Chapter 11 – THE BLOODLINE
The room spun.
I grabbed the counter to keep from falling.
Sarah had run away when I was twelve. She was sixteen. She disappeared into the streets of Chicago and we never saw her again.
She died of an overdose five years ago.
“This is my sister,” I whispered.
Dr. Thorne stared at me.
“That means…”
“That means Sophie is my niece.”
The puzzle pieces violently snapped together.
Frank didn’t just hire me as a maid eleven months ago because I had a good resume.
He hired me to keep an eye on me.
To make sure Sarah’s family never came looking for the child.
I took the file.
I ran out of the clinic.
I drove back to the Moretti estate.
When I walked through the front doors, the house was quiet.
I walked into the sunroom.
Luca and Elena were sitting on the couch, drinking wine.
Sophie was sitting on the floor, playing a board game with Rosa.
They looked up when I entered.
“Emma?” Luca asked, noticing my pale face. “Is everything alright?”
I looked at Sophie.
She had Sarah’s eyes.
She had my sister’s smile.
I looked at Luca and Elena, who had loved this girl with every fiber of their being.
If I told them the truth, the law could take her away.
The scandal would ruin them.
And it would ruin Sophie.
I looked down at the manila folder in my hands.
Inside was the truth.
Inside was my family.
“Emma?” Elena stood up, concerned. “What’s in the folder?”
I looked at the people who had treated me better in eleven months than the rest of the world had in my entire life.
I walked over to the fireplace, where a warm fire was burning.
“It’s just some old receipts from Frank’s desk,” I said.
And before anyone could stop me, I tossed the folder into the flames.
I watched the birth certificate turn to ash.
I watched the only proof of my bloodline burn away.
Sophie looked up at me and smiled.
“Are you going to play with us, Emma?”
I smiled back.
Tears pricked my eyes.
“Yes, sweetheart,” I said. “I’m right here.”
Some secrets are meant to be exposed.
And some are meant to burn, to keep the people you love warm.
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