Chapter 12 - ELENA’S SECRET
I waited until we were back home.
Until the triplets were safe.
Until Sophie was asleep.
Then I asked Elena the question Evelyn had wanted me to ask.
“Who is Sophie’s father?”
Elena sat opposite me in the quiet library.
For almost a minute, she said nothing.
Then she began to cry.
“His name was Daniel Mercer.”
Mercer.
My stomach tightened.
“Evelyn’s family?”
“Her son.”
Everything inside me stopped.
Elena explained that she had met Daniel six years earlier.
He was nothing like his mother.
He hated the way Evelyn manipulated people through money and legal pressure.
When Elena became pregnant, Daniel wanted to leave Chicago with her.
He never got the chance.
He died from an undiagnosed heart condition before Sophie was born.
Evelyn had never accepted Elena.
“She said I wasn’t good enough for her family.”
“So why didn’t she come for Sophie?”
“She did.”
Elena wiped her tears.
“When Sophie was six months old, Evelyn tried to use Daniel’s estate to pressure me into giving her custody.”
Lucia helped Elena.
My wife had found an attorney.
Paid the legal bills.
Protected Sophie.
That was why Elena trusted Lucia.
That was why Lucia trusted Elena with Rosie.
“She knew Evelyn before any of this.”
Elena nodded.
“Lucia started investigating her because of me.”
A wave of guilt hit me.
My wife had been fighting a battle I never even knew existed.
“And Evelyn threatened Lucia?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
Elena looked directly at me.
“Because six years ago, Mr. Moretti, you solved every problem with fear.”
The truth landed harder than an insult.
“You were powerful. But Mrs. Moretti worried that if she told you, people would get hurt before the truth came out.”
I looked away.
She was right.
The man I had been would have reacted first and investigated second.
Maybe that had been one of Lucia’s greatest fears.
Elena placed Rosie on the table.
“Lucia wanted you to change.”
I looked at the doll.
“How do you know?”
“Because she wrote you another letter.”
My head lifted.
“Where?”
Elena pointed toward Rosie.
“We only opened one seam.”
Inside the doll’s left arm, beneath layers of old cotton, we found a second folded note.
May you like
Across the front Lucia had written:
FOR ADRIEN AFTER HE CHOOSES HIS CHILDREN OVER HIS EMPIRE.
