Chapter 5: My Mother Called Me a Stranger
I left the chapel before Michael could stop me.
Rain soaked through my clothes as I crossed the gravel parking area. Behind me, men shouted orders while an ambulance crew worked on Vanessa.
I barely heard any of it.
All I could see was the photograph on my phone.
A woman with dark hair streaked with silver stood beside an ambulance, one hand resting on the open door. She wore a black coat and carried a leather handbag.
She looked older than the woman in the hospital photograph.
But the eyes were unmistakable.
Michael's eyes.
My eyes.
Elena Moretti.
My mother.
A car door slammed behind me.
“Anna!””
Michael caught up with me beside the gate.
“Give me the phone.””
“No.””
“Who sent the message?””
“Someone who knows where Luca is.””
“And you think walking into an unknown location alone is going to save him?””
“I think waiting for you to organize an army is going to get him killed.””
Michael stepped in front of me.
“Listen to me. Whoever has your brother knows our security procedures, our movements, and our weaknesses. This is not a coincidence.””
“You mean someone inside your organization betrayed you?””
“I mean someone has been manipulating both of us since before you were born.””
I held up the phone.
“Then let me go find out who.””
He studied me.
For a moment, I thought he would order his guards to drag me back to the car.
Instead, he took a set of keys from his pocket and handed them to me.
“What are these?””
“A car parked two streets away. No tracker. No driver. No security team.””
I stared at him.
“You're letting me go?””
“I'm giving you a chance to make a terrible decision without getting my men killed trying to stop you.””
“That sounds almost generous.””
“Don't confuse it with trust.””
He reached into his jacket and removed a small black device.
“An emergency transmitter. Keep it in your pocket. If you press the button twice, my people will know your location.””
“You said no tracker.””
“This isn't a tracker. It only transmits when you activate it.””
I took the device.
“Why are you helping me?””
His face changed.
“Because if Elena is alive, she is the only person who can explain why I spent twenty-eight years mourning a daughter who might have been standing three feet away from me.””
He stepped aside.
“And because Luca deserves to come home.””
I wanted to hate him.
It would have been easier if he had threatened me, or tried to control me, or lied again.
Instead, he stood in the rain and let me walk away.
The address led to an abandoned maternity clinic on the south side of Chicago.
The building sat between a closed pharmacy and a boarded-up laundromat. Its windows were covered with plywood, and a faded sign above the entrance read *HARBOR WOMEN'S CENTER*.
I parked around the corner.
The emergency transmitter felt heavy in my pocket.
I didn't activate it.
Inside, the corridor smelled of disinfectant and damp plaster. Someone had turned on a row of yellow lights, illuminating a reception desk covered in dust.
A clock ticked above the wall.
It was the only sound.
“Hello?”” I called.
A door opened at the end of the corridor.
The woman from the photograph stepped into the light.
She was thinner than I expected. Her face had sharp lines around the mouth, and a pale scar disappeared beneath her collar.
But when she looked at me, I felt something move inside my chest.
Something older than memory.
“Anna,” she said.
My knees weakened.
“Are you Elena Moretti?””
She nodded.
“Where is Luca?””
“Safe.””
“Where?””
“Somewhere Michael cannot reach him.””
I took a step forward.
“Why did you tell me to come alone?””
“Because Michael has spent his entire life believing he can solve every problem by putting armed men around it.””
“Maybe that's because people keep trying to kill him.””
A faint smile touched her lips.
“You sound like him.””
I hated that sentence.
“Don't compare me to him.””
Elena's smile disappeared.
“Of course. You still believe he is the villain.””
“Isn't he?””
She looked toward a closed door behind her.
“Come with me.””
“I want answers first.””
“So did I, once. It nearly cost me everything.””
“Then you understand why I'm asking.””
For several seconds, she studied me.
Then she nodded.
“Your name was never supposed to be Anna Reed.””
I felt my throat tighten.
“What was it supposed to be?””
“Sofia Elena Moretti.””
The name echoed in my mind.
Sofia.
The name carved into the hospital floor.
The name Michael had buried.
I gripped the edge of the reception desk.
“Why did everyone call me Anna?””
