent.
The boy was crying.
“I’m not a thing!”
I moved toward him.
“No, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me that!”
I stopped.
His whole body shook.
“Who are you people?”
I looked at Luca.
He looked destroyed.
Then Adrian closed his eyes.
“It’s time.”
He knelt in front of Eli.
May you like
“Buddy, there’s something I should have told you a long time ago.”
And I knew the next thirty seconds were going to change that child forever.
