Chapter 10 - The Woman in the Cream Suit.
The message changed the plan.
Daniel Cross moved Noah, Emily, and Dr. Pierce to a second safe location before dawn.
Luca refused to go with them.
"Victoria threatened Emily because she wants me angry."
Cross looked at him.
"And are you?"
"Very."
"Then do not become predictable."
Luca returned to his corporate office as if nothing had happened.
By eight in the morning, reporters were waiting outside.
Someone had leaked a story accusing Emily Hart of stealing from the Cafalli penthouse and kidnapping an infant connected to the family.
Her photograph appeared on television before breakfast.
The headline called her a dangerous fugitive.
Emily watched from the safe house in disbelief.
"She made me the criminal."
Naomi sat beside her.
"Victoria is trying to isolate you."
"She already did."
Emily's phone filled with messages from former coworkers who now believed she had deceived them.
One message hurt more than the rest.
It came from Rosa, another housekeeper in Luca's building.
I TRUSTED YOU.
Emily turned the phone off.
Across Manhattan, Luca walked into an emergency board meeting of Cafalli Holdings.
Victoria sat at the head of the table in the same cream suit she had worn the night before.
She smiled warmly for the directors.
"Luca, thank God you're safe."
He took his seat.
"You seem well rested."
"I worry beautifully."
Several directors laughed nervously.
Victoria presented a motion to temporarily suspend Luca as chief executive because of the scandal surrounding the missing child.
Luca listened without interrupting.
Then he placed a single photograph on the table.
It showed Marcus Vale entering Naomi's office.
Victoria's smile weakened.
"What is this?"
"A warning."
"To whom?"
"Anyone who thinks I arrived unprepared."
The board refused to remove Luca, but the vote was close enough to expose how many directors Victoria controlled.
After the meeting, she cornered him beside the private elevators.
"You are protecting a maid over your own family."
"I am protecting a child from a woman who sends tattooed men after babies."
Victoria's face hardened.
"Be careful."
"You first."
She leaned closer.
"Ask Emily why her mother stayed hidden after Antonio died."
Luca frowned.
Victoria smiled again.
"Ask her why Margaret Hart never came home."
Before Luca could answer, the elevator doors closed between them.
He immediately called Emily.
"Did your mother ever contact you after she disappeared?"
Emily went silent.
Luca heard her breathing change.
"Emily?"
"Once."
"When?"
"Three years ago."
"You told me you thought she was dead."
"Because after that call, I did."
"What did she say?"
Emily stared at the red door of the safe house.
"She said Victoria had found her."
Then someone knocked from the other side.
Three slow knocks.
Emily froze.
A woman's voice called through the door.
May you like
"Emily, sweetheart."
"It's Mom."
