Chapter 11 - LILY WAS MY SISTER’S DAUGHTER
I read the sentence three times.
Then looked at Allie.
She did not deny it.
The room became silent enough to hear Fantasma scratching the door.
“Lily?”
Allie’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
My body forgot how to breathe.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Lily is Elena’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
I stood.
Anger came first because grief often wears anger when it needs armor.
“You let me think—”
“I promised Elena.”
“She was my sister.”
“And Lily was her child.”
“You brought her into my house.”
“Because Gabriel contacted me six months ago. He said Vale’s network was moving again.”
“Why not tell me?”
“Because Elena’s letter said not to.”
I laughed harshly.
“Everybody loves instructions from dead people.”
Allie flinched.
I immediately regretted it.
“When?”
“Four years ago.”
Elena had fallen in love with a prosecutor named Daniel Carter.
Evan’s older brother.
Daniel died before Lily was born.
Elena hid the pregnancy from the Morettis because Vale had already begun threatening her.
Allie and Evan agreed to raise the baby temporarily.
Then Elena died.
Allie became Lily’s mother in every way that mattered.
“Does Lily know?”
“No.”
“Should she?”
“Someday.”
I looked toward the hallway.
My niece.
The child who walked into my forbidden room.
Covered me with her blanket.
Told me my heart had heavy rain.
Elena’s child.
Suddenly, details became unbearable.
Hazel eyes.
Brown curls.
The way she tilted her head before asking impossible questions.
Elena used to do that.
I sat down.
Allie cried quietly.
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“When I knew you wouldn’t take her from me.”
That stopped my anger.
“Take her?”
“You’re Murphy Moretti.”
And there it was.
What the world believed about me.
What Allie had every reason to believe.
“I would never—”
“You didn’t know that three years ago.”
She was right.
Would old Murphy have taken Lily into the estate and called it blood?
Maybe.
Would I have mistaken possession for protection?
Probably.
I hated that answer.
“What do you want?”
Allie looked surprised.
“For Lily.”
“I want her safe.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She understood.
“I want to remain her mother.”
“You are her mother.”
Tears spilled down her face.
“No court document changes that.”
Then Lily entered.
“Why are you crying?”
Allie wiped her face.
“Happy crying.”
Lily looked at me.
“You too?”
I touched my cheek.
Apparently.
She climbed onto my knee without asking.
Nobody had ever done that.
I allowed it.
She touched the crease between my eyebrows.
“Less rain.”
I nearly broke.
Then Claire called.
Vale had begun cooperating.
Not from guilt.
Self-preservation.
He named remaining network leaders.
One name mattered most.
Salvatore Moretti.
My uncle had lied.
He had not merely suspected Vale.
May you like
He had worked with him for fifteen years.
And the night Elena died, Salvatore had personally ordered the car switch.
