Chapter 6 - HANNAH'S OTHER SECRET
I did stay.
Longer than expected.
First through Sophia's hospital evaluation.
Then physical therapy.
Then another week because she refused to attend without me.
I took unpaid leave.
The hotel manager told me not to worry.
Someone had apparently paid my salary for six months.
I knew immediately who.
I confronted Luca.
“You paid my wages.”
“Yes.”
“Don't.”
He looked genuinely confused.
“Why?”
“Because I don't want to become dependent on you.”
“I'm compensating you for time.”
“You didn't ask.”
He stopped.
For powerful men, consent apparently required practice.
“You're right.”
That surprised me.
“I'll cancel it.”
“Thank you.”
“Can I pay the medical bills from the bridge?”
I stared.
“What medical bills?”
“Your hand.”
My right hand still carried nerve damage from the broken glass.
Two fingers sometimes went numb.
Luca had noticed.
Of course.
“I don't need—”
“Did you ever receive compensation?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“The Moretti insurer said I wasn't an authorized rescue worker.”
His face darkened.
“Gabriele.”
Probably.
“Let my attorneys review it.”
I hesitated.
“That is not charity. It's liability.”
I smiled.
“Very romantic wording.”
His eyes changed.
Just slightly.
That was the first moment I became aware of Luca as a man rather than Sophia's father.
Dangerous realization.
Then my own secret emerged.
Sophia asked why I knew the song from the river.
“My grandmother taught me.”
“What was her name?”
“Rose Carter.”
Luca froze.
“What?”
I repeated.
“Rose Carter.”
He looked toward Matteo.
Matteo went still.
I became uneasy.
“What?”
Luca asked:
“Was your grandmother Rosalia Carteri?”
“I don't know.”
“She changed her name after leaving Sicily?”
I stared.
“She was born in Palermo.”
Matteo whispered:
“Oh, this family is cursed.”
Rosalia Carteri had been related to Luca's mother.
Distantly.
Very distantly.
Not enough to make us close relatives, thank God.
But enough that Gabriele might have recognized my surname.
Carter was the Americanized branch.
That could explain why my letters triggered immediate concern.
If Hannah Carter was connected to an old family branch, I might know more than an ordinary witness.
I didn't.
But Gabriele couldn't know that.
My grandmother had hated organized crime.
She left Sicily at nineteen and never spoke about relatives.
One thing she did keep:
A cassette recording.
Family stories.
Songs.
Names.
Sophia's river song came from that cassette.
Luca heard it and went pale.
His mother used to sing the same song.
That was why Sophia trusted it in the river.
She recognized something familiar without knowing why.
No miracle.
Memory.
Family.
Comfort.
Sophia loved the connection.
Luca looked unsettled.
I asked:
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Good.”
He stared.
“What?”
I shrugged.
“Dr. Benton says honesty.”
He laughed.
The first real laugh I'd heard.
Then Matteo entered.
“Gabriele surfaced.”
Luca's face changed.
“Where?”
“Detroit.”
“What is he doing?”
“Trying to sell documents.”
“What documents?”
Matteo placed a photograph on the table.
Sophia's medical trust.
Original records.
And Luca's business ledgers.
Gabriele wasn't only fleeing.
He was preparing to destroy the Moretti family financially before capture.
Luca stood.
I looked at him.
“What are you going to do?”
“Finish it.”
I hated the answer.
Because I knew what it meant in his world.
So I said:
“Police.”
He looked at me.
“Hannah.”
“You want Sophia to know the man who hurt her disappeared?”
“He'll never hurt her again.”
“That isn't the same as justice.”
“You don't understand my world.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“But Sophia does.”
He stopped.
“She knows people disappear when adults get angry. Elena disappeared. Gabriele disappeared. If you make him disappear too, what do you teach her?”
Luca's jaw tightened.
“You're asking me to leave my daughter's fate to courts.”
“I'm asking you to let her grow up knowing truth doesn't have to be buried with the person who caused the harm.”
Silence.
Then he looked at Matteo.
“Call federal investigators.”
Matteo blinked.
“Boss?”
May you like
“Do it.”
That choice changed Luca Moretti more than anything that happened in the ballroom.
