Chapter 4 - Damian's House
"You are not going home."
Damian said it before Noelle finished looking at the photograph.
She turned toward him.
"You don't decide where I go."
"Someone climbed your fire escape and photographed you sleeping."
"And that gives you custody of me?"
His jaw tightened.
"No."
"Good."
"It gives me enough common sense to know your apartment isn't safe."
Noelle folded her arms.
"Neither is standing next to you."
Reyes coughed into his fist.
Damian shot him a look.
Reyes stared at the wall.
Noelle almost smiled.
Almost.
Then she remembered the red circle.
Tomorrow.
Her stomach knotted.
"Where would I go?"
Damian didn't hesitate.
"My house."
"No."
"The children are there."
That was unfair.
He knew it.
She knew it.
His expression admitted it.
Noelle looked away.
"Don't use them."
"I'm telling you where they are."
"You know what it does to me when you mention them."
"I know what it does to me when you look at them."
That silenced her.
Damian rubbed a hand over his face.
For the first time, exhaustion showed.
"I don't know what happens tomorrow."
His voice lowered.
"I don't know what a judge does."
"I don't care about a judge."
"You will."
She looked at him sharply.
He continued.
"If DNA confirms you're their biological mother, every decision I have made for fourteen months will be examined."
Pain moved through his expression.
"Every bedtime."
"Every doctor visit."
"Every signature."
"Every time one of them called me Dad."
Noelle's anger softened despite herself.
Damian looked at the floor.
"I may lose them."
The words barely existed.
Noelle stared at him.
She had spent the last hour seeing Damian Marchetti as the man who had unknowingly received what was stolen from her.
She had not considered what the truth might steal from him.
"I don't want to take them from someone they love."
Damian looked up.
Her voice trembled.
"But I can't walk away."
"I wouldn't ask you to."
"Can you promise that tomorrow?"
"Yes."
"What about next week?"
"Yes."
"After a lawyer tells you I could win custody?"
His eyes hardened.
"Yes."
"After one of them cries for me instead of you?"
The question hurt him.
She saw it.
He still answered.
"Yes."
Noelle inhaled slowly.
"Then I'll come to your house."
The Marchetti estate sat behind two iron gates and nearly half a mile of wooded private road.
Noelle had expected vulgar wealth.
Gold.
Marble.
Men with guns standing beside fountains.
There was some marble.
There were definitely men with guns.
But the house itself surprised her.
Warm brick.
Wide windows.
Lights glowing from inside.
Children's toys scattered across one section of the formal entryway.
A tiny sock lay on the staircase.
Noelle stared at it.
Damian followed her gaze.
"Luca."
"You know whose sock it is?"
"He takes off the left one."
"Why?"
"I've stopped asking."
For the first time that night, Noelle laughed.
A real laugh.
Small.
Broken.
But real.
Damian looked at her as if the sound had caught him off guard.
Then a squeal came from upstairs.
Noelle's heart seized.
Emilia appeared in the arms of a gray-haired woman.
The baby saw Noelle.
Her whole face changed.
"Mama!"
The woman almost dropped her.
Noelle froze.
Damian closed his eyes.
"Teresa."
The woman stared at Noelle.
"Mr. Marchetti?"
"Put them in the family room."
"All three?"
"All three."
Teresa looked deeply confused.
Then she obeyed.
Noelle whispered.
"She thinks I'm crazy."
"Teresa thinks everyone is crazy."
"Comforting."
"She's known me since I was six."
"Then she has evidence."
Damian gave her the faintest look of amusement.
It disappeared when Matteo crawled into the hall.
He moved surprisingly fast.
Noelle crouched.
Matteo stopped.
He stared at her.
Then crawled straight into her knees.
Noelle covered her mouth.
Damian stayed several feet away.
She picked Matteo up.
He immediately grabbed a fistful of her wet hair.
"Ow."
Matteo laughed.
Noelle laughed too.
Damian watched.
Noelle looked at him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're staring."
"So are they."
Luca had appeared beside the sofa.
He was holding his rabbit.
His eyes stayed fixed on Noelle.
She sat on the floor.
"Come here, serious little man."
Luca took three unsteady steps.
Fell.
Pushed himself up.
Took two more.
Then collapsed against her chest.
Noelle broke.
She buried her face in his curls.
Tears fell silently.
Matteo patted her cheek.
Luca pressed the rabbit into her hands.
Emilia crawled over and climbed onto her leg.
Three children.
All touching her.
All alive.
Noelle closed her eyes.
Damian turned away.
He walked to the window.
She noticed his shoulders rise once.
Then lower.
He was giving her privacy.
Or taking some for himself.
Later, after the triplets had finally fallen asleep in a tangled pile beside Noelle on the enormous family-room rug, Damian returned carrying two glasses of water.
He handed one to her.
"Thank you."
She drank.
Her hands were steadier now.
"How did you survive the newborn stage?"
Damian sat in an armchair.
"I didn't."
"Helpful."
"I had Teresa."
He nodded toward the hallway.
"Two night nurses."
"Two?"
"At first."
"Rich people really do live differently."
"One quit after Luca vomited into her mouth."
Noelle stared.
Damian's expression stayed perfectly serious.
Then she laughed.
