Chapter 7 - M-17
My mother’s name was Elise Bennett.
At least that was the name I knew.
Luka told me her birth name had been Elise Moretti.
I laughed because the alternative was screaming.
“No.”
“She was my father’s younger sister.”
“No.”
“Mara—”
“My mother had no siblings.”
“She told you she had no siblings.”
I backed away from him.
“You’re saying you’re related to me?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Your mother was my aunt.”
I stared at his face.
The dark eyes.
The shape of his nose.
The expression my mother used whenever she was trying not to cry.
I saw it then.
I hated that I saw it.
I lowered myself into the chair.
“So what does that make you?”
“Your cousin.”
Not my brother.
Not a stranger.
Family.
I looked at Sophie.
“And Sophie carries Moretti genetics through me.”
“Yes.”
“That’s the marker.”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
For twenty-five years, an entire branch of my family had been hidden from me.
“Why?”
Luka sat across from me.
“Because Elise testified against members of her own family.”
My eyes opened.
“My mother?”
“She discovered Richard Cole was diverting Moretti money with help from my uncle Carlo.”
“Your uncle?”
“My father’s brother.”
“Where is he now?”
“Dead.”
“How?”
“Officially, a boating accident.”
That word officially carried too much weight.
Luka continued.
“Your mother became Witness M-17.”
I finally understood.
M.
Moretti.
Seventeen.
Her protection designation.
“M-17 wasn’t a medical case.”
“No.”
“It was a witness file.”
“Yes.”
“Then why was it in the hospital?”
“Because when you were born, your mother’s protected identity collided with hospital records.”
He leaned forward.
“Someone accessed those records the night you were born.”
“Richard.”
“We believe so.”
“Why?”
“To find Elise.”
A chill moved through me.
“My mother was alive for sixteen more years.”
“Yes.”
“So he found her eventually.”
Luka didn’t answer.
I remembered the night she died.
A highway.
Rain.
A truck that crossed the median.
Police called it an accident.
I looked at him.
“No.”
“Mara.”
“No.”
“Daniel never believed it was an accident.”
My breath left my body.
“Dad told me the driver fell asleep.”
“That was the official report.”
I covered my mouth.
Sophie stirred.
I immediately lifted her.
Her tiny fingers closed around mine.
Luka waited until she settled.
Then he slid a sealed envelope across the table.
“What is that?”
“Your mother’s last statement.”
My hands shook.
“She left a statement?”
“To Daniel.”
“Have you read it?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it was addressed to you.”
I broke the seal.
Inside was one page.
My mother’s handwriting.
Mara,
If Daniel gives you this, then hiding the truth has become more dangerous than telling it.
The Morettis are not all your enemies.
Luka kept his promise once before you were old enough to remember him.
Trust the man with the black compass tattoo.
My eyes flew to Luka’s hand.
A compass was tattooed across it.
I looked back at the letter.
Richard Cole knows what happened the night you were born.
But the truth that can destroy him is not about your birth.
It is about his son.
I stopped reading.
Ethan.
The final line was underlined.
Daniel has the DNA.
My hands went cold.
I looked up at Luka.
“What DNA?”
May you like
His face had gone pale.
“That,” he said, “is the one thing Daniel never told me.”
