Chapter 1 – THE LIE HE FORCED HER TO WRITE

Andrew’s perfect smile finally cracked.

He looked around the silent dining room, his eyes darting toward the men standing near the doors.

“It’s a misunderstanding,” Andrew said, his voice dropping an octave. “Emily has been struggling financially. I wrote that note as a suggestion for a custody agreement, to make things easier on her.”

I stared at the man I had married.

“You told our daughter to memorize it,” I said, my voice shaking. “You told an eight-year-old girl to stand in a room full of strangers and say her mother didn’t want her.”

“She’s a child, Emily! She misconstrued what I said!”

Sophie shrank against my leg.

“I didn’t misconstrue it,” Sophie whispered.

She reached into her little pocket again.

My heart hammered against my ribs.

She pulled out a crumpled, silver train ticket. It wasn’t a local transit pass. It was a one-way sleeper ticket to Chicago.

Departing tonight at 11:00 PM.

“He said if I didn’t say the words on the paper, we would miss the train,” Sophie cried, burying her face in my dress. “He said I was never coming back.”

The room went dead quiet.

Andrew hadn’t come to celebrate Teresa Moretti’s birthday. He hadn’t come to negotiate custody.

He had come to kidnap our daughter.

“You were going to take her,” I gasped, stepping between Andrew and Sophie. “You haven’t paid child support in eight months. You don’t even have a bedroom for her. Why would you try to take her to Chicago?”

Andrew’s face went pale, but not because of my question.

He was looking over my shoulder.

Luca Moretti stepped forward, his dark eyes locked on the silver train ticket in my daughter’s hand.

“Chicago,” Luca repeated softly.

The way he said the word made the temperature in the room plummet.

Andrew took a step back. “Mr. Moretti, this is a family matter. My business associates in Chicago offered me a new position. I just wanted my daughter with me.”

“Your business associates in Chicago,” Luca said, his voice dangerously calm, “are the Rossi family. My direct competitors.”

Andrew swallowed hard.

Luca didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to.

“You owe them a lot of money, don’t you, Andrew?”

Andrew’s silence was the only answer we needed.

“And they told you they’d forgive your debt if you provided them with something valuable,” Luca continued, stepping closer. “Something they could use as leverage against me.”

I felt the blood drain from my face.

Leverage against Luca?

I was just a housemaid. Sophie was just a little girl. Why would we be leverage?

Then Luca reached out and gently touched the silver locket resting against my collarbone. The one my grandmother had given me.

“Where did you get this necklace, Emily?” Luca asked quietly.