Chapter 12
Luca sat down.
Not dramatically.
His knees simply seemed to stop cooperating.
Tobin looked at him.
“Family puzzle?”
Luca swallowed.
“Yes.”
The boy smiled.
“I knew.”
Everyone looked at him.
Alessandra crouched.
“How?”
Tobin shrugged.
“He has my eyebrows.”
One of the capos laughed before catching himself.
Even Alessandra smiled.
Luca covered his mouth with one hand.
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“Please.”
The warmth disappeared.
She looked toward Tobin.
“One test and suddenly everybody forgets his mother hid him for three years.”
Luca stood.
“No.”
She looked at him.
“I forgot nothing.”
Vanessa’s smile sharpened.
“Good.”
“Then ask why Alessandra changed his last name.”
Alessandra’s eyes narrowed.
Tobin was Tobin Vescari.
Not Moretti.
Vanessa continued.
“If she wanted you to know him so badly, why raise him under another family?”
Alessandra answered herself.
“Because Vescari was mine.”
Vanessa scoffed.
“You mean the men you collected after Luca divorced you.”
“No.”
Alessandra stepped closer.
“The men who protected me when Ethan threatened my unborn child.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
Several capos turned toward him.
Vanessa laughed.
“Here we go again.”
“Every choice Alessandra makes becomes somebody else’s crime.”
Alessandra looked toward one of the older men behind her.
“Tell them.”
The capo stepped forward.
His name was Vincent Vescari.
Not blood family.
An old neighborhood boss who had taken Alessandra into his organization after she left Chicago.
“She came to us pregnant.”
His voice was rough.
“Scared.”
“Angry.”
“Alone.”
Ethan smirked.
“Beautiful story.”
Vincent ignored him.
“She asked for one thing.”
Luca looked over.
“What?”
“Not money.”
“Not revenge.”
“Protection until the baby was born.”
Alessandra’s eyes stayed on Ethan.
Vincent continued.
“Two weeks later, Cole men came asking where she was.”
The restaurant changed.
Ethan’s smile weakened.
Luca turned.
“You sent men after her?”
Ethan shrugged.
“To watch.”
Vincent laughed.
“You sent three armed men to watch a pregnant woman?”
Ethan’s eyes hardened.
“She was carrying a possible Moretti heir and refusing to cooperate.”
Alessandra’s capos shifted.
Luca’s face became cold.
“Cooperate with what?”
Ethan’s arrogance returned.
“With staying away.”
Silence.
He stepped forward.
“Do you understand what happens when an ex-wife appears pregnant after a public infertility scandal?”
His eyes moved around the room.
“Rumors.”
“Factions.”
“Questions.”
He pointed toward Luca.
“He was already losing face.”
“I kept the situation contained.”
Alessandra’s expression turned icy.
“You tried to frighten me into disappearing.”
“And it worked.”
Ethan smiled.
For a second.
Then Vincent answered.
“No.”
Ethan looked toward him.
Vincent stepped beside Alessandra.
“She didn’t disappear.”
“She built.”
Another capo joined.
Then another.
Ethan’s expression changed.
Every man who now stood behind Alessandra had first met her during those years.
Not as Luca’s wife.
As a woman surviving the consequences of Luca’s house.
Power shifted again.
Vanessa’s eyes narrowed.
“You all worship her because she had a baby and looked brave?”
Vincent looked at her.
“No.”
“Because when my crew was starving after our old boss vanished, she opened her own stores before she fed herself.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
Another capo spoke.
“When my brother disappeared, she found him.”
Another:
“When two crews wanted blood, she sat between them.”
Alessandra raised one hand.
They stopped.
She did not need testimonials.
She looked at Ethan.
“You sent men.”
“Yes.”
“Did Vanessa know?”
He smiled.
“Ask her.”
Vanessa’s face hardened.
Luca turned.
She rolled her eyes.
“Of course I knew.”
His expression darkened.
She smiled.
“What?”
“You wanted honesty tonight.”
“So enjoy it.”
Then she looked toward Alessandra.
“I wanted you gone.”
“No child.”
“No calls.”
“No dramatic return.”
Her voice became vicious.
“And if three men outside your apartment were enough to make you run, you were never strong enough to stand beside Luca anyway.”
Alessandra stared.
Vanessa smiled.
Then Vincent spoke quietly.
“She didn’t run because of them.”
Vanessa looked over.
“No?”
Vincent’s gaze shifted toward Luca.
“She ran because someone played her a recording.”
Luca froze.
Alessandra’s face changed.
May you like
Vanessa stopped smiling.
A recording Luca had never known existed had convinced Alessandra that staying near him would endanger Tobin.
