Chapter 2 - THE BABY
Maria Delgado stood inside the Moretti foyer holding a four-month-old baby wrapped in a yellow blanket.
The second Lily entered, Maria exhaled.
“You came.”
Lily stared.
“What is her name?”
“Elena.”
Luca stopped beside her.
His mother’s name.
Maria lifted the blanket.
Dark hair. Tiny fist. Sleeping face.
Michael arrived minutes later under armed medical escort.
When Maria brought the child to him, he started crying.
“She has Anna’s nose.”
Maria laughed through tears.
“Thank God.”
Then Michael asked the question everyone was afraid of.
“Where is Anna?”
Maria looked down.
“She left two days ago.”
“For what?”
“To meet someone.”
“Who?”
“She wouldn’t say.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
Maria turned to Lily.
“Anna told me to trust you.”
“She doesn’t know me.”
“She knows what happened with the cake.”
Lily looked at her burned hand.
“How?”
“Anna has been watching Vanessa.”
For months, Anna had tracked Vanessa through public filings, staff contacts, and hidden sources inside Bellini companies.
The porcelain bride was the only object Vanessa had personally insisted be included in the engagement dinner.
Anna knew Vanessa would protect it.
Maria had followed the courier, switched the base, and inserted the USB.
Then she handed Lily a small key.
“Anna said to give you this only if Luca found Michael alive.”
Luca frowned.
“What does it open?”
“A locker at Union Station.”
“I’ll go,” Luca said.
Maria shook her head.
“No. Lily goes alone.”
“Absolutely not.”
Lily looked at him.
“You’re doing the thing again.”
“What thing?”
“Deciding.”
His jaw tightened.
Michael spoke from the sofa.
“Let her go.”
Luca glared.
Michael almost smiled.
“Anna trusts outsiders more than us.”
“That is insulting.”
“Also accurate.”
They compromised.
Lily went alone, with security far enough away that she could not see them.
Locker 318 contained a canvas bag.
Inside:
A laptop.
A paper file.
A disposable phone.
And a photograph.
Anna holding baby Elena.
Beside her stood Michael.
The picture was dated two weeks earlier.
Lily stared.
Michael had supposedly been held for six months.
But in the photograph he was standing freely.
The disposable phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Lily?”
Anna.
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Michael is alive.”
“I know.”
Lily’s stomach tightened.
“You saw him two weeks ago.”
“Yes.”
“Then why was he tied to a hospital bed tonight?”
“Because he went back.”
“Back to who?”
“Vale.”
“Why?”
“To keep Luca from finding out what he did.”
Lily opened the paper file.
Bank transfers.
Michael Moretti.
Shell companies.
Bellini accounts.
Millions.
“Michael was moving money?”
“Yes.”
“For Victor?”
“For himself.”
Anna’s voice broke.
“He found out about the family trust years ago. He believed Luca would eventually control everything.”
“So he wanted part.”
“More than part.”
The file contained altered medical records for Luca.
Prescription history.
Psychological evaluations.
A plan to build a case that Luca was unstable.
“Michael helped Vanessa create this?”
“Yes.”
Lily leaned against the lockers.
“He wanted Luca dead?”
“No. Discredited. incapacitated. removed.”
“That is not much better.”
“I know.”
“Then why did Vale take Michael?”
“Because Michael changed his mind.”
“Why?”
“I became pregnant.”
Anna said Michael decided he could not build their daughter’s future on Luca’s destruction.
He tried to destroy the evidence.
Vale took him.
Two weeks earlier Anna helped Michael escape for one night.
Michael returned voluntarily to recover the original trust documents.
The phone went quiet.
Then Lily heard a door open on Anna’s end.
Footsteps.
Anna whispered, “Someone’s here.”
“Where are you?”
No answer.
A man’s voice entered the call.
“Mrs. Moretti.”
Anthony Vale.
Anna whispered, “Lily, tell Luca—”
The line died.
Then the laptop screen lit.
Video call.
Vale appeared.
Anna was tied to a chair behind him.
Lily’s blood went cold.
“What do you want?”
“The laptop.”
“Why?”
“It belongs to my client.”
“Victor?”
Vale smiled.
“No.”
Michael stepped into frame.
Healthy.
Standing.
No IV.
No restraints.
He stared into the camera.
“I’m sorry.”
Lily’s heart sank.
Vale continued.
“My client is Michael Moretti.”
The hospital rescue had been theater.
Or partly theater.
And Lily suddenly knew the problem was worse than betrayal.
Nobody in this family was only one thing.
Victim.
Traitor.
Brother.
Enemy.
Sometimes they were all four.
Luca’s car arrived at Union Station less than three minutes after Lily’s call.
She barely had time to close the locker before he appeared at the end of the corridor with Daniel beside him.
Luca looked at her.
Then at the laptop.
Then at the disposable phone.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Threatened?”
“Yes.”
“By Michael?”
“Complicated.”
His expression darkened.
“Everything tonight is complicated.”
Lily handed him the paper file.
He read the first bank transfer.
Then the second.
By the fourth, his face had gone still.
“Michael did this?”
“Anna says yes.”
Luca stared.
“She said he changed his mind later.”
“That does not erase the first part.”
“No.”
He looked at Lily.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not trying to make it less ugly.”
She shrugged.
“Ugly does fine by itself.”
Daniel examined the photograph of Michael standing with Anna.
“This was taken two weeks ago.”
“Yes.”
“So he got out.”
“For one night.”
“And returned willingly.”
“Yes.”
