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Chapter 2
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Before She Became Moretti Again Chapter 10
I thought Lucian would leave after that night. He didn’t.For the next two weeks, he sent gifts every day. Jewelry, share transfers, paintings I had once admired but never bought, even the deed to the Long Island estate. I returned everything I could. What could not be returned went straight into the trash.Then Lucian started standing outside my studio instead.One afternoon, I came down and found him holding a bouquet of red roses. The wind was sharp off the harbor, and his face was whiter than the sky."Evelyn," he said, stepping forward and held out the flowers. His fingers trembled slightly. "If you won't forgive me, then let me court you again. From the beginning. Let me earn one day at a time."Years ago, he had stood in the rose conservatory just like that, with red roses in his arms and a future on his tongue. Back then, I thought we would have forever.I took the bouquet then dropped the roses into the street bin beside me."The last forever you promised lasted four years. Ho
Before She Became Moretti Again Chapter 9
Back in St. Clair Harbor, I returned to design.Four years earlier, I had given up a spot at a Paris academy for Lucian. Starting over was not easy. My hands hurt when I sketched too long, and some mornings I woke up feeling like the West Pier basement was still around me. But work made me feel alive.On a Sunday afternoon, my father's assistant called. "Mr. Moretti says you are expected at dinner tonight."I held the phone for a long moment before I answered.The Moretti dining room had not changed. Silver candlesticks, a long dark table, and beyond the windows, the harbor lights trembling in the rain. My father sat at the head of the table, older than I remembered and no less dangerous.When he saw me, he only gave a cold snort. "So you finally suffered enough to remember your way home."I lowered my eyes. "Dad.""Don't say it like that. I hear Lucian DeLuca has come to St. Clair Harbor. If he says some sweet words and you run back to him, don't bother sitting down. Save us both the
Before She Became Moretti Again Chapter 8
It rained through November in St. Clair Harbor.When I came home, the sea was gray and hard, and a Moretti car waited at the private terminal. My father did not come himself. He sent a driver to take me to the apartment downtown.That was the most dignity he was willing to give me.Vito Moretti was still angry, and he had every right to be. When I left with Lucian, he had smashed half the study and told me a Moretti woman could love a man, but she did not throw herself onto a losing table for a DeLuca with a price on his head.I had not listened.On the day I walked away, my father stood on the front steps of the estate and looked at me as if he no longer had a daughter. For four years, I sent gifts back on holidays. Every single one was returned untouched.His message was always the same: [You chose DeLuca. Don't use Moretti as a door when that house burns down.]Now the house had burned, and I had come back with smoke in my lungs.For two days, I stayed in the apartment and tried to
Before She Became Moretti Again Chapter 7
By the time Lucian reached the Bellini estate, rain had soaked through his coat.Alberto Bellini sat in his study with half a glass of whiskey in front of him. The old man had promised my father years ago that he would keep an eye on me while I lived in New York. When Lucian entered, Alberto did not rise."You've got some nerve showing your face here."Lucian stopped in the doorway. "Mr. Bellini, I need to know why you're ending the contract.""You need to know? God help you, boy. You really don't.""When the Commission cut your family loose, everyone in this city was waiting to see the DeLucas buried. Do you know who came to me, again and again, asking me to give you one way back into the harbor business?"Lucian's expression changed."It was Evelyn," Alberto said. "Not your lieutenants. Not your lawyers. Your wife.""She...""You thought you climbed back because you were ruthless and clever? You were. I'll give you that. But New York is crawling with ruthless, clever men. Without Eve
Before She Became Moretti Again Chapter 6
The moment the rose conservatory burned, Lucian finally understood that something had gone horribly wrong.He drove back to the hospital. When he pushed open the door to my room, the bed was empty.A nurse looked up, startled. "Sir, are you looking for Miss Moretti? She checked out an hour ago.""Who allowed her to leave?" Lucian snapped.The nurse frowned. "She's an adult, and her assistant and lawyer were both here. If you are family, you might want to know she should not have been left alone in the first place. Her fever had only just broken, and her hands were still bandaged."Lucian called from the elevator, the lobby, then the car. By the fifth call, my phone was dead. By the tenth, so was his composure.When he reached the Long Island estate, every light in the main house was on. The staff stood in the foyer, stiff-backed and terrified, while Lucian walked in with the kind of silence that made armed men step out of his way."Where is my wife?"No one answered.Then he looked aro
Before She Became Moretti Again Chapter 5
When my plane lifted through the clouds, New York shrank beneath me until all its lights blurred into a distant, glittering wound.Back in the hospital corridor, Lucian kept calling me.Valerie told me later that he stood there with his phone in his hand, dialing again and again. His secretary finally reminded him that Clara was still waiting in the car.Only then did Lucian slide the phone into his pocket and return to the black Cadillac outside.Clara sat in the back seat wrapped in his coat. Her face was pale and bruises bloomed across her arms. She said the debt collectors had grabbed her, locked her in a house outside the city, and left her thinking she might never see daylight again.Lucian looked at the marks on her skin, and his expression went dark. "I'll have the lawsuit handled. The clinic will get new security by tonight. Those people won't get near you again.""Thank you, Lucian." Clara's voice shook just enough. "I don't know what I would do without you."She paused, then
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