Chapter 6 - THE GIRL WHO GREW UP WITHOUT A NAME
“That's not possible,” I whispered.
Father Anthony was still holding my wrist.
“Emily, how old are you?”
“Twenty-five.”
“When is your birthday?”
I swallowed.
“October fourteenth.”
Vanessa made a small sound.
It was her birthday too.
Father Anthony closed his eyes.
“Giovanni was searching for a girl born that day.”
Luca reached for the hospital bracelet.
“Father, are you certain?”
“No,” the priest answered. “And I won't pretend to be.”
He gently released my wrist.
“But that engraving is unusual.”
I pulled my hand close to my chest.
My mother had given me the bracelet when I turned eighteen.
She'd told me it belonged to the woman who brought me into the world.
I had always known I was adopted.
But I'd never asked many questions.
My mother, Sarah Collins, was the person who'd raised me.
She'd held my hand on the first day of school.
Sat through terrible elementary-school concerts.
Worked late shifts at a pharmacy so I could attend community college.
When she suffered her stroke, I was the one who helped her learn to button her coat again.
The word adopted had never meant unloved.
But suddenly, I realized there might be an entire piece of my life that nobody had explained.
Vanessa stared at me.
“You?”
Her expression shifted between disbelief and anger.
“Emily is my sister?”
“I haven't said that,” Father Anthony replied.
Michael looked relieved.
“Exactly. Let's not build fantasies around a bracelet.”
I turned toward him.
“Why are you so frightened?”
He stiffened.
“I'm not.”
“You've tried to stop every conversation since last night.”
“Because people are making accusations without evidence.”
Luca stepped between us.
“Michael, enough.”
Then he looked at me.
“Emily, I know this is overwhelming. You don't owe us any answers.”
I nodded.
But my legs felt weak.
Maria moved toward me.
“Sweetheart, sit down.”
I wanted to tell her I was fine.
Instead, I sat.
Vanessa remained standing by the window.
For months, she'd treated me as someone beneath her.
Now she looked at me as though she didn't know which one of us she was supposed to be.
Father Anthony opened Giovanni's letter again.
“There may be more here.”
Luca took the pages.
The letter explained that Elena had been terrified Victor would take her daughters away.
She had asked Giovanni to help her place one child somewhere safe.
The arrangement was supposed to be temporary.
But after Elena's death, everything changed.
Giovanni wrote that he had paid a trusted intermediary to locate the baby.
He received reports for years.
Then the reports stopped.
“He believed she was alive,” Luca said.
Father Anthony nodded.
“But he never knew where she had gone.”
I looked at the silver bracelet.
“What does A.M.M. stand for?”
Maria began crying.
“Anna Maria Moretti.”
Luca turned.
“Mom?”
She smiled sadly.
“Your father always wanted a daughter. We had three wonderful sons, but after our youngest boy was born, I couldn't have any more children.”
She touched the bracelet.
“He said if we ever had a girl, he'd call her Anna Maria.”
Vanessa frowned.
“Why would he put that name on Elena's baby?”
Maria looked at her.
“Because he wanted to protect her.”
Luca studied the letter.
“Dad intended to adopt the child?”
“Perhaps,” Maria whispered.
Michael shook his head.
“No. Dad would never have done that without telling Mom.”
Maria looked at him.
“He kept the entire burial from me, Michael. Apparently, there were many things your father didn't tell me.”
The honesty of her answer made him fall silent.
But I couldn't stop thinking about my own mother.
She was waiting at home.
She'd probably be watching the morning news, her coffee cooling beside her favorite armchair.
She had no idea I was sitting in a room with strangers who might be my biological family.
“I need to call my mother,” I whispered.
Luca nodded.
“Of course.”
He offered me privacy.
I stepped into the corridor and dialed her number.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Emily?”
Her speech was slower since the stroke, but I knew every familiar change in her voice.
“Hi, Mom.”
“You sound upset.”
I pressed my hand against the wall.
“Mom, can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“Do you remember where you got my silver bracelet?”
Silence.
“Mom?”
“I wondered when you'd ask.”
My knees weakened.
“Why?”
She took a long breath.
“Because someone came to see me last week.”
My heart began pounding.
“Who?”
“A man. He said his name was Michael Moretti.”
I closed my eyes.
“He asked about me?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing.”
Her voice sharpened with an old strength I hadn't heard in months.
“Emily, he offered me money.”
My stomach dropped.
“How much?”
“Enough to pay my medical bills.”
I couldn't speak.
“He wanted the bracelet and any adoption papers I had.”
“Did you give them to him?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because he didn't ask whether you were happy. He didn't ask whether you were safe. He only wanted to know what I could prove.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“Mom…”
“And because, sweetheart, I know what happens when people think money gives them the right to own somebody else's story.”
I pressed my hand over my mouth.
She paused.
“Come home when you can. There's something I should have told you years ago.”
I returned to the visiting room.
Michael was arguing quietly with Luca.
When he saw me, he stopped.
“Your brother visited my mother last week,” I said.
Everyone turned.
“He offered to pay her medical expenses in exchange for my bracelet and adoption records.”
Luca stared at Michael.
“Tell me she's mistaken.”
Michael lowered his eyes.
“I was trying to prevent a scandal.”
Vanessa walked toward him.
“My sister?”
“We don't know that.”
“Then why did you visit her mother?”
Michael looked exhausted.
“Because Victor found Emily first.”
A terrible silence followed.
Luca spoke slowly.
“Victor knows about Emily?”
Michael nodded.
“He discovered the adoption trail months ago.”
Vanessa looked toward me.
“And you've been protecting him?”
“No,” Michael said sharply. “I've been trying to keep him from using her.”
I shook my head.
“You threatened my job.”
Michael looked ashamed.
“I thought if you left the house, Victor couldn't connect you to the family.”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“You should have told me.”
Michael looked directly at his brother.
“You wouldn't have believed me.”
Then he reached into his jacket.
Luca stiffened.
But Michael only removed a folded letter.
“Victor sent this yesterday.”
He placed it on the table.
Luca opened it.
The letter contained a proposed agreement concerning the Moretti shipping company.
Victor would withdraw a damaging allegation about Giovanni in exchange for a controlling stake.
Beneath the agreement was one sentence typed in bold.
The second daughter must remain unidentified until transfer is complete.
Vanessa whispered, “He was planning to use Emily against you.”
Michael nodded.
“That was always the plan.”
I stared at the paper.
Someone I'd never met had been making decisions about my life.
And my own future had become a bargaining chip in a family I might belong to.
Luca folded the letter.
“This ends now.”
Michael looked up.
“You don't understand what Victor has.”
“Then show me.”
Michael hesitated.
“He has a recording.”
Vanessa went still.
“Of what?”
“Dad admitting responsibility for Elena's death.”
Maria staggered.
I caught her before she fell.
Luca stared at Michael.
“Did you hear it?”
Michael nodded.
“Yes.”
“And what exactly did Dad say?”
Michael's eyes filled.
“He said, ‘I buried Elena, and I let the man who killed her walk away.’”
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Then Father Anthony looked at the old letter in Luca's hand.
“Michael,” he asked quietly, “did you hear the entire recording?”
Michael frowned.
“Enough.”
The priest shook his head.
“Then you may have heard exactly what Victor wanted you to hear.”
He turned to me.
“Emily, your mother may be the only person who knows where Elena's other daughter was taken.”
I swallowed.
“Why would she know?”
Father Anthony looked toward the music box.
“Because Sarah Collins wasn't just the woman who adopted that baby.”
May you like
His voice softened.
“She was the nurse who delivered Elena's twins.”
