Chapter 13 - THE LITTLE GIRL WHO OWNED AN EMPIRE
Lily was worth more money than most countries’ annual budgets.
She was also currently furious because her grilled cheese had been cut into squares instead of triangles.
That contrast told me everything wrong with my family.
Naomi stared at the trust documents.
“We get rid of it.”
“Yes.”
She looked surprised.
“You’re not even going to think?”
“No.”
“This could give Lily control of Moretti Holdings.”
“Lily is four.”
“Exactly.”
“We destroy the mechanism.”
Lawyers protested.
Board members panicked.
One elderly trustee nearly called me insane.
I did not care.
The controlling shares would be converted into a blind educational and charitable trust.
Lily would receive enough for lifelong security.
She would not inherit command over an empire she never asked for.
Naomi watched me sign.
“My mother was wrong about you.”
“Which part?”
“That power was the only thing you loved.”
I looked at her.
“It was easier before you came back.”
“Romantic.”
“I’m rusty.”
“That implies you were once good.”
I smiled.
For months, we had been circling something neither of us named.
Too much had happened.
Too many lies had been told by other people.
Trust had to grow slowly.
Then Lily walked into my office.
“Daddy Matteo?”
I froze.
Naomi did too.
It was the first time.
Not Mr. Storm Eyes.
Not Matteo.
Daddy Matteo.
“Yes?”
She held up a broken crayon.
“Fix.”
My throat tightened.
I could negotiate contracts worth hundreds of millions.
Apparently my greatest responsibility was repairing a purple crayon.
“I’ll try.”
She climbed onto my knee like she had done it forever.
Naomi looked away because she was crying.
I pretended not to notice.
That evening, Daniel visited.
Lily called him Daddy Daniel.
Then me Daddy Matteo.
Neither of us corrected her.
Children could have more than one man who loved them.
I was finally mature enough to understand that.
After Lily slept, Daniel sat across from me.
“I’m leaving New York.”
Naomi frowned.
“Why?”
“Job in Boston.”
“You don’t have to leave because of Matteo.”
“I’m not.”
He smiled.
“I need a life that isn’t built around hiding.”
He would visit Lily every other weekend.
Video calls.
Holidays.
Whatever she wanted.
Then Daniel handed me a box.
Inside were four years of photographs.
Lily’s birth.
First Christmas.
First steps.
Preschool.
Every milestone I missed.
“I kept copies.”
I couldn’t speak.
“Why give them to me?”
“Because you can’t get those years back.”
He swallowed.
“But you should still get to see them.”
I stood and hugged him.
It surprised both of us.
Then Daniel laughed.
“Careful. People might talk.”
“Tell anyone and I’ll deny it.”
Later, Naomi and I went through the photographs.
At midnight, she reached one from Lily’s second birthday.
Then stopped.
Behind the party guests stood a familiar face.
Luca.
My cousin.
Naomi stared.
“He was there.”
Luca had claimed he never saw Lily after Naomi disappeared.
Yet there he was.
Two years earlier.
Watching.
Marco checked prison records.
May you like
Luca had been released on bail that afternoon.
And no one knew where he was.
