Chapter 2 - The Mafia Boss Discovered He Had a Four-Year-Old Daughter—Then a Hidden File Proved Nadia’s Fiancé Had Known the Truth Long Before He ProposedRémi recovered first.
“Business circles are small.”
Lucien smiled without warmth.
“Not that small.”
Nadia looked at Rémi.
“How do you know him?”
“I know of him.”
Lucien corrected him.
“You knew me before I was Marais.”
Rémi’s face changed.
Nadia felt the floor shift.
“What does that mean?”
Rémi buttoned his jacket.
“This is not the place.”
“It became the place when you walked in.”
Lucien said nothing.
Nadia turned toward him.
“You too.”
His eyes met hers.
“No more secrets.”
Lucien glanced at Rémi.
“Agreed.”
Rémi laughed.
“You really want to do this?”
“Yes.”
“Fine.”
Rémi looked at Nadia.
“The boy you knew five years ago wasn’t some poor piano player.”
Lucien’s jaw tightened.
“He was the last surviving son of Antoine Marais.”
Nadia knew that name.
Everyone in Louisiana old enough to remember the river wars knew it.
Antoine Marais had controlled shipping, gambling and half the contraband entering through private docks before his organization collapsed.
Antoine and his eldest son were murdered.
The youngest son disappeared.
Nadia looked at Lucien.
“You.”
“Yes.”
“You knew who you were?”
“Not entirely.”
“What does that mean?”
Lucien’s voice was quiet.
“My mother changed my surname when I was a child. She took me away from my father. I learned the truth at twenty-eight.”
The year he vanished.
Nadia understood.
“Three weeks before you disappeared?”
“Yes.”
Rémi interrupted.
“And then people started dying.”
Lucien looked at him.
“Careful.”
Nadia stepped between them.
“No threats in my hospital.”
Neither man moved.
Nadia pointed toward Rémi.
“You knew Lucien before tonight?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Rémi hesitated.
Lucien answered.
“His father worked with mine.”
Nadia’s stomach dropped.
“Worked how?”
“Money laundering. Shipping. Political protection.”
Rémi’s face hardened.
“You’re simplifying.”
“I’m being polite.”
Nadia turned.
“Rémi?”
“My father had business arrangements.”
“Criminal arrangements?”
He said nothing.
That was enough.
Nadia suddenly felt stupid.
For years Rémi had presented himself as the respectable heir to an old New Orleans financial family.
Lucien looked dangerous.
Rémi looked safe.
Maybe appearances had been the first lie.
Lucien picked up Margot’s photograph.
Rémi’s gaze followed it.
Again.
Fear.
Lucien saw it.
“Why does the child make you nervous?”
“She doesn’t.”
“You looked at that photograph before Nadia told you anything.”
Rémi’s expression froze.
Nadia’s heart began pounding.
“Rémi?”
“I knew Margot was Lucien’s.”
Silence.
Nadia stared.
“What?”
“I suspected.”
“You told me you didn’t know.”
“You never told me.”
“I didn’t have to. You said her father had disappeared.”
Nadia stepped backward.
“How long?”
Rémi exhaled.
“Nadia.”
“How long have you known?”
“Almost four years.”
Lucien moved.
Thierry appeared at the door almost instantly.
Nadia raised one hand.
“Lucien.”
He stopped.
Barely.
Nadia looked at Rémi.
“You knew before you proposed.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you knew where Lucien came from?”
“Because he was gone.”
“You knew his family.”
“My father did.”
“You could have helped me find him.”
Rémi’s expression hardened.
“And then what?”
Nadia stared.
“You were pregnant. Alone. Your father had just died. Your family was bankrupt.”
“So?”
“So I helped you.”
“You decided for me.”
“I protected you.”
“No.”
Nadia’s voice changed.
“You removed a choice.”
Rémi’s eyes cooled.
“You’re emotional.”
Lucien almost laughed.
Nadia looked at him.
“Not helping.”
