Chapter 3 - Shadows of the Past
Word count: ~1,500 words
Anna spent the entire drive home that evening with her knuckles clenched white around the steering wheel of her sputtering 2010 Honda Civic.
In the backseat, Lily was fast asleep, her thumb tucked securely against her cheek, completely oblivious to the earthquake that had just shaken her mother’s entire world.
My mother’s name.
How was it possible? Evelyn Harper had spent the last fifteen years of her life living in a cramped, drafty apartment on the south side of Boston, battling chronic respiratory failure and drowning in medical debt. She was a quiet, broken woman who barely had the strength to walk to the grocery store, let alone maintain connections to the billionaire Moretti crime and shipping dynasty.
And yet, Dominic Moretti had choked out that exact name behind his study door like a phantom haunting his conscience.
When Anna got home, she tucked Lily into her narrow toddler bed and tiptoed into the small living room she shared with her mother.
The apartment smelled faintly of eucalyptus and old medicine. Evelyn was sitting upright in her worn velvet armchair, an oxygen cannula resting gently beneath her nose, staring blankly out the frost-covered window at the flickering streetlights.
“You’re late, sweetheart,” Evelyn said softly, her voice raspy and weak. “Did something happen at the estate?”
Anna hesitated, her heart hammering against her ribs. She walked over, kneeling beside her mother’s chair and taking her cold, frail hand in her own.
“Mom,” Anna began, her voice barely above a whisper. “I need you to tell me something. And I need you to be completely honest with me.”
Evelyn slowly turned her head, her tired blue eyes searching Anna’s face with sudden, guarded wariness. “What is it, Anna?”
“Did you ever know a man named Dominic Moretti? Years ago? Before we moved to Boston’s south side?”
The color drained from Evelyn’s face so fast it looked like someone had turned off a light switch. Her breath hitched in her chest, and she instinctively reached up to adjust her oxygen tubing with trembling, skeletal fingers.
“Why… why are you asking me that name?” Evelyn whispered, her voice dropping into a terrified tremor.
“Because I work in his house, Mom,” Anna confessed, the words rushing out in a desperate flood. “I’m his housekeeper. And today… today I heard him say your name. He was locked in his study, crying, Mom. A man like that doesn't cry over nothing. What is he to us?”
Evelyn closed her eyes, a single tear escaping down her wrinkled cheek as she squeezed Anna’s hand with surprising strength.
“Oh, God,” Evelyn breathed, her voice cracking. “I prayed we would never cross paths with that family again. Listen to me, Anna. You have to quit. Tomorrow morning, you call him, you resign, and you never step foot in that house again.”
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“Quit? Mom, I can’t quit! We need the insurance, we need the paychecks for your oxygen concentrator and your treatments—”
“If Dominic Moretti finds out who you are—if he realizes whose blood is running through your veins—he won’t just fire you, Anna,” Evelyn interrupted, her eyes flying open, blazing with a terrifying, urgent panic. “The Moretti family destroyed everything we had fifteen years ago. And if he connects the dots, you and Lily won't be safe in this city.”
