Chapter 6 - MY MOTHER'S FIRST LIE
I drove to Connecticut before breakfast.
Naomi came with me.
Not because she trusted my mother.
Because she didn’t.
Sofia Moretti was waiting in the sunroom.
She looked smaller than I remembered.
Age does that to people.
Secrets do more.
“You threatened Naomi.”
My mother did not deny it.
“Yes.”
Naomi went rigid.
I felt something dark move through me.
“Why?”
“To save her.”
Naomi laughed without humor.
“There it is.”
My mother looked at her.
“I knew Salvatore’s trust existed.”
“You could have told us.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Antonio was dying.”
I stared.
“My father?”
“Antonio knew Salvatore was alive.”
Another lie.
“He discovered Salvatore had been investigating the family trust. Antonio believed Salvatore would eventually use you to reclaim control.”
“So you decided my child should disappear?”
“I decided Salvatore should never know she existed.”
Naomi’s voice shook.
“You sent me a photograph of Matteo with a death threat.”
“Yes.”
“You told me he didn’t want the baby.”
“No.”
She paused.
“That was not me.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“I frightened you away. I never told you Matteo rejected the child.”
Naomi went pale.
Then someone else made the fake phone call.
Someone wanted Naomi not merely hidden.
They wanted her to believe I abandoned her.
My mother opened a safe.
Inside were letters.
Dozens.
All addressed to Naomi.
My handwriting.
I stopped.
“What are these?”
“I intercepted them.”
I looked at her.
Five years earlier, after Naomi disappeared, I wrote letters because every electronic channel failed.
One a week.
Then one a month.
For almost a year.
My mother had taken them.
Naomi picked up the first.
Her hands shook.
“You wrote to me?”
“Yes.”
She unfolded it.
I remembered every word.
I don’t know what I did, but tell me and I’ll fix it. Just tell me you’re safe.
Naomi started crying.
I wanted to hate my mother.
Part of me did.
But grief complicated everything.
“Why keep them?”
Sofia looked ashamed.
“Because eventually I realized I had made the wrong choice.”
“Then why not send them?”
“Fear.”
Simple.
Pathetic.
Human.
Naomi sat down.
My mother continued.
“Daniel found me two years ago.”
I turned.
“What?”
“He knew everything?”
“Almost.”
“He came here?”
“Yes.”
“What did he want?”
“To negotiate Lily’s protection.”
Naomi covered her mouth.
Daniel had carried secrets even from her.
“What protection?”
Sofia opened another folder.
Inside was a legal trust.
Created two years earlier.
For Lily.
Funded anonymously.
Daniel had asked Sofia to set aside enough money that if anything happened to him or Naomi, Lily would never be financially vulnerable.
The trustee was Julie.
I looked at Julie.
She hadn’t known.
Then Sofia said:
“Daniel also left something for Matteo.”
A sealed envelope.
My name across it.
Inside was one sentence:
THE MAN WHO CALLED NAOMI FROM MATTEO'S OFFICE WAS LUCA MORETTI.
My cousin.
May you like
The man currently running half of my legitimate businesses.
And the only person in New York I had trusted almost as much as myself.
