Chapter 2 - THE NIGHT THEY HAD NO NAMES
Mara did not remember deciding to enter Luca’s car.
She only remembered the warmth.
The door closing.
The cemetery disappearing behind tinted glass.
And Luca sitting across from her as if the last six months had collapsed into a single impossible moment.
His driver pulled onto the road.
Luca handed her another handkerchief.
“For your lip.”
Mara took it.
“Thank you.”
He watched her press it carefully against the cut.
“You disappeared.”
She looked toward the window.
“So did you.”
“I came back.”
“What?”
“To the bar.”
Mara turned.
Luca leaned back.
“Three nights later.”
Her heart stumbled.
“You said you were leaving Chicago.”
“I delayed the trip.”
“Why?”
His eyes held hers.
“You know why.”
Mara looked away again.
Six months earlier, she had walked into a quiet hotel bar after signing the last page of her divorce papers.
She had been wearing a blue dress borrowed from another maid.
She had ordered whiskey even though she hated whiskey.
Luca had been sitting alone in the darkest corner.
Neither had offered a last name.
She told him her name was Mara.
He told her his name was Luca.
Nothing more.
For a few hours, they had pretended they were ordinary people.
He had not asked why she cried in the bathroom.
She had not asked why three men in expensive suits kept watching the doors.
When she eventually told him her husband had left her for someone richer, Luca had not offered empty sympathy.
He simply said, “Then he was poorer than he knew.”
Mara had remembered that sentence.
She had hated herself for remembering it.
“What happened after that night?” Luca asked.
“I woke up before you.”
“I know.”
“I left.”
“I also know that.”
“You didn’t know my last name.”
“No.”
“And I didn’t know yours.”
His mouth tightened.
“That part was intentional.”
Mara almost smiled.
“So was mine.”
The car turned through downtown.
Mara looked around.
“Where are we going?”
“To a doctor.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“No.”
His expression hardened.
She did not flinch.
“You don’t get to order me around because you suddenly think this baby might be yours.”
He stared at her.
Then his expression softened slightly.
“You’re right.”
The immediate agreement surprised her.
Luca spoke again.
“Where do you want to go?”
“I need to get back to work.”
“No.”
Mara raised an eyebrow.
“You just said I was right.”
“You were right about the baby.”
His jaw tightened.
“You are absolutely wrong about returning to a house where someone followed you to a cemetery and hit you.”
“I need that job.”
“Why?”
The question almost offended her.
“Because normal people need money.”
“You were married to Preston Hale.”
Mara stiffened.
“So you know who I am now.”
“I made a call from the cemetery.”
“Of course you did.”
“He is worth millions.”
“He is.”
“You received nothing from the divorce.”
Mara said nothing.
Luca’s eyes narrowed.
“Why?”
“Because the papers said the house belonged to his family trust.”
“And?”
“The accounts were empty by the time the divorce was finalized.”
“That sounds convenient.”
“It was.”
“And somehow you became a maid in his new wife’s house.”
Mara laughed without humor.
“Also convenient.”
Luca leaned forward.
“Explain.”
Mara looked down at her hands.
“My mother got sick before she died.”
“Cancer?”
“Yes.”
“Treatment was expensive.”
“I borrowed money.”
“From the Thornes?”
Her silence answered him.
Luca’s face darkened.
“Senator Charles Thorne?”
“His foundation.”
“There is no difference.”
“They paid the hospital.”
“And in exchange?”
“Employment.”
Luca stared at her.
Mara continued.
“Three years.”
His voice dropped.
“You have been working inside your former husband’s house for three years because his new father-in-law owns your medical debt?”
“They bought the debt.”
“That arrangement is illegal.”
“When the man arranging it writes half the laws in the state, legality becomes flexible.”
Luca looked toward the front of the car.
“Antonio.”
The driver met his eyes in the mirror.
“Sir.”
“Call Mercer.”
Mara frowned.
“Who is Mercer?”
“My attorney.”
“I don’t want your attorney.”
“Then consider him mine.”
Luca’s phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen.
Something in his face changed.
“What?”
He turned the phone toward her.
A security photograph showed a man entering the cemetery earlier that morning.
Mara recognized him immediately.
Daniel Cross.
Senator Thorne’s private security chief.
Luca enlarged the image.
“He arrived twenty minutes before Bianca.”
Mara’s stomach tightened.
Luca looked down at the bracelet still resting in his palm.
“You said this belonged to your mother.”
“Yes.”
“What did Eleanor do before she became sick?”
Mara hesitated.
“She worked as an accountant.”
“For whom?”
Mara swallowed.
“Senator Thorne.”
The car became very quiet.
Luca looked again at the tiny hidden seam inside the bracelet clasp.
Then at Mara.
“This wasn’t about Preston.”
Mara whispered, “What do you mean?”
Luca closed his hand around the bracelet.
“I mean Bianca didn’t follow you to the cemetery because she thought you slept with her husband.”
May you like
He looked out the rear window toward a black SUV that had appeared two cars behind them.
“She followed you because somebody thinks your mother left you something.”
