Chapter 3 - THE NIGHT NAOMI RAN
We left through a private exit.
Naomi hated every second of it.
I could tell because she kept Lily on the opposite side of her body from me.
We entered an armored SUV.
The doors locked.
“Start talking.”
Naomi stared out the window.
“Five years ago, three weeks after I found out I was pregnant, someone broke into my apartment.”
I felt my stomach turn.
“What did they take?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why break in?”
“They left something.”
She opened her purse.
From a hidden pocket, she removed an old photograph.
Me.
Age fourteen.
Standing beside my father.
A black X had been drawn over my face.
On the back:
IF MATTEO KNOWS, THE CHILD DIES FIRST.
I stopped breathing.
“You had this five years?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“I tried.”
“What?”
“Three times.”
She looked at me.
“I went to Moretti Holdings.”
I remembered none of it.
“Security said you refused to see me.”
“I never knew you were there.”
“I called.”
“My number?”
“Disconnected.”
I looked at Marco.
He was already making notes.
Naomi continued.
“Then someone called me from your private office.”
“Who?”
“A man.”
“What did he say?”
Her voice became smaller.
“That you knew about the pregnancy.”
I went still.
“He said you didn’t want a child with someone outside the family.”
Rage moved through me so quietly it frightened even me.
“I never said that.”
“I know that now.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel investigated.”
There was that name again.
The man who had raised Lily.
Naomi explained that Daniel Ellis was a cybersecurity analyst.
When she fled to Atlanta, he helped trace the call.
It originated inside Moretti Holdings.
Executive level.
Only a handful of people could access that line.
My father.
My uncle Salvatore.
My cousin Luca.
My mother.
And me.
My father had already been dead six months.
I never made the call.
That left three.
“What did Daniel find?”
“That Salvatore had been moving money through shell companies after his supposed death.”
“Why would he care about my child?”
Naomi hesitated.
“That’s what Daniel tried to find out.”
Then Lily, strapped into her booster seat, held up her rabbit.
“Mr. Storm Eyes?”
I looked over.
“Yes?”
“Are you Mommy’s old boyfriend?”
Naomi covered her face.
Julie turned toward the window.
I almost smiled.
“Something like that.”
“Did you kiss?”
“Lily.”
“What?”
Naomi looked ready to disappear.
For one strange second, fear loosened its grip.
Then Marco’s phone rang.
His expression changed.
“We have a problem.”
“What?”
“The hotel Naomi booked was breached.”
Naomi went pale.
“How?”
“Someone entered her room thirty minutes ago.”
Nothing had been stolen.
Except one item.
Lily’s medical folder.
Vaccination records.
Blood type.
Birth certificate.
Everything needed to prove identity.
I looked at Naomi.
“This isn’t about finding Lily.”
She understood immediately.
“No.”
Someone already knew exactly who Lily was.
They needed documentation.
But for what?
Marco received another message.
He read it twice.
Then looked at me.
“Boss, somebody filed an emergency custody petition this morning.”
My blood chilled.
“Who?”
He turned the screen toward us.
Petitioner:
Salvatore Moretti.
May you like
Relationship to child:
PATERNAL GRANDFATHER.
