Chapter 1 – THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FIRST BABY

The silence in the dining room was suffocating.

Leonardo stared at Bianca.

His chest rose and fell with a terrifying slowness.

“The first baby?”

Bianca squeezed her eyes shut. Tears ruined her perfect makeup.

“Don’t make me say it, Leonardo.”

“Say it.”

His voice didn’t rise. It didn’t break.

It was a command that promised absolute destruction if ignored.

Richard stepped forward, placing his hands on the table.

“Leonardo, five years ago, Matteo got a girl pregnant. A waitress from the South Side.”

I felt the blood drain from my face.

Matteo had never mentioned another woman. He had never mentioned a child.

Leonardo frowned.

“Matteo was twenty-seven. Why didn’t he come to me?”

“Because the girl wasn’t just a waitress,” Richard answered softly. “She was the daughter of the Moretti family’s biggest rival on the West Side.”

Leonardo went completely still.

“A Russo?”

Richard nodded.

“If her family found out she was carrying a Moretti child, it would have started a street war.”

Leonardo looked at the payment authorization in Anthony’s hands.

“So you sent her to the clinic.”

“We handled it quietly,” Richard said. “The clinic provided a private suite. Total discretion. When the baby was born, we arranged for it to be placed with a safe family far away from Chicago.”

“You gave my brother’s child away?”

Leonardo’s voice was a lethal whisper.

“It was for the best,” Bianca cried out. “Matteo agreed! He knew he couldn’t raise a Russo child.”

I pressed my hand against my stomach.

My baby kicked hard, as if reacting to the terror in the room.

“Matteo would never abandon his child,” I said, my voice shaking.

Bianca sneered at me.

“You didn’t know him, Emma. He signed the surrender papers himself.”

“No.”

Leonardo turned toward me.

I looked up at him, my eyes burning.

“The night before he died, Matteo told me he’d made a terrible mistake years ago.”

Leonardo stepped closer. “What mistake?”

“He said he trusted the wrong people to protect someone he loved. He said they told him the baby died in childbirth.”

Richard’s face turned completely gray.

Leonardo stared at Richard.

“You told my brother his child was dead?”

“There were complications!” Richard stammered. “We had to make a decision to keep the peace—”

“Who is the man in the photograph, Richard?”

Leonardo picked up the picture of Matteo, Richard, and the unknown man outside the parking garage.

“I want a name. Right now.”

Richard swallowed hard.

“His name is Dr. Aris Thorne. He owns the clinic.”

Leonardo looked at Anthony.

“Find him.”

Anthony adjusted his glasses, his hands trembling.

“Leonardo… I don’t need to find him.”

Anthony pointed toward the heavy mahogany doors of the dining room.

“He’s on the guest list. He’s standing in the foyer right now.”

Leonardo didn’t hesitate.

He unbuttoned his suit jacket, turned on his heel, and walked toward the doors.

But before he could reach the handle, the doors pushed open.

A tall man in a pristine silver suit walked in.

He was holding a small, familiar object in his hand.

A velvet box.

“I believe this belongs to the expectant mother,” Dr. Thorne smiled.

He opened the box.

Inside was a delicate, vintage silver baby rattle.

I stopped breathing.

It was the exact rattle I had packed in my suitcase this morning. The one Matteo had kept hidden in his sock drawer.

“Where did you get that?” I whispered.

Dr. Thorne didn’t look at me. He looked at Bianca.

“Your fiancée gave it to me, Leonardo. Along with the instructions for Emma’s early induction next week.”

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