Chapter 2 - THE DAUGHTER HE NEVER KNEW HE HAD
The heavy oak doors creaked open.
A little girl stood in the hallway, wearing a beautiful blue velvet dress that looked too stiff, too perfect. She was clutching a faded, badly folded child’s drawing to her chest.
Lily.
My beautiful Lily.
Her brown curls were longer, falling past her small shoulders, but her big, fearful eyes were exactly the same.
I took a desperate step forward. “Lily?”
But she didn’t look at me. She didn’t even glance at Charles.
Instead, her eyes locked onto Luca Moretti.
“Papa?” she whispered.
The word dropped into the silent dining room like a grenade.
I stopped dead. My breath hitched in my throat.
Luca’s expression, usually an unreadable mask of cold control, fractured. He stared at the seven-year-old girl, then slowly turned his dark eyes to Vanessa.
“What did she just call me?” Luca’s voice was dangerously quiet.
Vanessa’s lips trembled. “Luca, let me explain—”
“Papa,” Lily said again, stepping hesitantly into the room. She held up the drawing. “The nice lady said you bought me. She said you are my new papa now.”
My stomach violently rebelled.
Bought her.
I looked at Charles. He was sweating, his arrogant smile completely erased.
“You sold our daughter?” I choked out, the horror paralyzing me. “You gave her to Vanessa?”
“It was a private adoption!” Charles snapped, backing away from the table. “Vanessa needed a child to secure her position with the Moretti family elders. She couldn't have one. I needed capital for my business. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
“You trafficked a child,” Luca said. The lethal calm in his voice made the forty dinner guests freeze in terror. “You trafficked her child. Into my house. Under my name.”
Vanessa rushed forward, grabbing Luca’s sleeve. “I did it for us, Luca! You said you wanted a family. I found a girl who had no one. Charles told me her mother was a deadbeat who didn't want her!”
“I am right here!” I screamed, the shattered pieces of my heart igniting into pure rage. I fell to my knees in front of Lily, ignoring the broken silver tray on the floor. “Lily. Sweetheart. It’s me. It’s Mommy.”
Lily shrank back, pressing herself against the heavy wooden doorframe.
She looked at me, her eyes filled with confusion and a deep, practiced fear.
“You’re not my mommy,” Lily whispered, her small voice trembling. “Vanessa told me my mommy threw me away because she wanted to be a maid. She said if I talk to you, Papa Luca will send me to an orphanage.”
Tears blurred my vision. I looked up at Vanessa, the woman who had worn my daughter’s love like a stolen diamond.
Luca moved. He didn't yell. He didn't raise a hand.
He simply walked over, knelt beside me, and looked at Lily.
“I am not going to send you anywhere,” Luca said gently. Then, he gently reached out and touched the small silver bracelet dangling from Lily's wrist.
Luca’s breath hitched.
He stared at the intricate silver roses carved into the metal.
“Where did you get this?” Luca asked, his voice suddenly hollow.
Lily sniffled. “Daddy Charles gave it to me. He said he took it from Mommy.”
May you like
Luca slowly stood. He turned his dead, empty eyes toward Charles.
“That bracelet,” Luca whispered, “belonged to my murdered sister.”
