Chapter 5 - THE DAUGHTER HE NEVER KNEW
Matteo did not speak during the drive home.
Neither did I.
I kept hearing one word.
Heir.
Emma was six years old.
She liked strawberry toothpaste, hated peas, and slept with one foot outside the blanket because she claimed both feet got “too hot together.”
She was not an heir.
Not to anything.
When we returned to the estate, she was asleep in the library beside Oliver.
They had built a blanket fort between two leather sofas.
Teresa sat nearby.
She looked at us.
“Everything okay?”
“No,” Matteo said.
I crossed the room and knelt beside Emma.
Her hair covered half her face.
Matteo remained several feet behind me.
I knew he wanted to come closer.
I hated that I understood him so easily.
“You can sit,” I whispered.
He looked at me.
“She won’t wake up.”
Matteo lowered himself beside us.
For a long moment he simply watched her breathe.
Then Emma’s hand moved in her sleep.
Her fingers curled around his thumb.
Matteo stopped breathing.
I looked away.
Some moments belong to people even before they know they belong to them.
Emma opened her eyes.
She blinked at him.
“Hi.”
“Hi.”
“You’re still here.”
“It’s my house.”
“Oh.”
She considered that.
Then: “Mom says big houses are too much cleaning.”
Matteo looked at me.
“She’s right.”
Emma sat up.
“Oliver says you have horses.”
“Two.”
“Can I see them tomorrow?”
“If your mother says yes.”
She looked shocked.
“You ask her?”
Matteo smiled faintly.
“I’m learning.”
Emma yawned.
Then she noticed his bandage.
“Does it hurt?”
“A little.”
“Mom can fix it.”
“I know.”
She leaned closer.
“You like my mom.”
I nearly died.
“Emma.”
“What?”
Matteo, to his credit, did not laugh.
He looked at me.
“I do.”
Emma nodded, satisfied.
“I thought so.”
Then she curled back beneath her blanket and went to sleep.
When we left the library, I walked straight into the hall.
Matteo followed.
“You didn’t have to answer her.”
“I’m done lying.”
“You don’t get points for that after six years.”
His expression tightened.
“Neither of us knew the truth.”
“That doesn’t change what happened.”
“No.”
He lowered his voice.
“But it changes what happens next.”
I turned.
“What exactly do you think happens next?”
“I get to know my daughter.”
Fear hit me instantly.
“No.”
“Sophia.”
“You don’t get to take her.”
“I didn’t say take.”
“You have lawyers.”
“I don’t need lawyers to love my child.”
“You have power.”
“And you think that means I’m going to use it against you.”
“I know what your world does.”
His eyes darkened.
“My world almost killed my son tonight.”
“And it almost killed my daughter.”
“Our daughter.”
The words stopped me.
Our daughter.
I hated how much hearing them hurt.
Matteo stepped closer.
“I’m not asking you to hand Emma over.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking you not to disappear again.”
I looked at him.
He was not threatening me.
That made it harder.
“I spent six years learning how to survive without you.”
“I know.”
“You don’t.”
My voice cracked.
“You have no idea what it was like. I worked until two weeks before she was born. I went into labor believing if the wrong name went into the hospital computer, someone would come for us.”
Matteo’s face changed.
“I held her alone.”
He closed his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“I brought her home alone.”
“Sophia.”
“She got pneumonia at eighteen months. I sat beside her hospital bed for three nights thinking if she died, nobody on earth would remember what her laugh sounded like except me.”
A tear escaped despite everything.
Matteo wiped it before I could stop him.
His hand froze against my cheek.
I should have moved away.
I didn’t.
“I should have been there,” he whispered.
“Yes.”
“I would have been.”
“That’s what hurts.”
For one second, neither of us moved.
Then Enzo entered the hallway.
He stopped.
“Sorry.”
Matteo dropped his hand.
“What?”
“We found Peter Vaughn.”
My heart jumped.
“Where?”
