Chapter 5 - The Wife Who Knew Too Much
Luca followed us out of the restaurant, but I refused his driver.
“Mom,” Micah asked as I buckled him in, “is that man your friend?”
“No.”
Mila leaned forward from her booster seat. “He looked sad.”
“Adults can be sad and still make mistakes.”
Behind me, Luca stood under Bellavita’s awning while the rain began to fall. Evelyn joined him, but they didn’t touch.
That night, after the twins were asleep, someone knocked on my condo door.
It was Evelyn.
I almost closed it in her face.
“I came alone,” she said.
“That doesn’t make this less weird.”
“I need ten minutes.”
“You have five.”
She stepped inside and removed her coat. Up close, she looked exhausted rather than elegant.
“I didn’t marry Luca for love,” she said.
I blinked.
“Well. That’s a strong opening.”
“Our families had overlapping business interests. My father needed Moretti financing. Luca needed political distance from a regulatory fight. We became useful to each other.”
“So the magazine covers were fake?”
“Not fake. Managed.”
I laughed bitterly. “Of course.”
She accepted that.
“Luca has been trying to find you for three years.”
That stopped me.
“What?”
“He hired investigators quietly. Victor kept telling him you had remarried and moved overseas.”
“I live twenty minutes from his office.”
“I know.”
The room went cold.
Evelyn opened a folder. “Victor’s archive has search reports with your real address blacked out in the copies Luca received.”
I stared at the pages.
There I was. Mortgage records. Business registration. Even a photo of me leaving preschool with the twins.
Taken eighteen months ago.
My hands began to shake.
“Who took this?”
Evelyn pointed to a billing code.
“Dane Strategic Services.”
Victor hadn’t simply blocked my messages.
He had been watching us.
Then I saw a handwritten note beneath the photograph.
SUBJECT HAS TWO CHILDREN. PATERNITY RISK UNCONFIRMED. CONTINUE CONTAINMENT.
I looked at Evelyn.
“What does ‘containment’ mean?”
Her phone rang.
May you like
She checked the screen and went white.
“It means,” she whispered, “Victor just found out I copied the files.”
