Chapter 3 - The Moretti Agreement
Emma stared at the photograph until the edges of the room seemed to blur.
“No.”
Adrian said nothing.
“That isn’t her.”
“It is.”
“Your mother was in Florida.”
“She told us she was.”
Emma slid down from the examination table.
“Why would your mother want me to leave you?”
Adrian looked exhausted.
“I don’t know.”
“You always say that when the answer is going to hurt me.”
“This time it hurts me too.”
The woman in the security image was unquestionably Lucia Moretti.
Elegant posture.
Silver-blonde hair.
Dark coat.
Emma had lived with Lucia’s quiet contempt for three years.
Never loud enough to confront.
Never obvious enough to accuse.
A compliment that contained an insult.
A smile that never reached her eyes.
Lucia had believed Emma was too ordinary for Adrian.
Not wealthy enough.
Not connected enough.
Not Moretti enough.
Yet Emma had never imagined this.
“She set me up.”
“It looks that way.”
“She wanted me to believe you were planning to take my child before I was even pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian took a long breath.
“My father had an agreement with Victor Salerno’s father.”
“There it is.”
“I didn’t know the details.”
“You expect me to believe your family made agreements about your future children and you didn’t know?”
“I knew there was an inheritance provision.”
Emma laughed bitterly.
“Of course there was.”
“It wasn’t about money.”
“What was it about?”
Adrian hesitated.
She stared at him.
“Tell me.”
“My grandfather built most of the legal side of our businesses with Salerno money.”
“And?”
“When the partnership ended, neither family trusted the other. They created something called the Continuity Agreement.”
“That sounds comforting.”
“It wasn’t.”
“What did it say?”
“I only saw part of it after my father died.”
“Adrian.”
“The first direct descendant of my marriage would inherit controlling voting rights in several holding companies when they turned twenty-five.”
Emma stared.
“Our daughter?”
“If the agreement is still valid.”
“And Victor wants control.”
“I don’t know.”
“Stop saying that.”
Adrian paced once across the room.
“Victor’s father died without a legitimate heir recognized by the agreement.”
“So?”
“So control shifts entirely to the Moretti branch if I have a child.”
Emma slowly understood.
“Then Victor doesn’t want this baby.”
Adrian looked at her.
“No.”
The word landed heavily.
“He wants to prevent her from inheriting.”
Emma placed both hands over her belly.
The instinct was immediate.
Animal.
Protective.
“Then we leave Chicago.”
“We?”
She realized what she had said.
Adrian did too.
Emma looked away.
“I mean the baby and me.”
He didn’t challenge her.
“Leaving won’t solve it if Victor has been tracking you for eight months.”
“What will?”
“Finding the original agreement.”
“Where is it?”
“My father kept everything important in a private archive.”
“Where?”
Adrian gave her a grim look.
“My mother’s house.”
Lucia Moretti had died six months earlier after a sudden stroke.
Her mansion in Lake Forest had remained closed since the funeral.
Emma had not attended.
By then she had already disappeared.
Adrian drove Emma there that evening despite her objections.
She refused to stay at one of his properties.
He refused to let her return to her apartment.
They compromised on a destination neither of them wanted.
Lucia’s house.
Marco followed in another vehicle.
The ride north was silent for ten minutes.
Then Adrian spoke.
“Have you chosen a name?”
Emma looked out the window.
“Yes.”
He waited.
She almost made him ask.
“Sophie.”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“My grandmother’s name.”
“I know.”
“You chose it because of her?”
“I liked her.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
“She liked you too.”
“She was the only Moretti who did.”
“That’s not true.”
Emma turned.
“You don’t count.”
“I should.”
“You stopped being a Moretti when we were alone.”
His expression softened.
“That was the point.”
The old intimacy frightened her more than Victor.
She looked away again.
They reached the mansion at dusk.
Marco checked the property before allowing Emma inside.
Adrian almost argued with him about the delay, then stopped when Emma raised an eyebrow.
“You hired paranoid people,” she said.
“I pay them to be paranoid.”