Enzo’s expression changed.
“Dead.”
I stared.
“How long?”
“Five years.”
“What?”
“Body was listed as unidentified until eighteen months ago. Drowned in the Hudson.”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“Cause?”
“Officially accidental.”
Nobody believed that.
Enzo handed Matteo a file.
“There’s more.”
Vaughn had deposited eighty thousand dollars into an offshore-linked account three days before helping me disappear.
The money originated from a shell company controlled by Julian Moretti.
My knees weakened.
Matteo caught my elbow.
“So he was working for Julian,” I whispered.
“Yes.”
“Then why help me escape?”
Matteo’s expression hardened.
“Because Julian didn’t want you dead yet.”
The answer made horrible sense.
I had been more useful alive.
Hidden.
Afraid.
Keeping Matteo ignorant of his child.
“Why?”
Matteo sat at the edge of a console table.
“My father’s trust.”
“What about it?”
“If I had a biological child before Julian, control of several family companies passed automatically through my line.”
I stared.
“You already controlled them.”
“Not permanently.”
“Emma changed that.”
“Yes.”
“So Julian needed her gone.”
“He needed her unknown.”
“And now?”
Matteo looked toward the library.
“Now my father is dead. Emma’s existence means Julian can never claim succession while I or she lives.”
My stomach turned.
“This is insane.”
“It is.”
“She’s six.”
“I know.”
“She doesn’t even like being line leader at school because she says everyone argues.”
Matteo laughed once despite himself.
Then his face hardened.
“I’m ending this.”
“How?”
“By proving Julian did it.”
“What if you can’t?”
“Then I keep him away from you.”
“For how long?”
His silence answered.
Forever was not a plan.
I looked toward the library.
“No.”
Matteo frowned.
“No what?”
“I spent six years running because someone else decided fear was the safest option.”
I looked at him.
“I’m done.”
“Sophia—”
“If Julian wants me scared, he’s going to be disappointed.”
Something in Matteo’s face changed.
Pride.
Concern.
Recognition.
“You always did terrify me when you sounded like that.”
“Good.”
His phone buzzed.
He answered.
His expression darkened as he listened.
“Where?”
Pause.
“When?”
He ended the call.
“What happened?”
“Our south warehouse security system was breached.”
“Julian?”
“Maybe.”
“Why does that matter?”
Matteo looked at me.
“Because beneath that warehouse is my father’s private archive.”
“What’s inside?”
“Records no prosecutor, competitor, or family member was ever supposed to see.”
Enzo’s face tightened.
Matteo continued.
“If Julian gets them first, he can destroy the only documents proving what he did six years ago.”
I folded my arms.
“Then we get there before him.”
“No.”
I stared.
“You’re not bringing me.”
“Correct.”
“Matteo.”
“Absolutely not.”
I stepped closer.
“You know what Julian’s biggest mistake was?”
“What?”
“He thought I was just the woman you loved.”
Matteo held my gaze.
I continued.
“He forgot I was the nurse who spent three years patching up men from your organization.”
His eyes narrowed.
“I heard things.”
“What things?”
“Names.”
I leaned closer.
“Accounts.”
Silence.
“Routes.”
Enzo slowly smiled.
Matteo did not.
“You’ve been hiding that for six years?”
“I had reasons.”
“Sophia.”
“One of the names Julian used was Gray Harbor.”
Matteo’s expression changed instantly.
Enzo swore.
I knew I had found something.
“What is it?”
Matteo looked toward him.
Then back at me.
“Gray Harbor was my father’s emergency account.”
“And?”
“It disappeared the same week you did.”
“How much?”
“Forty-two million dollars.”
I stared.
Matteo’s voice turned cold.
“If Julian moved that money, your disappearance was never only about keeping you away from me.”
I understood.
“I was the distraction.”
“Yes.”
While Matteo searched for me, Julian had been stealing his empire.
May you like
And now he had returned to finish what he started.
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