Chapter 5 - WHAT NIA NEVER TOLD HIM
Luca wanted to fly to Arizona that night.
I told him that was exactly the kind of reckless billionaire behavior that had always made me furious.
He almost argued.
Then he surprised me.
He listened.
His attorney arranged a recorded video conference instead.
I agreed to be present.
Not because Luca asked me to.
Because I wanted to hear Graham Pike explain why a letter about my unborn children had vanished.
The call began at 10:00 the next morning.
Graham looked older than I remembered.
His hair had gone gray.
His shoulders sagged.
When he saw me beside Luca, he looked away.
“Ms. Carter.”
“You remember me.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
I folded my hands.
“Then you remember my letter.”
Graham’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
Luca leaned toward the camera.
“Tell me everything.”
Graham exhaled.
“It started before the letter.”
My skin prickled.
“What started?”
“Ms. Shaw was worried about your marriage.”
Luca’s expression became dangerous.
“Why?”
“She said Nia was keeping you from becoming who you were supposed to become.”
I almost laughed.
Luca did not.
“She believed the marriage distracted you.”
“From what?”
“The company.”
Graham paused.
“And from her.”
Silence filled the room.
“She asked about fertility reports.”
Luca’s hand curled into a fist.
“How did she know about our fertility treatment?”
“Your personal schedule.”
“You gave her access?”
“She already had access to almost everything.”
I remembered Evelyn appearing at charity events.
Board dinners.
Even one medical fundraiser where Luca and I had attended together.
She had always been there.
Invisible because she was useful.
“What did she do with the reports?”
“I don’t know everything.”
Graham looked at me.
“I swear.”
“Tell us what you do know.”
“She told me certain medical information needed to reach Luca in a specific order.”
My heart began pounding.
“She wanted him to believe I was infertile.”
“I think she wanted him to believe the marriage had no future.”
Luca stood suddenly.
His chair scraped across the floor.
“Did she alter medical records?”
“I never saw her do it.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Graham rubbed his face.
“There was an administrator at the clinic.”
“What name?”
“I don’t know.”
Luca stared at him.
“You accepted one hundred seventy-five thousand dollars.”
Graham flinched.
“I was in debt.”
“You sold my family.”
“I told myself it was just correspondence.”
“My children.”
Luca’s voice broke.
“You erased my children from my life.”
Graham lowered his head.
“The letter arrived after the divorce.”
“What did Evelyn tell you to do?”
“Give it to her.”
“And then?”
“She wrote the response.”
I stopped breathing.
The email.
The rejection I had carried for six years.
It had never come from Luca.
“Did Luca know?”
“No.”
Graham’s answer was immediate.
“He never knew.”
I stood and walked away from the table.
I could not hear anything for several seconds.
All those years.
All those birthday candles.
All those nights when Eli asked why other kids had fathers at school events.
All those moments when I hated Luca for rejecting children he had never known existed.
“Nia.”
Luca approached slowly.
I turned on him.
“You still left me.”
He stopped.
“Yes.”
“You still decided I was the problem.”
“Yes.”
“You still made it possible for her to do this.”
His face crumpled.
“Yes.”
That answer hurt more than denial would have.
Because it was true.
Evelyn had manipulated us.
But she had not created every crack.
She had only widened cracks Luca and I had already allowed to form.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
Luca waited.
I forced the words out.
“I could have tried harder.”
His brow furrowed.
“After the email, I considered going to your house.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I was terrified you would look at me and confirm it.”
I swallowed.
“I chose silence too.”
For the first time, neither of us blamed the other.
May you like
And somehow, that was worse.
Because now there was no simple villain who could carry all of our regret.
