Chapter 13 - The Sister Nobody Knew
Maeve stared at the stranger.
Her name was Claire Bennett.
Twenty-six.
Kathleen arrived an hour later.
One look at Claire and she sat down.
Maeve's anger returned.
"Tell me."
Kathleen did.
During her years in hiding, she'd lived under another identity.
She had married briefly.
Claire was born from that marriage.
After Hale located Kathleen again, she placed Claire with her father's family and disappeared a second time.
"You abandoned two daughters."
Kathleen cried.
"Yes."
No excuse.
No justification.
Just yes.
Claire had spent years searching.
Marco found her first.
He had sent the envelope before his arrest.
One final attempt to fracture the family.
But inside wasn't blackmail.
It was documentation proving Claire's identity.
Maeve looked at her sister.
They were strangers.
There was no instant embrace.
No magical connection.
Claire looked equally uncomfortable.
Finally Maeve asked, "Do you like pancakes?"
Claire blinked.
"What?"
"It's an important question."
"I guess."
"Blueberry?"
"Chocolate chip."
Maeve sighed.
"We have work to do."
Claire laughed.
That was enough to begin.
Over the next months, Falcone Manor became something nobody could have predicted.
Claire visited.
Kathleen stayed nearby but gave her daughters space.
Salvatore entered rehabilitation and began rebuilding his relationship with his sons.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Dante and Maeve dated.
Also slowly.
Also painfully.
Dante's idea of romance involved security details.
Maeve's involved turning them away.
Their first restaurant date included Nico at another table wearing sunglasses.
Maeve walked over.
"Go home."
"I'm eating."
"You hate sushi."
"I'm evolving."
She confiscated his car keys.
But beneath the comedy remained real fear.
Dante had spent his entire life losing people.
Love made him controlling when frightened.
Maeve refused to accept that.
One night they argued after Dante secretly doubled her security.
"You don't get to decide where I go."
"I get to keep you alive."
"No. You get to love me. Those aren't the same thing."
The words stopped him.
Maeve softened.
"I won't build a relationship inside a cage."
Dante removed the extra security the next morning.
Not because he stopped worrying.
Because he trusted her.
That was harder.
Months later, Maeve used part of her inheritance to establish a culinary training program for women rebuilding their lives after financial hardship.
She named it Moretti House after her father.
The first kitchen opened downtown.
Dante funded equipment anonymously.
Maeve discovered it anyway.
"Anonymous?"
"I tried."
"You put Falcone Industries on the delivery paperwork."
"I said I tried."
The opening was scheduled for Saturday.
The night before, Maeve returned to the manor to prepare food.
At midnight, Dante walked into the kitchen.
"You're still working."
"So are you."
"I came to find you."
Maeve smiled.
He reached into his jacket.
Her heartbeat changed.
But instead of a ring, he removed an old employment form.
Maeve stared.
"My application?"
"The fake one."
The document that had sent her to Falcone Manor.
Investigators had finally traced who created it.
Maeve looked at the signature.
Her breath stopped.
It wasn't Marco.
It wasn't Hale.
It was Kathleen.
Maeve looked toward the doorway.
May you like
Her mother was standing there.
And Kathleen whispered, "I sent you here."
