Chapter 11 - LUCA’S OWN BETRAYAL.
Maya did not speak to Luca for twenty-three minutes.
They sat ten feet apart in her apartment.
Isabella slept between them.
Daniel had left.
The security officer remained downstairs.
Traffic moved outside.
Someone in the neighboring apartment dropped something heavy and cursed.
Ordinary life continued.
Maya stared at the photograph of herself meeting Daniel.
The coffee shop.
Three months ago.
She remembered what she had asked.
“If Luca and I aren’t married, can he take my baby?”
Daniel had answered carefully.
“Not simply because he has money.”
“What if he has better lawyers?”
“He does.”
“That isn’t reassuring.”
“It is honest.”
Maya asked about custody.
Paternity.
Residency.
Financial support.
Whether accepting Luca’s help could later be portrayed as dependence.
Whether moving into a property he owned would matter.
Daniel had explained that courts considered specific legal factors, not who had the more expensive suit.
But he also admitted money affected access to legal resources.
Maya left feeling both better and worse.
Now she knew Tyler had been watching.
“You knew about this meeting,” Luca said.
Maya looked at him.
“Obviously.”
“No. I mean you knew Daniel told me afterward.”
Maya’s expression changed.
“He what?”
Luca went still.
There it was.
Another betrayal.
Smaller than Tyler entering the hospital.
More personal.
“Daniel told you I met him?”
“Yes.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That you had concerns about custody.”
“What exactly?”
“Maya.”
“What exactly?”
Luca looked away.
“He said you wanted to understand your legal position if our relationship ended.”
Maya’s face became hot.
“I asked Daniel to keep that private.”
“He is my attorney.”
“He told me he could answer general questions.”
“He should have clarified confidentiality.”
“He did.”
Luca frowned.
“What?”
“He said if I wanted legal advice adverse to you, he couldn’t represent me because of the conflict. I told him I wasn’t asking him to represent me. I was asking how things generally worked.”
Luca said nothing.
Maya understood.
“You asked him.”
“No.”
“You asked whether I had talked to him.”
“No.”
“Then why did he tell you?”
“Because afterward I asked him why you seemed upset.”
Maya laughed.
“That’s asking.”
“I didn’t know you had met him.”
“But once he knew I had, he told you.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me you knew.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Luca’s answer came too slowly.
“I didn’t want you to think I was monitoring you.”
Maya stood.
Pain pulled through her abdomen.
She ignored it.
“You were.”
“No.”
“You knew about a private conversation I believed was private.”
“I did not follow you.”
“That is not the point.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
She walked toward the kitchen.
Luca followed two steps and stopped.
Good.
He was learning.
Maya opened the refrigerator.
She did not need anything.
She stood there because cold air felt good on her face.
Tyler had monitored her because he believed he owned her.
Luca had accepted private information because he believed he needed to protect their relationship.
Different motive.
Same stolen space.
Not equal.
Still wrong.
“I need you to understand something,” Maya said.
“I’m listening.”
“Tyler is worse than you.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“That sentence is not comforting.”
“It isn’t supposed to be.”
She closed the refrigerator.
“If the standard is ‘better than the abusive ex,’ the bar is in hell.”
Luca looked down.
“I agree.”
“You don’t get credit for not being Tyler.”
“I know.”
“You get credit for what you choose when nobody can force you.”
Luca nodded.
Maya sat again.
She was exhausted.
Anger after childbirth was physically expensive.
“I asked Daniel because I love you.”
Luca looked up.
“That is a strange reason.”
“No. I asked because loving a powerful person scared me.”
The sentence landed.
Maya continued.
“If you were an electrician with a used truck, I wouldn’t have needed to ask whether your money could trap me.”
Luca almost smiled.
“I could have been an excellent electrician.”
“Focus.”
“Sorry.”
“I needed to know whether leaving you, if I ever needed to, would be possible.”
Luca’s face changed.
Not anger.
Pain.
“That was before Tyler contacted me.”
“Yes.”
“So your fear existed before any of this.”
“Yes.”
“Because of me.”
“Because of your world.”
“That is not much better.”
“No.”
Luca sat across from her.
“What do you want me to do?”
Maya answered immediately.
“Stop asking that like everything has a task.”
He almost laughed.
She continued.
“Sometimes I want you to hear something without solving it.”
“That sounds terrible.”
“It probably does to you.”
He looked at Isabella.
Then said, “I’m sorry Daniel told me.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m sorry I kept it from you.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m sorry I understood why you were afraid and responded by trying to make your life more controlled.”
Maya stared at him.
That one was new.
“What?”
“The apartment. Driver. Security. Money.”
“You were trying to help.”
“I know.”
He looked at her.
“That does not automatically make the method right.”
Maya felt tears rise.
She hated hormones.
She hated that everybody blamed hormones when women had legitimate emotions after childbirth.
She wiped her eyes angrily.
“I still want the groceries.”
Luca smiled.
“The groceries are yours.”
“Good.”
The reconciliation was not complete.
It was enough to continue.
Then Daniel called.
His voice sounded different.
Careful.
“I need to tell both of you something before you hear it elsewhere.”
Maya put him on speaker.
“What?”
“Metro Ledger obtained the hospital hallway video.”
Luca’s expression changed.
“How?”
“We don’t know.”
“Is it online?”
“Not yet.”
“What do they have?”
“The clip of Tyler hitting the wall. Luca entering. The nurse handing him the clipboard. Luca signing the father line.”
Maya closed her eyes.
Out of context, it looked exactly like the viral story people would want.
Mafia boss throws poor ex-boyfriend into wall.
Takes paperwork.
Signs himself as father.
Claims woman and baby.
Romantic to some people.
Terrifying to others.
False in half a dozen important ways.
Daniel continued.
“The reporter contacted MPS for comment.”
“What are they saying?” Maya asked.
“There are two possible headlines circulating internally.”
“Read them.”
Daniel hesitated.
“LUCA MORETTI CLAIMS NEWBORN AFTER HOSPITAL ATTACK.”
Maya felt sick.
“And the other?”
“MAFIA HEIR SIGNS ‘FATHER’ WHILE RIVAL LIES ON FLOOR.”
Luca said something unrepeatable.
Maya stared at Isabella.
Tyler had wanted her to fear Luca.
Now thousands of strangers might see the exact image Tyler had built.
Then Daniel added one final detail.
“The reporter says their source has documents suggesting you never consented to Luca signing the birth certificate.”
Maya looked at the hospital paperwork on the table.
“That’s false.”
“Yes.”
“Who told them?”
“We don’t know.”
“Do they have my signed form?”
“No.”
“What do they have?”
Daniel paused.
“A patient-relations note.”
Maya’s stomach dropped.
“What note?”
“A note entered yesterday at 11:14 a.m.”
The time was twenty minutes after Luca signed.
It read:
PATIENT APPEARED DISTRESSED. MALE VISITOR ASSUMED CONTROL OF PATERNITY DOCUMENTATION. CONSENT UNCLEAR.
Maya stared at Luca.
May you like
The hospital had documented her as possibly coerced.
And nobody had told her.