He became silent.
Rémi stepped closer.
“The wedding is in three weeks. We can discuss this at home.”
“No.”
“Nadia.”
“I said no.”
For the first time in their relationship, she watched Rémi realize his control might not work.
He left.
Lucien remained.
Nadia sat.
“I need you to leave too.”
“Nadia—”
“Please.”
He obeyed.
That mattered.
Two days later Lucien met Margot.
Not because he demanded it.
Because Nadia decided he could.
They met at Audubon Park.
Thierry remained fifty yards away.
Lucien arrived without a suit.
Dark jeans.
Gray sweater.
No visible weapon.
He looked more nervous than Nadia had ever seen him.
Margot hid behind Nadia.
“Who’s that?”
Nadia crouched.
“His name is Lucien.”
Margot looked at him.
Lucien crouched too.
He did not approach.
“Hello, Margot.”
“Hi.”
“I brought you something.”
Nadia’s eyes narrowed.
Lucien immediately said, “It’s not expensive.”
He produced a small wooden music box.
Margot approached.
“What does it do?”
Lucien turned the key.
A piano melody played.
Nadia recognized it.
The song he used to play at the end of every night.
Her eyes burned.
Margot smiled.
“I like it.”
Lucien swallowed.
“Good.”
“Are you Mommy’s friend?”
Lucien looked at Nadia.
“Something like that.”
Margot studied his face.
Then:
“You have my eyes.”
Lucien stopped breathing.
Nadia covered her mouth.
Margot touched her own cheek.
“Grandma says my eyes came from my daddy.”
Lucien’s voice almost failed.
“She’s right.”
Margot looked at Nadia.
Nadia nodded.
“This is your daddy.”
The child stared.
Lucien remained perfectly still.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Where were you?”
No adult could have asked the question more brutally.
Lucien’s eyes filled.
“I was away.”
“Why?”
“I made a mistake.”
Margot considered.
“A big one?”
“The biggest.”
She looked at him.
“Are you going away again?”
Lucien did not make a promise he could not guarantee.
“I’m going to do everything I can not to.”
Margot accepted that more easily than adults would.
“Can you push me on the swing?”
Lucien laughed through tears.
“Yes.”
Nadia watched the most feared man on the New Orleans riverfront push a four-year-old girl on a playground swing.
And hated how much she loved him in that moment.
That evening Thierry brought Lucien bad news.
Rémi’s company had been moving weapons through humanitarian medical shipments.
Worse, St. Ambrose Hospital was one of the distribution points.
Lucien stared at the records.
“Nadia.”
“She has no idea.”
“Prove it.”
“We did.”
Thierry placed another file down.
Lucien opened it.
Cedric Fontaine.
Nadia’s father.
His debts had not been random.
Cedric had discovered the Deslandes operation.
Rémi’s father forced him into fraudulent loans.
Then Cedric died in what police called a single-vehicle accident.
Lucien went still.
“What are you saying?”
Thierry met his eyes.
“Cedric Fontaine was murdered.”
“And Rémi?”
“We don’t know whether he ordered it.”
Lucien closed the file.
“We tell Nadia.”
“She’s marrying him.”
“Not anymore.”
“You don’t know that.”
Lucien looked at him.
“No.”
He remembered five years earlier.
Making decisions for Nadia because he believed danger justified removing her choices.
He had learned.
“We give her the evidence.”
Nadia received the file the following morning.
She read every page.
Twice.
Then drove to Rémi’s office.
She placed the documents on his desk.
“Did your father kill mine?”
Rémi stared.
“Where did you get this?”
“Answer.”
“My father is dead.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Rémi walked to the window.
“Cedric discovered transactions he wasn’t supposed to see.”
Nadia’s knees weakened.
“You knew?”
“Not until later.”
“When?”
“After I paid the debts.”
She stared.
“You didn’t rescue us.”
“Nadia—”
“You inherited the debt your family created.”
“I erased it.”