Inside, Lucia’s house smelled faintly of cedar and furniture polish.
Nothing had changed.
Emma hated how familiar it felt.
The portrait in the foyer.
The piano nobody played.
The antique clock Lucia wound every Sunday.
They went upstairs.
Adrian opened his mother’s private office.
The desk drawers were empty.
Too empty.
Marco searched the bookshelves.
Emma noticed a frame missing from the wall.
“What was there?”
Adrian looked.
“My parents’ wedding picture.”
“Why remove one photograph?”
Marco ran his fingers along the wall.
Then stopped.
“Because it wasn’t the photograph.”
He pressed something.
A section of paneling opened.
Behind it was a small steel safe.
Adrian stared.
“I didn’t know that existed.”
Emma folded her arms.
“I’m starting to think nobody in this family knew anything.”
Marco examined the keypad.
“Four digits.”
Adrian tried Lucia’s birthday.
Nothing.
His father’s.
Nothing.
Their wedding anniversary.
Nothing.
Emma looked at the empty space where the photograph had hung.
“What date were they married?”
Adrian told her.
“Reverse it.”
He entered the numbers.
The safe clicked.
Inside were three folders.
A jewelry box.
A sealed envelope.
And a recorder.
Adrian picked up the recorder.
Pressed play.
Lucia’s voice filled the room.
“If you’re hearing this, then I failed.”
Emma felt cold.
Lucia continued.
“Adrian, there are things your father did that I spent years trying to undo.”
Adrian sat slowly.
“The Continuity Agreement was never meant to protect our family. It was designed to imprison it.”
Emma glanced at him.
Lucia’s recorded voice trembled.
“Victor learned about Emma before your wedding. He knew a child between you would end his claim forever.”
Emma’s hand moved to her stomach.
“I tried to keep her away from all of this.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“I thought frightening her away would save her.”
Emma felt anger rise.
Lucia’s voice cracked.
“I was wrong.”
The recording paused.
Then resumed.
“Victor has someone inside your organization.”
Adrian looked at Marco.
Marco went still.
Lucia continued.
“Someone close enough to copy your credentials. Close enough to erase security footage. Close enough to know where Emma went.”
Emma’s heart began pounding.
“The agreement can be destroyed only by the direct heir voluntarily renouncing control after birth. Until then, the child remains the center of the claim.”
Adrian stood.
“So we renounce it.”
Lucia’s voice kept going.
“But Victor will never allow the child to reach that day if he believes the agreement survives.”
Emma’s knees weakened.
Adrian reached for her.
She allowed him to steady her.
The recording ended with one final sentence.
“I am sorry, Emma.”
Silence.
Marco checked the remaining folders.
“Here.”
He opened one.
Legal papers.
Old signatures.
The Continuity Agreement.
Adrian took it.
“We destroy it.”
Marco shook his head.
“If there are registered copies—”
“We find them.”
Emma stared at the document.
A piece of paper had turned her unborn daughter into leverage before she had taken her first breath.
Adrian looked at her.
“I promise you, nobody touches Sophie.”
Emma believed that he meant it.
That was the problem.
Adrian’s promises had always been strongest when they were impossible.
Marco’s phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then slowly looked at Adrian.
“What?”
Marco lowered the phone.
“The clinic called.”
Emma frowned.
“Why?”
“Someone accessed Ms. Bennett’s medical file twenty minutes ago.”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“Who?”
Marco swallowed.
“They used my credentials.”
Nobody moved.
Marco reached inside his jacket.
Adrian stepped between him and Emma.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not armed.”
“Then show me your hands.”
Marco raised them.
Emma stared at the man who had protected Adrian for twelve years.
Then a sound came from downstairs.
The front door opened.
One set of footsteps entered the mansion.
Slow.
Unhurried.
A familiar voice called from the foyer.
“Adrian?”
Emma recognized the voice before Adrian did.
Her blood turned cold.
May you like
It belonged to the one person she had trusted with the pregnancy from the beginning.
Her older sister, Rachel.
