Chapter 2 - The Stolen Secrets
I shoved the twins behind my back and slowly pushed the front door open.
My heart hammered painfully against my ribs.
The apartment was completely silent.
Nothing in the living room appeared to be disturbed.
I ushered the kids into the bathroom and told them to lock the door.
I walked cautiously into my bedroom, grabbing a heavy brass lamp from the nightstand.
My closet door was wide open.
The small, hidden safe bolted to the floor had been completely pried open.
I dropped the lamp and fell to my knees.
My hands shook violently as I reached inside the empty metal box.
My passports were gone.
My emergency cash was missing.
But the thing that made my blood run cold was the missing manila envelope.
It contained the twins' original birth certificates and my confidential medical records.
My phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket.
I pulled it out and saw an unknown caller ID.
"Hello?" I answered breathlessly.
"Did you honestly think you could hide my own blood from me?" Luca's voice echoed through the speaker.
"You broke into my home!" I screamed.
"I merely retrieved what rightfully belongs to me," he replied coldly.
"Those are my children, Luca."
"They are Morettis, Nia."
I stood up, pacing furiously across the ruined bedroom.
"You divorced me because you thought I was broken and infertile," I reminded him fiercely.
There was a heavy, suffocating silence on the other end of the line.
"I am reading your medical file right now," Luca said softly.
"Then you know I never lied to you."
"I know that someone forged these documents to tear us apart," he replied.
A chill ran down my spine.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"The fertility clinic records you hid in your safe have a second signature on them."
"I never signed anything else," I argued.
"I know you didn't, Nia."
He paused, and the sound of paper shuffling came through the phone.
"The doctor who diagnosed your infertility was paid two million dollars from a private offshore account."
My knees suddenly felt incredibly weak.
"Who paid him, Luca?" I begged.
"I don't know yet, but I am looking at the twins' birth certificates right now."
"Bring them back to me," I demanded.
"That might be difficult, considering the father's name listed on these certificates is not blank."
My breath hitched in my throat.
"I left the father section completely blank at the hospital," I insisted.
"Someone legally amended the birth certificates three years ago," Luca said, his voice dropping to a deadly whisper.
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"Whose name is on them?" I asked.
"My brother's."
