Chapter 16
“Three.”
“What do you mean, disappeared?”
“He vanished from a clinic after becoming ill.”
“Wasn’t there an investigation?”
“My father said he died.”
“But you don’t believe him.”
“I never saw a body.”
Norah felt cold despite the stale warmth of the basement.
“What was his name?”
Nico did not answer immediately.
The delay frightened her more than the revelation.
“Lucian,” he said at last.
The name appeared in the ledger.
Norah remembered seeing it among the columns.
She pulled the book from the bag and opened it again.
There.
Lucian Moretti.
The entry was dated October 14, 1998.
Beside his name were the words transfer completed.
Beneficiary protected.
A second line had been written beneath it in her mother’s handwriting.
Child placed where he cannot be found.
Norah looked at Nico.
His face had gone pale.
“That’s not possible,” he whispered.
“Why?”
“Because Lucian died.”
“Your father told you that.”
“Yes.”
“And your mother wrote this.”
“She wasn’t my mother.”
“Then who was she protecting?”
Nico reached for the ledger, but stopped before touching it.
His restraint seemed almost painful.
“Turn the page.”
Norah did.
The next entry was dated three days later.
A payment had been made to a private clinic outside the city.
The beneficiary was listed only as S.R.
Below that, in darker ink, were four words.
New name, new life.
Norah’s eyes moved across the page.
Then she saw the final line.
Guardian: Sofia Raines.
The room fell silent.
Mara looked at Norah.
Norah could not speak.
Nico’s gaze had moved from the ledger to the birth certificate.
His lips parted, but no sound emerged.
She thought of the way he had looked at her when they first met.
Not merely curious.
Not merely drawn to her.
As if some part of him had recognized a face he had been searching for without knowing it.
She thought of the first time he had taken her hand.
The inexplicable certainty that had passed through him.
The way he had once told her, half asleep, “I feel like I’ve known you longer than I should.”
She had assumed it was love speaking.
Perhaps it had been memory without a name.
Norah stepped backward.
“No.”
Nico looked at her.
“What?”
“This cannot mean what it looks like.”
“I don’t know what it means.”
“You are not my brother.”
His expression faltered.
“No.”
“My mother raised me.”
“Yes.”
“Your father was listed on my birth certificate.”