Chapter 4 - THE LEGAL WAR BEGINS
By nine o'clock the following morning, the front gates of my Lincoln Park brownstone were besieged by news vans, paparazzi, and private security guards.
The story had exploded overnight. A diner at Le Petit Fleur had taken a grainy video of billionaire Luca Moretti kneeling before my table, staring at twins who looked identical to him, and posted it on social media. By sunrise, every major news network in the country was running the headline: THE MORETTI SECRET HEIRS: DID NIA CARTER HIDE BILIONAIRE’S TWINS?
"Mom, why are there cameras outside?" Maya asked, sitting at the kitchen island and picking at her pancakes.
"It’s just some reporters, sweetie," I said, trying to maintain a calm tone while checking my phone. My inbox was overflowing with hundreds of emails from news outlets, former acquaintances, and high-profile legal firms offering their services.
Then, a formal notification arrived via encrypted email.
My heart sank. It was an emergency court filing from the Cook County Family Court. Luca had filed an expedited petition for emergency paternity testing, temporary custody rights, and a injunction preventing me from taking the children out of the state of Illinois.
He was using his vast fortune to launch an all-out legal assault.
Ten minutes later, my phone rang. It was an unknown number. I answered it immediately.
"Nia," Luca’s voice came through the speaker. He sounded tired, hollow, but entirely resolute. "Did you receive the court filing?"
"How dare you, Luca!" I hissed, walking into the pantry so the children wouldn't hear me. "Emergency custody?! You are trying to drag seven-year-old children into a public legal war!"
"I am securing my rights as their father, Nia," Luca said firmly. "I let you walk away once seven years ago. I will not let you take my children and hide them from me again."
"I am not hiding them!" I shouted into the phone. "I live ten minutes from your headquarters! I have been raising them in plain sight while you were playing happy family with Evelyn!"
"Evelyn is packing her bags as we speak," Luca stated coldly. "I served her with divorce papers at seven o'clock this morning. Her father is being investigated by federal prosecutors for fraud and medical malpractice. The Shaws are finished in this city."
I caught my breath. "You divorced Evelyn?"
"I shouldn't have married her in the first place," Luca said, his tone dropping into a soft, aching register. "I spent seven years living in a sterile, loveless marriage because I thought I was cursed to never have a family. But my family was right here, Nia. Two miles away from me. I lost seven years of Leo’s baseball games. I lost seven years of Maya’s tea parties. I will not lose another day."
"You can't just force your way into their lives with court orders, Luca!" I argued, tears hot in my eyes. "They don't know you! To them, you are a stranger who scared them in a restaurant!"
A long pause followed on the line. I could hear Luca’s heavy breathing.
"Then teach them who I am," Luca practically begged, his corporate armor completely slipping away. "Please, Nia. Don't fight me in court. Let me come over. Let me talk to them. Let me prove to you and to them that I can be the father they deserve."
I leaned my head against the pantry wall, torn between the deep, protective anger I had carried for years and the undeniable truth that my children deserved to know their father—a father who was currently willing to tear his own life apart to reach them.
"One condition, Luca," I said firmly.
"Anything," he answered instantly.
May you like
"No lawyers. No press. No security guards inside my house. You come alone. And if you raise your voice or upset my children even once, I will hire the best defense team in the country and fight you until my last breath."
"I’ll be there in twenty minutes," Luca said.
