Chapter 6 - THE NEW WIFE
Luca didn’t speak for almost a full minute.
I did.
“Your wife?”
Daniel nodded.
“Back then she worked for Moretti Foundation.”
I remembered Evelyn.
Barely.
She had attended galas.
Always elegant.
Always near Celeste.
Always smiling politely at me.
Luca stood.
“I’m going home.”
I stood too.
“Luca.”
He looked at me.
“You’re not confronting her without me.”
“This is my marriage.”
“And those records involved my fertility treatment.”
He didn’t argue.
That scared me more than if he had.
We drove to his penthouse in silence.
Different building.
Different neighborhood.
Same kind of money.
Evelyn was waiting when the elevator opened.
She wore black pants and a silk blouse.
No shoes.
No perfect socialite smile.
“You ignored my calls.”
Luca walked inside.
“Did you access my fertility samples eight years ago?”
She froze.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
I saw it.
So did Luca.
“Who told you that?”
He laughed quietly.
Wrong answer.
Evelyn looked at me.
“You brought her here?”
“Nia has more right to be in this conversation than either of us.”
Her expression hardened.
That surprised me.
The polished wife disappeared.
“So now she has rights?”
Luca stepped closer.
“Answer me.”
Evelyn crossed her arms.
“Yes.”
My heart pounded.
“Why?” I asked.
She looked at me.
“Because Celeste asked me to.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“For what purpose?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Bullshit.”
“Luca—”
“You accessed private medical material belonging to me and my wife.”
“Ex-wife.”
“Not then.”
That landed.
Evelyn looked away.
I said, “What did Celeste want?”
“She told me there was a legal issue with the clinic. She asked me to pick up a sealed medical container and have it transferred.”
“To where?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect us to believe that?” Luca asked.
“I was twenty-seven. Celeste had gotten me the foundation job. I trusted her.”
I watched Evelyn carefully.
“Were you sleeping with Luca then?”
Her head snapped toward me.
“No.”
“Did you want to?”
“Nia,” Luca said.
“No. I want the truth.”
Evelyn’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
There it was.
A small, ugly truth.
“I loved him before you divorced,” she said.
I laughed bitterly.
“Of course you did.”
“But I never touched him while you were married.”
Luca rubbed a hand over his face.
“Where did you take the container?”
“A private lab in Evanston.”
“Name.”
“Hartwell Reproductive Research.”
Luca pulled out his phone.
Evelyn grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t.”
The room went silent.
Luca slowly looked down at her hand.
Then at her face.
“Why?”
Her eyes filled.
“Because you don’t know what you’re going to find.”
He pulled his wrist free.
“Then tell me.”
Evelyn looked at me.
Not Luca.
Me.
“I think your twins were not the only embryos created from your genetic material.”
My blood went cold.
“What?”
Luca stared at her.
“What are you saying?”
She shook her head.
“I didn’t know until years later.”
“Know what?”
Evelyn started crying.
Real tears.
“I think your mother was trying to create a Moretti heir without Nia.”
For once, Luca had no words.
May you like
Then Evelyn whispered the sentence that made my knees weak.
“And I think one of those embryos may have become a child.”
