Chapter 4 - THE ENVELOPE
I should have stayed home.
Instead, thirty minutes later, I was sitting beside Luca in the back of his SUV.
Tasha had stayed with the twins.
Evelyn had called Luca four times.
He ignored every call.
I noticed.
I hated that I noticed.
“You don’t have to come,” he said.
“I absolutely do.”
“My mother can be difficult.”
I turned to him.
“Your mother told a pregnant woman her husband didn’t want his child.”
His mouth tightened.
“If that’s what happened.”
“There you go.”
“I’m not calling you a liar.”
“You’re leaving yourself an exit.”
“I’m trying to understand how eight years of my life disappeared.”
“Imagine how I felt when my marriage disappeared.”
He looked out the window.
Downtown Chicago passed in gray September light.
Finally he said, “I’m sorry.”
I almost laughed.
“For which part?”
“All of it.”
“That’s not an apology. That’s a press release.”
His eyes met mine.
“Then tell me what words would fix it.”
“None.”
That shut him up.
Celeste lived in a Gold Coast mansion with enough marble to build a courthouse.
She was waiting in the library when we arrived.
Seventy years old.
Silver hair.
Pearls.
Perfect posture.
She looked at me like eight years had been eight minutes.
“Nia.”
“Celeste.”
Her gaze moved to Luca.
“I told you not to bring her.”
“And I stopped taking orders from you when I was fifteen.”
“No, darling. You merely started pretending.”
Same Celeste.
Same poison wrapped in silk.
Luca didn’t sit.
“Did Nia come to my office eight years ago?”
Celeste looked at me.
“She came many times.”
“After the divorce.”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“Was she pregnant?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Luca’s face changed.
It was subtle, but I saw it.
Celeste lifted a hand.
“Before you perform some dramatic act of outrage, you should know what she told me.”
My stomach tightened.
“What did I tell you?” I asked.
“That the child was not Luca’s.”
Silence.
I stared at her.
Then I laughed.
It came from somewhere ugly.
“You’re insane.”
Celeste walked to her desk and opened a drawer.
She pulled out an envelope.
Yellowed.
Sealed.
She handed it to Luca.
“I kept this because I suspected one day she might return.”
Luca opened it.
Inside was a medical document.
He read.
His face slowly hardened.
“What is it?” I asked.
He didn’t answer.
“Luca.”
He handed it to me.
The paper carried the logo of the fertility clinic we had used.
My name.
A date.
And a statement I had never seen before.
Patient reports pregnancy resulting from donor conception following marital separation.
My hands went cold.
“This is fake.”
Celeste smiled.
“Convenient.”
“I never used a donor.”
“Then perhaps the clinic made an unfortunate error.”
Luca took the paper back.
“Where did you get this?”
“Nia brought it.”
“I did not.”
Celeste’s expression never changed.
Luca looked between us.
My anger rose.
“You believe her?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t need to.”
He turned to his mother.
“I’m calling the clinic.”
Celeste’s smile disappeared.
“That clinic closed years ago.”
“I know people.”
“You always did.”
Luca pulled out his phone.
Celeste finally lost a little color.
That was when I knew.
The paper wasn’t just a lie.
It was a lie she had expected never to be tested.
Luca walked toward the door.
Then stopped.
Without turning, he said, “Mother, if you fabricated this document, I will find out.”
Celeste’s voice sharpened.
“You would destroy your own family for her?”
Luca turned.
“No.”
He looked at me.
“For my children.”
For the first time in eight years, Celeste Moretti looked afraid.
Then her housekeeper appeared in the doorway.
“Mrs. Moretti?”
Celeste snapped, “What?”
The woman hesitated.
“There’s a man outside asking for Ms. Carter.”
I frowned.
“Who?”
The housekeeper looked at me.
“He says he used to work at Moretti Global.”
May you like
Then she lowered her voice.
“And he says he knows what happened to your pregnancy records.”
