Chapter 1
Ethan was still beneath the tilted service station when Vanessa shoved one of the fallen privacy panels off her gown.
She did not look embarrassed.
She looked offended.
As though Alessandra had violated some rule by refusing to be humiliated properly.
Tobin stood behind Alessandra’s leg.
One small hand clutched the fabric of her pantsuit.
The other held a folded paper lion.
Its edges were crushed from how tightly he had been holding it.
Luca noticed.
So did Alessandra.
She crouched.
“You okay?”
Tobin nodded.
Then looked toward Luca.
“I made this for him.”
Alessandra’s expression changed.
“You did?”
Tobin nodded again.
“Because he looks sad in the picture.”
Across the room, Luca went completely still.
Vanessa laughed.
Loud.
Cruel.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
She brushed a strand of hair from her face.
“Don’t waste your little craft project.”
Tobin looked at her.
Vanessa smiled.
“That man doesn’t collect other men’s mistakes.”
Several diners visibly stiffened.
Alessandra slowly stood.
Luca’s jaw tightened.
“Vanessa.”
She turned.
“What?”
His tone sharpened.
“Enough.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“Now it’s enough?”
She looked toward Alessandra.
“Five years ago you let half of Chicago whisper that she was defective, but suddenly I’m cruel because I hurt the feelings of a child she brought here for decoration?”
Tobin’s fingers tightened around the paper lion.
Alessandra saw it.
Her face became completely still.
Vanessa stepped closer.
Still haughty.
Still convinced the engagement ring on her finger protected her.
“You came into his restaurant dressed like a don and brought a child to make a point.”
Her lips curled.
“How desperate.”
Alessandra’s eyes held hers.
“You think I came for Luca?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Please.”
She looked Alessandra up and down.
“You spent years being the wife who couldn’t do the one thing every Moretti woman before you managed without turning it into a tragedy.”
Tobin looked up at Alessandra.
“Mom?”
Alessandra’s hand immediately rested against his hair.
Vanessa saw it.
And kept going.
“You couldn’t give Luca a child, so now you walk in holding somebody else’s and expect everyone to applaud?”
Luca took one step forward.
“I said enough.”
Vanessa turned on him.
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“You don’t get to suddenly become noble because she found a little boy willing to call her Mommy.”
Tobin’s lower lip trembled.
Then he held the paper lion against his chest.
“I’m not borrowed.”
Silence.
That sentence cut through the room harder than shouting.
Alessandra crouched again.
“I know.”
Tobin looked toward Luca.
Then whispered:
“Mom said grown-ups say mean things when they’re scared.”
Several capos hid faint smiles.
Vanessa’s face hardened.
“Cute.”
She looked at Alessandra.
“You trained him well.”
Ethan shoved another tray away and finally stood.
His cheek was already swelling.
He adjusted his jacket.
Still arrogant.
Still staring at Alessandra as if the first exchange had been an inconvenience rather than a warning.
“You always were theatrical.”
Alessandra looked at him.
Ethan smiled.
“One good suit, a few rented capos behind you, and suddenly you think people forgot what you were.”
One of the men behind Alessandra shifted.
Ethan glanced at him.
“Sit down.”
The capo did not.
Another man rose from a table near the windows.
Then another.
Not hired guards.
Chicago men.
Men Luca knew.
Men Ethan knew.
They moved behind Alessandra without being called.
Ethan’s smile weakened.
Only slightly.
Vanessa stared.
Luca looked around the room.
For the first time, he understood that Alessandra had not entered his territory alone.
She had entered with loyalty.
Earned somewhere he had never bothered to look.
Alessandra turned toward Ethan.
“You were saying?”
His nostrils flared.
Then he laughed.
“I said you used to be nothing.”
Alessandra’s eyes narrowed.
Ethan continued.
“You were Luca’s pretty wife until the doctors told everyone the truth.”
Luca’s face changed.
Alessandra noticed.
“So you remember the doctors.”
Ethan’s breathing paused.
One second.
Too long.
Vanessa immediately cut in.
“Everybody remembers.”
Alessandra looked toward her.
“No.”
Her gaze returned to Ethan.
“I asked him.”
Power shifted.
Ethan realized it.
He straightened his shoulders.
“What about them?”
Alessandra slowly reached into Tobin’s cardigan pocket.
She removed a small silver bracelet.
Tobin had been wearing it loosely over his sleeve.
She placed it on the table.
Luca’s eyes dropped.
Everything in his face changed.
Vanessa saw it.
“So what?”
Her voice came too quickly.
Alessandra looked at Luca.
“You recognize it.”
He did not answer.
An older capo near the bar did.
“That was yours.”
Every head turned.
The old man walked closer.
He picked up the bracelet without touching Alessandra.
The tiny Moretti wolf was engraved beside two initials.
L.M.
Luca Moretti.
The capo looked at Tobin.
Then at Luca.
“I remember your mother fastening this around your wrist when you were three.”
Luca’s face went pale.
Vanessa stopped smiling.
Alessandra’s eyes remained on him.
“I never gave Tobin that bracelet.”
Silence.
Luca looked at her.
“Then who did?”
Alessandra’s voice lowered.
“It was inside his hospital blanket the morning he was born.”
Ethan’s eyes moved instinctively toward Vanessa.
Alessandra caught it.
So did Luca.
May you like
And suddenly the question was no longer whether Tobin belonged at the table.
It was who had known about him from the very first day of his life.
