Chapter six

A BRIDE FOR THE DEVIL

“If my brother has your mother, then this wedding isn’t an alliance.”

Gio stared at the photograph.

“It’s a ransom.”

I wanted to believe him wrong. I wanted an explanation that didn’t involve dead men, missing children and families built on twenty-four years of lies.

But my mother was alive, and she was standing beside a man everyone believed was dead.

“Call him back.”

“Amelie—”

“Call your brother!”

“He used an untraceable number.”

I laughed bitterly.

“Your family has money, weapons and enough influence to frighten half of New York, but apparently finding one missing man is impossible.”

His jaw tightened.

“We’re leaving.”

Back at the Locatelli estate, Gio led me into his father’s study.

Something was missing.

The photograph of his father and my mother had disappeared, along with the black folder we’d discovered earlier.

Beneath the bookshelf, I noticed a gold locket.

Inside was a photograph of me as a little girl.

On its reverse were six words.

TO MY DAUGHTER, WHO WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE A PEARCE.

Gio read the inscription.

“Give it to me.”

“Why?”

“Because someone wants you to find it.”

I held it tighter.

“Then perhaps someone wants me to know the truth.”

He stepped closer.

“If we marry, you’ll become a target for everyone who wants control of my family.”

“Apparently, I’m already a target.”

“Marriage will make it worse.”

“Then why do you still want it?”

His eyes settled on mine.

“Because I don’t know how to walk away from something that might be the only way to save your mother.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Silence.

Then he said something I wasn’t prepared to hear.

“Because somewhere between all these lies, Amelie, you’ve become someone I don’t want to lose.”

My heartbeat betrayed me.

I looked away.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“The wedding is in three days.”

I turned sharply.

“Three days?”

“Daniel moved the date forward.”

I almost laughed.

“Of course he did. Apparently, my opinion is the only thing nobody needs.”

Gio’s expression darkened.

“Someone is desperate to see us at that altar.”

I returned to my father’s estate shortly before midnight.

Daniel was waiting in his study with a folder containing the wedding arrangements.

“Three days,” I said. “You’ve officially lost your mind.”

“Listen to me, Amelie.”

“No. Someone wants me dead, my mother is alive, and you expect me to marry into a family surrounded by murder.”

“Gio isn’t your enemy.”

“Then why does everyone keep warning me about him?”

My father poured himself a drink.

“Your mother believed he could be a good man.”

“And you?”

He looked away.

“Good men can do terrible things when they have no choice.”

I remembered the mysterious messages.

“Where was I born?”

His hand froze around the glass.

“St. Catherine’s. Outside Chicago.”

“Was Gio’s father there?”

Daniel slowly put down his drink.

That was answer enough.

“Your mother gave birth to twins,” he finally said.

My stomach dropped.

“Twins?”

“A boy and a girl. The boy died shortly after birth.”

“Show me the medical records.”

“They disappeared.”

“Convenient.”

He closed his eyes.

Then came the words that shattered me.

“Your mother had another child before you. A daughter. She was declared stillborn.”

I stared at him.

“How many children did Mum have?”

“Three.”

I walked out before he could say anything else.

At 2:13 a.m., I discovered a hidden compartment inside the gold locket.

A folded piece of paper rested beneath the photograph.

Three names were written in my mother’s handwriting.

AMELIE. LUCA. ELENA.

Beneath them was another name.

NICOLO LOCATELLI.

I searched it online.

An old newspaper article appeared.

LOCATELLI FAMILY MOURNS THE LOSS OF INFANT SON.

The article was dated twenty-four years earlier.

The child’s parents were listed as Isabella and Vittorio Locatelli.

But something else caught my attention.

My mother’s name appeared beneath the photograph.

She had been the attending nurse.

My phone vibrated.

UNKNOWN: Now you understand why the wedding must happen.

I typed quickly.

ME: Who are you?

UNKNOWN: Someone who knows which baby left the clinic in your mother’s arms.

Another message followed.

Ask Daniel why he buried an empty coffin.

Then:

Ask Gio why his mother has spent twenty-four years searching for her daughter.

A knock sounded.

“Amelie.”

Gio.

I opened the door and showed him my phone.

He read the messages.

His expression changed.

“My mother has been searching for a daughter for twenty-four years.”

My mouth went dry.

“Why?”

“She gave birth to twins. A boy and a girl.”

I stared at him.

“Who was the boy?”

“Me.”

“And the girl?”

His voice dropped.

“She was declared dead.”

I looked at the locket.

“What if she wasn’t?”

He glanced at the photograph inside.

Then he asked the question that made my blood run cold.

“When were you born?”

I told him.

He closed his eyes.

When he opened them, the ruthless expression I knew was gone.

“Our birthdays are the same day.”

I stepped backwards.

“No.”

“Amelie, listen—”

“No!”

My entire life was suddenly beginning to look like a carefully arranged nightmare.

Before he could speak, his phone rang.

He answered.

“Mother?”

A woman’s trembling voice came through the speaker.

“Darling, you must stop the wedding.”

“What’s happened?”

A painful silence followed.

Then Isabella Locatelli spoke.

“The girl Daniel Pearce stole from me twenty-four years ago is not dead.”

Gio looked at me.

His mother began crying.

“She’s standing in your bedroom, Gio.”

I gripped the doorframe.

Then Isabella whispered something else.

“Amelie is my daughter.”

The phone slipped from Gio’s hand.

But before either of us could move, another message appeared on my screen.

CONGRATULATIONS, BRIDE. YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO MARRY THE DEVIL. YOU WERE MEANT TO DESTROY HIM.

END OF CHAPTER SIX