Chapter 5 - THE MAN I KNEW AS LUKE
I met Luke Ferris in a grocery store.
Not at a nightclub.
Not at some mafia gathering.
He helped me pick up a bag of apples after the bottom tore open.
He laughed easily.
Wore old jeans.
Claimed he repaired elevators.
For eight months, I believed him.
He never brought me expensive gifts.
Never carried a gun in front of me.
Never mentioned the Falcone name.
Then I became pregnant.
And Luke disappeared.
Three months later, local news reported that Luca Falcone had died overseas during a business dispute.
I saw his photograph.
But the image was grainy.
His hair was longer.
His face thinner.
I never connected the two.
Now, sitting beside Mom, I compared photographs.
Luke Ferris.
Luca Falcone.
Same eyes.
Same scar beneath the chin.
Same crooked smile.
My hands began shaking.
“He lied to me.”
Mom nodded sadly.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Tears burned my eyes.
Sophia had spent three years asking why other children had fathers.
I told her some families were simply different.
Now I was learning her father may have died without ever knowing she existed.
Or worse.
Maybe he knew.
Maybe he ran anyway.
I hated that possibility.
When I returned to the estate, Dante was waiting in his study.
I placed the photographs on his desk.
He looked down.
Then went completely still.
“Luca.”
“Yes.”
His eyes moved toward me.
“Where did you get these?”
“My mother.”
He picked up the picture of Luke standing beside me at Navy Pier.
His face broke.
“That jacket.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“I gave it to him.”
Dante sat down slowly.
“You knew my brother.”
“I dated him.”
His eyes widened.
“For how long?”
“Eight months.”
He looked toward the hallway.
Sophia was drawing with Patricia in the staff room.
Then back at me.
“How old is she?”
“Three.”
His face turned white.
“Rosa…”
“I know.”
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then I asked the question that mattered.
“Did Luca know he had a daughter?”
Dante looked devastated.
“I don’t know.”
He opened a locked drawer.
Inside was a small black notebook.
“Luca left this behind.”
I stared.
“What is it?”
“Personal notes.”
Dante turned several pages.
Then stopped.
One name.
Rosa.
My throat tightened.
He read aloud.
Rosa thinks my name is Luke. I hate lying to her.
My eyes filled.
Then the next entry.
I need to leave before Victor realizes where I’ve been going.
My stomach tightened.
Another page.
Rosa is pregnant.
I covered my mouth.
He knew.
Dante continued.
I want to tell her everything. Carmela says I should.
My knees weakened.
Then the final entry.
Victor found out about the baby.
The room went silent.
Beneath it, Luca had written:
If anything happens to me, Dante must protect them.
I started crying.
He hadn’t abandoned us.
He’d been afraid.
Then Dante turned one final page.
May you like
There was only one sentence.
Victor says if I don’t disappear, he’ll kill Rosa first.
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