Chapter 1 - The Night She Couldn't Remember
Emma Carter woke with her lips pressed against the throat of the most feared Mafia Boss in New York.
Her heart stopped.
For three endless seconds, she couldn't understand why she was lying in a bed that wasn't hers, wrapped in black silk sheets that smelled of cedar and expensive cologne. Warm morning sunlight poured through towering windows, washing over a bedroom larger than her entire apartment. One powerful arm rested loosely around her waist. Her knee was trapped between his legs as though they had fallen asleep holding each other.
Then the man beneath her slowly opened his gray eyes.
Emma threw herself backward so violently that she almost fell off the bed.
"No..."
Her voice barely existed.
"This... this isn't real."
Lucian Moretti looked at her without the slightest hint of surprise. He didn't reach for her. He didn't yell for security. He simply sat up, running one hand across his face like a man who had expected this moment since dawn. That calmness terrified Emma far more than anger ever could.
She had worked inside the Moretti estate for only twelve days.
She cleaned guest rooms.
She folded towels.
She polished marble floors.
She had never stepped onto Lucian's private floor.
She had never been alone with him.
Now she had somehow spent the entire night in his bed.
Her breathing became uneven.
"How did I get here?"
Lucian remained silent for several seconds before answering.
"You walked in."
Emma stared at him.
"I don't even know where your room is."
"I know."
"I've never been on this floor."
"I know."
"I don't know your security code."
"I know."
Every answer made less sense than the last.
The last thing Emma remembered was climbing into bed after finishing work. She remembered locking her bedroom door. She remembered pulling the blanket over herself while snow hit the windows outside the servants' quarters.
Everything after that...
Was completely gone.
Lucian slowly stood from the bed.
His black dress shirt hung open across his chest.
One button was missing.
A faint scratch ran along the side of his neck.
Emma instinctively looked down.
Only then did she notice her right hand was still tightly closed.
Confused, she slowly opened her fingers.
A black shirt button rested in her trembling palm.
The thread attached to it had been freshly torn.
She looked at the button.
Then at Lucian's shirt.
Then back at him.
Her face lost every trace of color.
"...Why do I have this?"
Lucian lowered his eyes toward the button.
"Because you wouldn't let go of me."
Emma felt the room begin to spin.
"No..."
"I would never..."
"I know."
"You don't."
"I do."
His calm voice only made things worse.
"I wasn't awake."
"I know."
"I don't remember touching you."
"I know."
She covered her mouth.
"Please..."
Her voice cracked.
"Tell me what happened."
Lucian looked at her for a long moment.
"You entered my room at two thirteen this morning."
Emma shook her head.
"No."
"You walked straight past every security guard."
"No."
"You entered the correct elevator code."
"No..."
"You were sleepwalking."
Silence swallowed the room.
Emma laughed once.
A broken, frightened laugh.
"That's impossible."
Without another word, Lucian picked up a tablet from the bedside table and pressed play.
Security footage filled the screen.
The timestamp read 2:13 A.M.
Emma watched herself walking barefoot through the mansion.
Her eyes were open.
But they were empty.
She wasn't awake.
She moved slowly through the hallway as though following someone invisible.
One guard stepped in front of her.
She never looked at him.
When he touched her shoulder...
She suddenly burst into tears.
Not ordinary tears.
The desperate sobs of someone trapped inside a nightmare.
Her lips moved.
Although the cameras had no sound, Lucian quietly spoke the words for her.
"You kept saying..."
He paused.
"'Please don't leave me behind again.'"
Emma froze.
A violent headache exploded behind her eyes.
For the briefest moment...
She saw smoke.
Snow.
A little girl reaching toward someone disappearing through flames.
Then the memory vanished.
She grabbed the edge of the bed to steady herself.
"What happened after I came in?"
Lucian hesitated.
"You walked directly to me."
Emma slowly lifted her eyes.
"You hugged me."
Her breathing stopped.
"You wouldn't let go."
She shook her head over and over.
"No..."
"You called me Daniel."
The name struck her harder than anything else.
Daniel.
Her brother.
The brother who had died seventeen years earlier.
"I haven't said his name in years," she whispered.
"I know."
"You couldn't possibly know that."
"I didn't."
Lucian looked toward the window before continuing.
"You kept apologizing to him."
Emma's eyes filled with tears.
"What did I say?"
"You said you were sorry."
He spoke quietly.
"'I'm sorry I couldn't save you.'"
The words hit her like a knife.
Another memory flashed.
A burning warehouse.
Someone pushing her toward a door.
A man's voice shouting her name.
Then darkness.
She stumbled backward.
Lucian instinctively stepped forward to catch her, but stopped before touching her.
"You also asked me not to put your suitcase outside."
Emma frowned through her tears.
"My suitcase?"
"You begged me."
"I don't own a suitcase."
"I know."
"You said someone would find it if I left it in the snow."
Emma stared at him in complete confusion.
"I don't remember any of that."
"I know."
She suddenly looked at the scratch on his neck.
"Did..."
She struggled to finish the question.
"...did I kiss you?"
Lucian didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he looked at the button still resting in her palm.
Finally, he nodded once.
"You kissed me first."
Emma's face turned white.
"And you?"
"I kissed you back."
She closed her eyes.
"Oh God..."
"Only for a moment."
"Why?"
"Because I believed you were awake."
Her eyes snapped open.
"And then?"
"I realized you weren't."
Another silence settled between them.
Neither of them knew what frightened them more.
The kiss.
Or the fact that Emma couldn't remember any of it.
A sudden knock shattered the silence.
Three sharp knocks echoed through the bedroom.
"Mr. Moretti."
Teresa's voice sounded unusually tense.
"We have a problem."
Lucian opened the door.
Teresa stood outside with two armed guards behind her.
The elderly housekeeper looked exhausted.
"Someone broke into Miss Carter's room last night," she said. "Every drawer was searched."
Emma's stomach tightened.
"What?"
"They were looking for something."
"I don't own anything worth stealing."
"I don't think they were looking for money."
Teresa finally looked toward Emma.
Then her eyes stopped.
Not on Emma's face.
On the black button still resting in her hand.
The color drained from Teresa's face.
She took one slow step forward.
Her lips trembled.
"No..."
she whispered.
"That's impossible."
Emma instinctively closed her fingers around the button.
"What is it?"
Teresa couldn't take her eyes off it.
May you like
Her voice became barely audible.
"That button... disappeared seventeen years ago."
