Chapter 1 - THE TEN MINUTES I NEVER GAVE HIM
I should have deleted the message.
Instead, I stared at it until Leo tugged my sleeve.
“Mommy, are we going home?”
Home.
Zurich had been home for almost three years.
Chicago was only supposed to be a grave, five days, and an exit.
Then Dante Moretti saw my son.
Everything changed.
Mia watched me from the front seat.
“You’re going to answer him.”
“No.”
“You already read the message twelve times.”
“I’m thinking.”
“That’s Elena-language for making a terrible decision carefully.”
I ignored her.
Then another number called.
Not Dante.
Victoria.
My sister.
I froze.
Mia stopped joking.
I hadn’t spoken to Victoria since her wedding.
Not really.
A birthday text once.
A Christmas card.
Nothing that could be confused with a relationship.
I answered.
“Elena.”
Her voice sounded different.
Tired.
“Where are you?”
“Why?”
“Because Dante knows.”
My fingers tightened around the phone.
“That’s his problem.”
“No. It’s ours.”
I laughed.
“There has not been an ‘ours’ for three years.”
Victoria went silent.
Then:
“You need to hear him.”
“I needed to hear him eight years ago.”
“I know.”
That answer stopped me.
Not defense.
Agreement.
Then Victoria whispered:
“He didn’t marry me because he wanted me.”
My chest tightened.
“Don’t insult me.”
“I’m not.”
“You wore white. He put a ring on your hand.”
“Yes.”
“You lived in his house.”
“Yes.”
“Then spare me the tragic technicalities.”
She inhaled slowly.
“Our marriage was never consummated.”
I stopped breathing.
Mia turned around.
“What?”
I mouthed nothing.
Victoria continued.
“We never shared a bed.”
My mind rejected the sentence.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
“Why would Dante marry you?”
“To stop my father from killing you.”
The car seemed to tilt.
Our father?
Anthony Carter had been difficult, controlling, proud.
But murder?
No.
Victoria said:
“You don’t know what Dad was involved in.”
Then:
“Neither did I until two weeks before the wedding.”
My heart began pounding.
“Explain.”
“I can’t over the phone.”
“Then Dante can.”
“He will.”
A pause.
“Elena, please don’t leave Chicago tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because Dad knew you were pregnant before you did.”
Every thought stopped.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
Then Victoria said the one thing I could not dismiss.
“The wedding wasn’t planned because Dante chose me.”
May you like
Her voice broke.
“It was moved forward because someone discovered you were carrying the Moretti heir.”
