Chapter 1 - The Eyes Across the Room
The first thing Luca Moretti saw was not me.
It was my son’s eyes.
We were halfway through lunch at Bellavita, the kind of Chicago restaurant where the staff knew which billionaire wanted the corner table and which senator preferred not to be photographed. My twins, Micah and Mila, sat across from me arguing over whether chocolate cake counted as lunch.
Then the room went strangely quiet in my head.
I looked up.
Luca stood ten feet away beside his new wife, Evelyn Moretti. He wore a charcoal suit, no tie, the same controlled expression he used on magazine covers and during hostile takeovers. Evelyn’s hand rested lightly on his arm.
But Luca wasn’t looking at me.
He was staring at Micah.
Micah looked back with the same deep-set gray eyes, the same straight brows, even the same tiny crease between them when he was confused.
“Mom?” Mila whispered. “Why is that man staring at us?”
My stomach dropped.
Luca finally looked at me. “Nia.”
I hadn’t heard my name in his voice in six years.
“Hello, Luca.”
His eyes went to the twins again. “How old are they?”
“That’s not an appropriate question.”
“How old?”
Evelyn’s fingers tightened on his sleeve. “Luca.”
I stood. “Kids, get your coats.”
Micah frowned. “But dessert—”
“Now.”
Luca stepped into my path.
People nearby pretended not to watch. They failed badly.
“Nia,” he said, lower this time, “how old are they?”
I met his eyes. “Five.”
The color left his face.
Our divorce had been finalized five years and eight months earlier.
For one terrible second, neither of us breathed.
Then Mila slipped her small hand into mine and looked up at Luca.
“You have eyes like Micah,” she said.
Luca closed his eyes.
When he opened them, the calm billionaire was gone.
“Are they mine?”
Before I could answer, Evelyn spoke from behind him.
“Luca,” she said quietly, “you need to ask Nia who told her you never wanted to hear from her again.”
May you like
I turned so fast my chair nearly fell.
Because I had never told Evelyn that.
