Chapter 2 - THE SECRET I KEPT
“No, you’re not.”
The words left my mouth before I could stop them.
Luca stared at me.
Noah looked confused.
Naomi looked scared.
Evelyn looked humiliated.
Perfect.
Four lives destroyed in under thirty seconds.
I grabbed both kids.
“We’re leaving.”
Luca reached for my arm.
I jerked away so fast his hand froze in the air.
“Do not touch me.”
His jaw hardened.
There was the Luca I remembered.
Controlled.
Cold.
Dangerous when cornered.
“Nia, if they’re mine—”
“You don’t get to do this here.”
“Then tell me where.”
“Nowhere.”
I walked away.
He followed us through the restaurant.
People were staring openly now.
Phones were coming out.
I wanted to scream.
Moretti Global was one of the biggest private companies in the Midwest. Luca’s face was in business magazines, charity galas, political fundraisers.
By dinner, half of Chicago would know.
Outside, cold wind slapped my face.
I waved for my car.
Luca came through the revolving door behind us.
“Nia!”
I turned.
“Stop following us.”
“I’m not letting you disappear again.”
A bitter laugh escaped me.
“Again?”
“You left.”
“You divorced me.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
“It was exactly the same thing from where I was standing.”
Evelyn appeared behind him.
“Luca.”
He still didn’t turn.
The valet brought my SUV around.
I opened the back door.
Noah climbed in.
Naomi didn’t.
She looked at Luca.
Then at me.
“Mom, is he really our dad?”
The whole world went silent.
I crouched beside her.
“Baby, get in the car.”
“You always said our dad didn’t know about us.”
Luca heard every word.
His face changed.
I shut my eyes.
I had told the twins the truth in pieces.
Their father didn’t know.
Their father lived far away from our life.
Their father was complicated.
I had never given them a name.
Naomi turned toward Luca.
“You didn’t know?”
He swallowed.
“No.”
“Why?”
That single word destroyed him.
He looked at me.
“Yes, Nia. Why?”
I stood.
“Not in front of them.”
“Then tonight.”
“No.”
“Tomorrow.”
“No.”
His expression turned hard.
“You kept my children from me for eight years.”
“And you threw their mother away because you decided she was defective.”
Evelyn flinched.
Luca went still.
“You think I don’t remember?” I said. “You think I forgot the specialists? The tests? The way you stopped touching me? The way you looked at me like I was the reason you didn’t have a son to carry your name?”
“I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“Nia—”
“You made me feel like my body had failed our marriage.”
His voice dropped.
“I was wrong.”
“Eight years too late.”
I got into the SUV.
Before I shut the door, Luca leaned down.
“I’m going to find out the truth.”
I met his eyes.
“Be careful what you dig up.”
His expression changed.
That got his attention.
Good.
Because Luca still didn’t know the worst part.
He thought I had discovered the pregnancy after our divorce and simply chosen silence.
That wasn’t what happened.
Three days after he filed for divorce, I had called him.
Twice.
He never answered.
So I went to Moretti Global.
And someone there had made sure Luca never knew I came.
Someone who had looked me in the eye while I was pregnant and said:
May you like
“He doesn’t want you anymore.”
That person was still in Luca’s life.
