Chapter 3 - EVELYN’S FIRST LIE
Luca did not sleep that night.
I learned that later.
He returned to the penthouse he shared with Evelyn and placed a copy of my email on the kitchen counter.
She was waiting for him.
Apparently, she had already changed from the ivory dress she wore at the restaurant.
She stood beside the windows in a silk robe while the Chicago skyline glittered behind her.
“You embarrassed me tonight.”
Those were Evelyn’s first words.
Luca dropped the paper onto the counter.
“Did you write this?”
Evelyn looked down.
Her face barely changed.
“What is it?”
“Read it.”
She did.
Too calmly.
Luca noticed.
“I asked you a question.”
“I worked with dozens of communications from your office back then.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Evelyn placed the page down.
“You were going through a brutal divorce.”
“And?”
“Your staff protected you.”
“From my pregnant ex-wife?”
Evelyn’s mouth tightened.
“We did not know she was pregnant.”
Luca stared at her.
“That message says ‘this situation.’”
Silence.
“You knew there was a situation.”
“Luca.”
“Who signed for Nia’s letter?”
“I have no idea.”
“Who had access to my private correspondence?”
“Half your executive office.”
“Who drafted legal language for personal matters?”
Evelyn stopped answering.
Seven years earlier, she had been Moretti Global’s senior corporate counsel.
She had handled Luca’s acquisitions.
Lawsuits.
Confidential negotiations.
And eventually, parts of his divorce.
I had known Evelyn.
Not well.
But I remembered her.
Always polished.
Always helpful.
Always nearby.
Luca stepped closer.
“Did you know Nia was pregnant?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
He recognized it.
Evelyn recognized that he recognized it.
Then she changed tactics.
“Even if the children are yours, you need to think carefully.”
“They’re mine.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I looked at them.”
“That is not evidence.”
“They have my face.”
“So do half the Moretti family.”
Luca’s eyes hardened.
“Do not speak about them like a corporate problem.”
Evelyn folded her arms.
“You met them four hours ago.”
“They are children.”
“They are Nia’s children.”
“Possibly mine.”
Evelyn turned away.
That tiny movement told him more than any confession could have.
“Why are you afraid?”
She turned back.
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
For the first time, Evelyn’s control slipped.
“You disappear emotionally for years, and suddenly one lunch changes everything?”
Luca stared at her.
“What does our marriage have to do with a letter from seven years ago?”
Evelyn said nothing.
That silence followed Luca all night.
At 6:12 the next morning, he called Moretti Global’s head of security.
“I need archived access records from my executive floor.”
The security director hesitated.
“From what year?”
“Seven years ago.”
“That may take time.”
“Find them.”
Luca ended the call.
Then he called his personal attorney.
“I need the delivery signature for a certified letter sent to my office seven years ago.”
“Do you have the tracking number?”
“Yes.”
“Where did you get it?”
Luca looked at the copy I had given him.
“From someone I should have believed a long time ago.”
By noon, he had his first answer.
The letter had been delivered.
Someone had signed for it.
The signature belonged to Graham Pike.
Luca’s executive assistant at the time.
A man who had abruptly resigned three months after our divorce.
A man Luca had not spoken to in six years.
May you like
And a man who had received a $175,000 payment from a consulting company two weeks after my letter disappeared.
The consulting company was controlled by Evelyn Shaw’s brother.