“Because the woman who raised you believed a different name might keep you alive.””
“Who was she?””
“Margaret Shaw's sister, Catherine.””
I remembered Margaret's face when she had mentioned her son.
The fear in her voice.
The years of silence.
“She knew who I was?””
“Yes.””
“And she never told me?””
Elena closed her eyes.
“She was afraid.””
“Of what?””
“Of your father.””
I stared at her.
“Michael?””
“No.””
Elena opened her eyes.
“Your biological father was not Michael Moretti.””
The room seemed to grow smaller.
“But you were married to him.””
“I was.””
“And he thought you were dead.””
“He was told I died.””
“By whom?””
Elena looked toward the ceiling, as though she could still hear someone walking above us.
“By his father. By mine. By the people who wanted the Moretti and Bellini families to remain powerful.””
She pulled a chair away from the wall and sat down.
“Twenty-eight years ago, I was a nurse at Saint Agnes. I discovered that babies were being taken from poor families and sold to wealthy couples who wanted heirs. Some were given new identities. Others were declared dead.””
My hands began to shake.
“I tried to stop it.””
“Did you?””
“I stole the original ledger. I copied the names and hid the evidence. When the Bellinis found out, they ordered the hospital burned.””
“Vanessa said Michael's family ordered the fire.””
“Michael's father did.””
“And Michael signed the transfer papers.””
Elena's expression tightened.
“He thought he was moving a baby to safety. He didn't know the Bellinis had already arranged for the child to disappear.””
“Which baby?””
She looked at me.
“Yours.””
I stepped away from her.
“No.””
“You were three days old when I gave you to Catherine.””
“You gave me away?””
“I saved you.””
“You abandoned me!””
My voice broke against the walls.
Elena flinched, but she didn't look away.
“I had no money, no protection, and men following me everywhere. They knew I had a daughter. They believed she was the only person who could lead them to the ledger.””
“So you left me with a stranger?””
“I left you with a woman who loved children more than she feared powerful men.””
“Then why didn't you come back?””
Elena's face crumpled.
“Because every time I tried, someone died.””
She reached into her handbag and removed a small photograph.
It showed Catherine holding a newborn wrapped in a yellow blanket.
Beside her stood a younger Elena.
On the back, a message had been written in faded ink.
*For my daughter, when the world is finally safe.*
I touched the paper.
My hands trembled so violently that the photograph shook.
“Where is the ledger?””
Elena looked toward the closed door.
“Luca has it.””
“Then why did Vanessa say I had it?””
“Because she knows what I did before the fire.””
“What did you do?””
Elena rose.
“I didn't just steal the ledger, Anna.””
She walked to the door and opened it.
Inside was a small room with a table, a lamp, and a single metal chair.
A man sat in the chair with his wrists bound.
Luca.
His face was bruised, but his eyes widened when he saw me.
“Anna?””
I ran to him.
He pulled me into his arms, and for the first time in six weeks, I could hear his heartbeat beneath my cheek.
“You idiot,” I sobbed.
“You absolute idiot.””
He laughed weakly.
“Nice to see you, too.””
I held him tighter.
Then I noticed the blood on his shirt.
“Who did this to you?””
Luca's smile disappeared.
“People who wanted the ledger.””
Elena closed the door behind us.
“I'm sorry,” she said.
“But we don't have much time.””
Luca looked at her.
“You told her?””
“Some of it.””
He shook his head.
“Then you need to tell her the rest.””
Elena took a long breath.
“The ledger doesn't just contain the names of stolen children.””
She looked at me.
“It contains the names of the people who paid to have them stolen.””
“And?””
“And one of those children was raised inside the Bellini family.””
I remembered Vanessa's expression in the chapel.
The fear.
The hatred.
The strange relief when she had whispered that the glass had never been meant for Michael.
Luca gripped my hand.
“Anna, there's something else. The person who ordered Vanessa to poison Michael wasn't her father.””
“Who was it?””
Luca looked at Elena.
Elena looked at me.
Then my brother spoke the words I would hear in my nightmares for years.
“Your real father is alive, Anna.””
May you like
He swallowed.
“And he is the man who taught Michael Moretti how to kill.””