He smiled.
It was the first time she had seen it.
Not the funeral smile people whispered about.
A tired father's smile.
It changed his whole face.
That frightened her for an entirely different reason.
She looked down at the children.
"Tell me about Sofia."
Damian's smile vanished.
He was silent for a long moment.
"She wanted children more than anything."
"Why adoption?"
"We tried for years."
He leaned back.
"Treatment failed."
Noelle waited.
"Then we stopped trying to force it."
His gaze moved to Emilia.
"We applied privately."
"What did Hale tell you?"
"That a young mother had died during delivery."
Noelle flinched.
Damian noticed.
"He said there was no father listed."
"Caleb was dead."
"I didn't know."
"No family?"
"He told us the maternal grandmother had also died."
Noelle looked at him sharply.
"My mother."
"Yes."
"So he knew everything."
Damian's expression hardened.
"Apparently."
"Did you ever see paperwork?"
"All of it."
"Birth certificates?"
"Yes."
"What names?"
"Baby A, B, and C initially."
Noelle looked down.
"Did they list me?"
"No."
"Who?"
Damian hesitated.
Noelle's stomach tightened.
"Who was listed as their mother?"
"A woman named Marie Bell."
Noelle shook her head.
"Never heard of her."
"Neither had I."
"You didn't ask?"
"Sofia handled most of the adoption process."
The answer bothered her.
Damian saw that.
"I signed everything."
He did not dodge responsibility.
"That is on me."
Noelle studied him.
"Why did Sofia handle it?"
"Because I was busy."
"With docks nobody asks about?"
His mouth twitched.
"Among other things."
"Was she involved in your business?"
"No."
"Did she know Hale?"
"Her entire life."
Noelle's eyes sharpened.
"How?"
Damian looked at her.
"Victor Hale was Sofia's godfather."
The room grew colder.
Noelle stared at him.
"You left that part out."
"I didn't think it mattered."
"It matters."
"Now it does."
One of the babies shifted.
Both adults lowered their voices instinctively.
Noelle glanced at the sleeping children.
"Could Sofia have known?"
The question sat between them like a blade.
Damian's face closed.
"No."
"You answered fast."
"Because I knew my wife."
"Did you?"
His eyes snapped toward her.
Noelle almost apologized.
Then didn't.
"Fourteen months ago someone stole my children."
She whispered the words.
"Your wife's godfather delivered them to her."
Damian's jaw flexed.
"You think that question hasn't already entered my head?"
Noelle said nothing.
He leaned forward.
"Sofia died eight months ago."
"How?"
"Car explosion."
Noelle froze.
"Accident?"
"No."
The answer was flat.
"Who?"
"We never proved it."
Her skin prickled.
"Maybe it wasn't about you."
Damian's expression changed.
Noelle felt the idea arrive between them.
Maybe Sofia hadn't died because she was Damian Marchetti's wife.
Maybe Sofia had known something.
Damian stood abruptly.
He pulled out his phone.
"Reyes."
Noelle watched him.
"Get me everything from Sofia's personal office."
A pause.
"No."
His voice hardened.
"Everything."
He hung up.
"What are you looking for?"
Noelle asked.
Damian stared toward the dark windows.
"A reason my wife died."
Twenty minutes later Reyes arrived carrying a sealed storage box.
Damian's staff had packed Sofia's office after her death.
He had never opened it.
They spread the contents across the dining table.
Appointment books.
Receipts.
Photographs.
Letters.
A silver pen.
Old Christmas cards.
Noelle felt intrusive.
"This was hers."
Damian nodded.
"You don't have to do this with me here."
"Yes, I do."
They searched.
Nothing.
Then Noelle found a small leather planner.
Several pages had been torn out.
She held it toward the light.
"Someone wrote on the missing page."
Damian leaned closer.
Indentations.
Noelle grabbed a pencil from a nearby drawer.
She shaded lightly across the blank sheet beneath.
Letters emerged.
April 14.
E.C. confirmed.
Mother alone.
3 viable.
V.H. says clean.
Noelle's hand started shaking.
Damian went completely still.
E.C.
Evelyn Crane.
V.H.
Victor Hale.
Mother alone.
Noelle.
Three viable.
Her babies.
Noelle looked at Damian.
He looked like someone had shot him without leaving a wound.
"Sofia knew."
He whispered.
Noelle couldn't answer.
The planner held one more indentation beneath the first.
A second note.
April 17.
Delivery complete.
D says babies perfect.
Never tell him.
Damian stared at the words.
Never tell him.
Noelle watched grief and rage collide across his face.
"Sofia stole them."
His voice broke on her name.
Noelle suddenly understood something worse.
Damian had not simply been deceived by an attorney.
He had been deceived by the woman he had loved.
Before either of them could speak, Reyes's phone rang.
He listened.
Then he looked at Damian.
"We got the preliminary DNA result."
Noelle stood so fast her chair fell backward.
Damian did not move.
Reyes swallowed.
"Maternal probability."
The room went silent.
"99.9998 percent."
Noelle pressed both hands to her mouth.
Reyes looked at her.
"Matteo, Luca, and Emilia are your biological children."
May you like
Noelle made a sound like her body had forgotten how to breathe.
Then every light in the house went out.