Luca leaned against the lockers.
For the first time, Lily saw not a feared man or an employer.
A brother.
Confused.
Angry.
Hurt.
“He called me from captivity once,” Luca said.
“When?”
“Four months ago.”
“What did he say?”
“Nothing useful.”
“What exactly?”
Luca looked at the floor.
“He asked if I remembered when we were children and Dad locked us in the wine cellar.”
Lily frowned.
“Why did your father lock children in a wine cellar?”
“He said we needed to learn not to panic in the dark.”
“That is horrifying.”
“Yes.”
“Why would Michael bring that up?”
“I thought he was telling me he was being held somewhere underground.”
“Was he?”
“No idea.”
“What did you answer?”
“I said I remembered.”
Luca’s face tightened.
“Then the call ended.”
Lily thought.
“What if it was not location?”
“What?”
“What if he was apologizing?”
Luca looked at her.
“For what?”
“For becoming your father.”
Silence.
Michael had helped manipulate his brother through fear.
Control.
Hidden plans.
Exactly the kind of thing Salvatore may have done.
Luca looked disturbed by the possibility.
Daniel interrupted.
“We need to move.”
A station camera showed a man in a dark coat watching their corridor.
Vale’s network.
Federal agents were still minutes away.
Luca took the laptop.
Lily kept the disposable phone.
They moved through the service exit.
Outside, a car accelerated from the curb.
Daniel pushed Lily behind a concrete pillar.
The vehicle passed without stopping.
No shots.
No confrontation.
Just surveillance.
Lily exhaled.
Luca looked at her.
“You enjoy saying no to security advice?”
“I am developing the skill.”
“You should stop.”
“Probably.”
They returned to the estate.
Maria sat with baby Elena beside the fireplace.
When she saw the photograph of Michael and Anna, she cried.
“She never told me.”
“She was protecting you,” Lily said.
Then immediately hated the phrase.
Maria heard it too.
“No.”
She shook her head.
“She was deciding for me.”
Lily nodded.
“Yes.”
Maria looked at the sleeping baby.
“I don’t want Elena growing up in a family where love means secrecy.”
Luca said quietly, “Neither do I.”
That was the first promise of the night Lily believed immediately.
Maria then remembered something.
Two days before Anna disappeared, she mailed a package.
“To who?” Daniel asked.
Maria frowned.
“She would not tell me.”
“Carrier?”
“Postal service.”
“Return receipt?”
“Yes.”
Daniel found it through Maria’s email.
Destination:
Moretti Memorial Foundation.
Attention:
Lily Carter.
Lily stared.
“Me?”
The package had arrived yesterday morning.
Before the engagement dinner.
Mrs. Carter checked incoming staff mail.
No package.
Security footage showed a courier entering.
Then Vanessa’s assistant collecting it.
“Where is the assistant?” Luca asked.
“Gone,” Daniel said.
“Name?”
“Rachel Monroe.”
Lily knew her.
Quiet.
Efficient.
Worked for Vanessa for two years.
She had left the mansion before dinner claiming illness.
Daniel traced her phone.
Airport.
O’Hare.
Flight to New York.
Boarded.
Luca looked at the timing.
“Vanessa knew Anna was sending something to Lily.”
“So the burn may not have been only about the figurine,” Lily said.
“Vanessa wanted you frightened enough not to interfere.”
Maria whispered, “Anna chose Lily because Lily wasn’t part of the family.”
Luca looked at Lily.
“She is now part of the problem.”
“That sounds less flattering.”
“It was not meant as flattery.”
Daniel recovered a photograph of the missing parcel from the courier database.
Small padded envelope.
Weight: six ounces.
Could contain a flash drive.
Could contain documents.
Could contain anything.
Luca said, “Find Rachel.”
“She is already airborne.”
“Then meet her in New York.”
Daniel began calls.
Lily looked at the baby.
“So Anna created backups everywhere.”
Maria smiled sadly.
“She never trusted one plan.”
Luca said, “Smart.”
Lily looked at him.
“You sound impressed.”
“I prefer paranoid people when they are on our side.”
The disposable phone rang again.
Everyone froze.
Lily answered.
Vale.
“Miss Carter.”
“What?”
“You have something that belongs to me.”
“Most people start with hello.”
He ignored that.
“The laptop.”
“Not yours.”
“The files.”
“Also not yours.”
Vale sighed.
“Anna is running out of time.”
Lily’s stomach tightened.
“Let me hear her.”
A rustle.
Then Anna.
“Lily.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Where are you?”
Vale took back the phone.
“Bring the laptop to Cicero.”
“Why me?”
“Because Luca will come if you do.”
Lily looked at him.
There it was.
She was not only courier.
She was leverage.
Vale continued.
“And because Michael will do what he is told if Anna believes you are in danger.”
Lily frowned.
“You’re controlling three people with one invitation.”
Vale laughed.
“Now you understand why I became a lawyer.”
The line died.
Luca said, “You’re not going.”
Lily looked at him.
Then at Maria.
Then at baby Elena.
“Maybe I am.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Do not start.”
“I’m not obeying Vale.”
“Good.”
“I’m choosing whether helping Anna is worth risk.”
“That sounds suspiciously like going.”
“It might.”
Maria smiled faintly.
Luca looked betrayed.
“Do not encourage her.”
“I raised Anna,” Maria said. “I have no credibility on caution.”
Lily looked at Luca.
“We do it safely.”
He was silent.
Then:
“You choose.”
May you like
A small sentence.
A large change.
