Chapter 1 - THE NAME LUCA DIDN’T WRITE
The tip of Luca Moretti’s pen touched the paper.
Then the nurse grabbed the birth certificate.
“Sir, you cannot do that.”
Every person in the corridor froze.
Derek’s expression shifted from fear to confusion.
Brittany almost smiled.
Emma stared at Luca.
For one impossible second, she had thought this stranger truly intended to put his name where Derek’s belonged.
Luca slowly lifted the pen.
“I know.”
The nurse blinked.
“Then what exactly are you doing?”
Luca looked toward Emma.
“Making a point.”
Derek gave a nervous laugh from farther down the hallway.
“You don’t get to make points about my family.”
Luca turned.
The change in his face was small.
But Derek stopped laughing.
“Your family?”
Luca asked quietly.
“You just refused to acknowledge the child.”
Derek walked back toward them.
“This has nothing to do with you.”
“That,” Luca said, “is where you’re mistaken.”
Emma’s pulse accelerated.
She had never met Luca Moretti.
But Derek clearly had.
“Who is he?” she asked.
Derek ignored her.
“Moretti, whatever business you think you have here, walk away.”
Luca’s broad-shouldered companion moved once.
Barely.
Derek immediately noticed.
Luca raised one hand, and the man stopped.
“No threats,” Luca said.
Then he looked at the nurse.
“Leave the father’s line blank.”
Emma felt something painful twist inside her.
Luca continued:
“Until biology and the law determine what belongs there.”
Then he looked at Emma.
“But add my attorney’s number as the family’s legal contact if Ms. Hayes agrees.”
Emma frowned.
“Why?”
“Because someone is about to try to put papers in front of you while you’re exhausted, medicated, and frightened.”
Derek went pale.
Emma slowly turned toward him.
“What papers?”
“No one has papers.”
Luca reached inside his jacket.
He removed a folded document.
“I do.”
He placed it on the counter.
Emma read the title.
CONSENT TO TEMPORARY ASSET MANAGEMENT.
Her name appeared beneath it.
Emma Hayes.
So did Derek Morrison’s.
“What is this?”
Derek stepped forward.
“Where did you get that?”
Luca ignored him.
Emma continued reading.
The document would authorize Derek to manage certain financial interests on Emma’s behalf for ninety days.
“I’ve never seen this.”
“I know,” Luca said.
Brittany’s face changed.
Derek snapped:
“It’s standard planning.”
“Planning for what?” Emma asked.
“You just had a baby. You’re recovering.”
“So you prepared paperwork giving yourself control over my money?”
“You don’t have money.”
Luca’s eyes hardened.
Emma caught it.
“What does that mean?”
Nobody answered.
She looked at Luca.
“You seem to know something everyone else does.”
He studied her for several seconds.
Then asked:
“Did your father ever mention the Moretti family?”
Emma’s breath caught.
Her father had died when she was nineteen.
A construction accident.
At least that was what she had always believed.
“He mentioned the name once.”
Derek looked sharply at her.
“When?”
Emma ignored him.
“My father had an old photograph. Three men outside a restaurant. He was one of them.”
Luca’s expression changed.
“What restaurant?”
“I don’t know. The sign said Bellavista.”
Luca’s companion whispered:
“Boss.”
Luca closed his eyes briefly.
Then reopened them.
“Your father was Michael Hayes.”
It was not a question.
Emma’s heart began racing.
“You knew him?”
Luca looked toward the sleeping baby behind the nursery glass.
“Yes.”
“How?”
Luca’s voice became quieter.
“He saved my brother’s life.”
The corridor fell silent again.
Emma stared at him.
“My father never mentioned that.”
“He was told not to.”
“By who?”
“Mine.”
Derek stepped between them.
“This is insane. Emma, you’re tired.”
Luca’s eyes moved to him.
“Move.”
Derek did not.
Then Luca said one sentence.
“Your father knew Michael Hayes too.”
Derek froze.
Emma noticed.
“What?”
Luca continued:
“And three weeks before Michael died, he accused your father of stealing from him.”
Derek’s face lost all color.
Emma stared at the man she had loved for three years.
“What is he talking about?”
Derek whispered:
“Nothing.”
Luca reached into his jacket again.
This time he removed an old envelope.
Yellowed.
Sealed.
Emma’s name was written on the front in handwriting she recognized immediately.
Her father’s.
Her knees nearly gave out.
“Where did you get that?”
“My family kept it for fourteen years.”
“Why?”
Luca held it out.
“Because your father told us to give it to you only if a Morrison ever tried to control your life.”
Emma slowly looked at Derek.
May you like
And suddenly his refusal to sign the birth certificate did not feel like cowardice anymore.
It felt like the beginning of a plan.
