Chapter 5 - THE SISTER WHO HAD BEEN KEEPING HER OWN SECRET
Emma confronted Lily that afternoon.
Not gently.
“You know Matteo Moretti.”
Lily stared at the photograph.
Then looked away.
Emma signed:
Tell me the truth.
Lily’s hands were slow.
He contacted me six months ago.
Emma’s chest tightened.
Why?
He said he funded a scholarship program for deaf students.
Emma remembered the scholarship.
It had covered half of Lily’s tuition.
She had cried when she got it.
What did he want?
Lily looked ashamed.
Information about ASL interpreters.
“Why?”
Lily answered aloud, her speech careful but clear.
“He wanted to hire someone for an older woman.”
Emma froze.
Lucia.
Matteo had been searching for interpreters.
Maybe because he knew Lucia had something to say.
“Did you tell him about me?”
Lily’s eyes filled.
Yes.
Emma sat down.
That was how they found her.
Not random.
Not fate.
Matteo had known Emma worked at Aurelia.
Maybe he had even arranged for the Moretti dinner to be assigned to her.
Dante arrived twenty minutes later.
Lily stiffened.
He signed one word awkwardly.
Hello.
Lily blinked.
Then looked at Emma.
Emma almost smiled.
Dante had started learning.
Badly.
But started.
He sat across from Lily.
“Did Matteo ever threaten you?”
She shook her head.
“Ask you to watch Emma?”
No.
“Ask about my mother?”
Lily hesitated.
Then nodded.
“He asked whether your mother signed clearly.”
Dante’s expression hardened.
“He was trying to find out whether her communication had improved.”
Lily continued.
“Then last month, he asked if I could introduce him to Emma.”
Emma frowned.
“You never did.”
“I thought he was creepy.”
Good instinct.
Then Lily signed something that made Emma’s stomach twist.
He said your mother had a secret that would destroy her son.
Dante stared.
“What secret?”
Lily shook her head.
She did not know.
Lucia arrived later.
When told, she became pale.
Her hands moved.
Matteo knows about the child.
Dante frowned.
“What child?”
Lucia looked at Emma.
Then at Dante.
Your father had another son.
The room went silent.
Luca laughed from the doorway.
“Apparently our family was busy.”
Dante did not find it funny.
“Who?”
Lucia signed:
Not with me.
Dante’s face hardened.
A half-brother.
Unknown.
Lucia explained that years before Dante was born, his father had a relationship with a woman named Anna DeLuca.
She became pregnant.
Vittorio paid her to disappear.
The boy grew up outside the family.
Then decades later, he returned.
Not asking for money.
Asking for recognition.
Vittorio refused.
“What happened to him?”
Lucia’s hands stopped.
He became Matteo’s partner.
Dante understood.
His half-brother was part of the network.
Emma translated Lucia’s final sentence.
And he is the man who caused my accident.
Dante stared.
“What is his name?”
Lucia signed it.
Emma’s blood turned cold.
She knew the name.
Everyone in Manhattan hospitality knew it.
Alexander DeLuca.
May you like
Owner of Aurelia.
Emma’s employer.
