Chapter 2 - The Man Who Knew My Name
The private elevator doors closed before Derek could reach us.
I heard his fist strike the steel from the other side.
“Emma!”
His voice disappeared as the elevator descended.
My daughter stirred against my chest.
Luca glanced down immediately.
The terrifying expression he had worn in the hallway vanished.
“Is she cold?”
“I don’t think so.”
I adjusted the blanket.
“I think she just hates shouting.”
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“So do I.”
That almost made me laugh.
Almost.
Twenty minutes earlier, Derek had stood beside my hospital bed demanding proof that our newborn daughter was his.
Now I was inside a private elevator with one of the richest men in New York.
A man I had never met.
A man who somehow knew my full name before I introduced myself.
The thought finally caught up with me.
“Mr. Moretti.”
“Luca.”
“How did you know my name?”
He did not answer immediately.
The elevator opened into an underground garage.
A black armored sedan waited beside two security vehicles.
A physician and a nurse stood near the rear door.
Luca guided me toward the car.
“You need rest.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
He stopped.
For several seconds, he studied me.
“You look like her when you’re angry.”
My skin went cold.
“Like who?”
“Your mother.”
I froze.
“My mother died fourteen years ago.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Luca’s gaze shifted toward the baby.
Then back to me.
“Because Eleanor Hayes once saved my life.”
I stared at him.
My mother had been a middle-school librarian.
She drove an old Honda.
She clipped coupons.
She spent Saturday mornings volunteering at a neighborhood literacy center.
Nothing about her life had ever touched men like Luca Moretti.
“You have the wrong Eleanor Hayes.”
“No.”
His answer came instantly.
“December eighteenth, seventeen years ago.”
My breath caught.
That was the date my mother had returned home with a broken wrist and refused to tell me what happened.
I had been eleven.
“She told me she fell.”
“She lied to protect you.”
“From what?”
Luca opened the car door.
“From my family.”
I did not move.
He lowered his voice.
“Emma, Derek refusing your daughter today was cruel.”
A pause.
“But it was not the reason I came to that hospital.”
My stomach tightened.
“Then why were you there?”
Luca looked directly into my eyes.
“Because three days ago, someone tried to buy your medical records.”
I stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Pregnancy records.”
His expression hardened.
“Blood tests.”
Another pause.
“And your daughter’s genetic screening.”
I clutched my baby tighter.
“Who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“You expect me to get into your car after saying that?”
“No.”
His answer surprised me.
“I expect you to protect your child.”
Luca stepped aside.
“You can refuse me.”
He pointed toward another vehicle.
“My physician will still take you anywhere you choose.”
I looked at my daughter.
Then at the garage entrance.
Somewhere upstairs, Derek was probably still raging.
And someone else apparently wanted my baby’s medical records.
I entered Luca’s car.
His phone rang before he could follow.
He answered.
His face changed.
“When?”
Silence.
“Lock down the building.”
Another pause.
“No one touches the file.”
He ended the call.
“What happened?”
Luca looked at me.
“Someone broke into the hospital records office six minutes ago.”
My blood turned cold.
“What did they take?”
He opened the car door.
“Only one file.”
May you like
He paused.
“Yours.”