“In exchange for me.”
“That isn’t fair.”
“Isn’t it?”
Rémi’s composure broke.
“I loved you.”
“No. You acquired me.”
He slammed one hand on the desk.
“You think Marais is better?”
“This isn’t about Lucien.”
“It has always been about Lucien!”
Nadia froze.
Rémi’s face changed.
Too late.
“What does that mean?”
He looked away.
“Rémi.”
Nothing.
“Did you have something to do with him disappearing?”
Silence.
Nadia’s blood went cold.
Rémi finally whispered:
“My father told Lucien that if he didn’t leave New Orleans, you would die.”
Nadia stopped breathing.
“And Lucien believed him?”
“He had reason to.”
“What reason?”
Rémi looked at her.
“Because the night before Lucien disappeared, someone put a bomb beneath your car.”
Nadia remembered.
Her car had refused to start.
She took a cab.
The mechanic later told her the electrical system had been destroyed.
She never knew why.
Rémi continued.
“Lucien found it before you did.”
Nadia’s eyes filled.
“He left to protect me.”
“Yes.”
“And you knew.”
“Yes.”
“For five years.”
“Yes.”
Nadia removed her engagement ring.
Rémi stared.
She placed it on his desk.
“The wedding is off.”
Rémi’s face became strangely calm.
“No.”
Nadia almost laughed.
“No?”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand enough.”
“If you cancel publicly, everything changes.”
“Good.”
“Nadia.”
She turned.
Rémi said:
“Your mother’s house is still collateral.”
Nadia stopped.
“Your brother’s company too.”
She slowly faced him.
Rémi opened a drawer.
Contracts.
Signatures.
Her father’s.
Her mother’s.
Some she recognized.
Some she didn’t.
“You said the debt was paid.”
“I said I handled it.”
Nadia stared.
“You lied.”
“I protected leverage.”
The word revealed everything.
Rémi leaned forward.
“You will marry me in nineteen days.”
“No.”
“If you don’t, your mother loses her home.”
Nadia remained silent.
“Your brother loses his company.”
Still silent.
“And St. Ambrose receives evidence suggesting you approved falsified medical manifests.”
Nadia went cold.
“You forged my signature.”
Rémi smiled.
“I prepared for uncertainty.”
Nadia walked out.
She did not cry until she reached her car.
Her phone rang.
Lucien.
She stared at the name.
Then answered.
“Nadia?”
She couldn’t speak.
His voice changed.
“Where are you?”
She told him.
He arrived in seven minutes.
Nadia stood beside her car.
Lucien approached.
He did not touch her.
“What happened?”
She looked at him.
“I can’t cancel the wedding.”
His face hardened.
“Why?”
She told him.
Everything.
Lucien listened.
When she finished, he said:
“Then we destroy the leverage.”
“You make that sound simple.”
“It isn’t.”
“Rémi will hurt my family.”
“I know.”
“He can destroy my career.”
“I know.”
“And if you start a war—”
“I won’t.”
Nadia looked at him skeptically.
Lucien almost smiled.
“I said I’ve changed.”
“Into a mafia boss.”
“An unfortunate detail.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
Then cried.
Lucien finally opened his arms.
Nadia stepped into them.
Five years disappeared.
For one minute she was twenty-six again.
But only one minute.
Then she pulled away.
“I’m not choosing you because Rémi is worse.”
Lucien nodded.
“I don’t want you to.”
“And you don’t get to rescue me.”
“I know.”
“We do this my way.”
“Yes.”
Nadia wiped her eyes.
“My wedding is in nineteen days.”
Lucien’s expression became unreadable.
“What are you thinking?”
Nadia looked back at Rémi’s office.
“That maybe we shouldn’t cancel it.”
Lucien stared.
“You just said—”
“I’m not marrying him.”
A slow understanding entered Lucien’s eyes.
May you like
Nadia smiled.
“But Rémi doesn’t need to know that yet.”
Related Stories
