Chapter 1 - THE NAME ON THE FORM
For several seconds, I could only stare at Luka Moretti’s signature.
My daughter slept against my chest as if nothing in the world had changed.
But everything had.
“You can’t just sign that.”
My voice came out weaker than I wanted.
Luka looked toward the closed hospital door.
“I can correct a signature later.”
He glanced at the baby.
“I can’t correct what happens if Ethan comes back with lawyers before sunrise.”
My stomach tightened.
I had never told Luka my husband’s name.
“How do you know Ethan?”
Before Luka could answer, footsteps approached in the hallway.
The door opened.
Ethan Mercer stood there.
Vanessa Cole was beside him.
The same woman he had chosen over me only minutes after I delivered his daughter.
Ethan’s eyes went immediately to Luka.
Then to the form on the table.
His face changed.
“What the hell did you do?”
Luka moved between Ethan and my bed.
“Something you should have done.”
Ethan lunged for the paperwork.
Luka placed one hand over it.
He barely moved.
Ethan stopped.
Vanessa stared at Luka’s tattoos.
Then she whispered something that made my skin turn cold.
“Moretti.”
She knew him.
Luka noticed.
“So you do remember me.”
Vanessa immediately looked away.
Ethan pointed toward the door.
“Get out.”
Luka smiled without warmth.
“This isn’t your room anymore.”
“It’s my wife’s room.”
“You abandoned your wife.”
Ethan looked at me.
“I came back, Claire.”
My name was Claire Bennett Mercer.
And hearing him say it now made me feel foolish for ever taking his last name.
Ethan’s gaze dropped to our daughter.
“I’m taking Emma home tomorrow.”
“No.”
The word escaped my mouth before fear could stop it.
Ethan stared at me.
Luka didn’t.
He had expected my answer.
“You don’t have anywhere to take her.”
Ethan’s voice became quieter.
“You have no savings.”
“No job until your maternity leave ends.”
“And your apartment lease is in my company’s name.”
Every sentence was deliberate.
He wasn’t warning me.
He was reminding me how carefully he had built my dependence on him.
Then Luka pulled a phone from his coat.
“Actually, Claire has a place to go.”
Ethan laughed.
“Who are you supposed to be?”
Luka’s eyes hardened.
“The man her father asked to find her if Mercer Medical ever touched her records.”
The room went silent.
My father had disappeared nine years earlier.
No body had ever been recovered.
I stopped breathing.
“What did you just say?”
Luka looked at me.
“Your father knew this day might come.”
Ethan went pale.
Vanessa stepped backward.
Luka continued.
“And he left instructions.”
I felt the room tilt.
“What instructions?”
Luka’s answer came quietly.
“To open File M-17 the moment your child was born.”
Ethan moved so quickly that his chair crashed against the wall.
“No.”
That single word told me more than anything Luka had said.
Ethan knew exactly what M-17 was.
May you like
And he was terrified of it.
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