Page 2 of Hidden Empire

She said his name? Maybe he’s wearing a name tag I can’t see. Do cops have name tags? Not the point, what is Kim trying to imply?

“What?” Officer Brian gives her a confused look. “Why?”

“You’ll be needing to contact Dante Moretti. I’m sure you have a way of doing that, no?”

You could hear a pin drop, the way the room breaks into a hushed silence. I don’t recognize the name at all, but judging by the look on Brian’s face, he does. With the horrified look on the social worker’s previously sweet face, I know she does, too. And it scares her.

The tone of his voice shifts into a cold, deep rumble as he speaks again. “Are you saying that you are of relation to Dante Moretti?”

“Oh, no,” Kim tsks. “Not me. Just Jade.”

“What connection are you implying?—”

For the first time since this conversation began, Kim turns her sights on me, drawing out one word. One vicious word.

“Paternal.”

My mouth dries up, and I feel all the color drain from my face. A noise of surprise laced with fear leaves the social worker’s lips. More horror paints her expression.

“Dante Moretti is Jade’s father?” the man with the badge asks, his words strung together in disbelief. “He would never allow?—”

“Oh, he doesn’t know about the little psycho. He didn’t deserve to know before. But now? She’s just like him. He can have her!”

Just like him, what does that mean? I want to scream it, my head beginning to pound with the countless questions I have rolling around.

“You said my dad left,” I croak, barely able to get the words out. “You said he met me as a baby and left. You said you couldn’t contact him if you tried. Why would you…” I trail off, choking back tears.

The pure venom in her stare is enough to make bile burn the back of my throat. “You should be thanking me. I didn’t want you, and he would have wanted you even less. I raised you good and right. Dante wouldn’t have known what to do with a burden like you. A daughter in his world,” she starts, clicking her tongue. “You’d be eaten alive. I hope there’s still time for that to happen!”

Crack. Crack. Crack. My ribs scream with each new intake of breath.

Hurt, betrayal, confusion… they all slither through my veins, chilling me from the inside out. I shiver, breathing through my mouth to get more air into my lungs.

“I hope he kills you on sight,” she hisses. “The Morettis like their women pure. Dying for being a whore would serve you well after what you’ve done!”

Something inside the deep pit of my soul snaps. My broken spirit morphs into an anger I can’t control. And I’m on her, pinning her to the ground in a second flat. Slamming my fist into her face.

Two minutes ago, I was devastated that the last bit of my mother that I thought may still love me was gone. Now? I wish I never loved her at all. I wish I never ignored the way she hurt me in favor of forgiving her. I wish she never pretended to care.

At this moment, hitting her as hard and fast as I can before being stopped, I wish she never existed. Even if that means I never existed either. Her face feels like I’m punching concrete, only a soft layer of skin from each of us providing any barrier between bone-on-bone contact. It’s sickening and yet I can’t end it on my own.

I don’t know how many hits I manage to get in before Officer Brian is able to pry me off of her. My knuckles are bloodied, and my chest feels empty as he drags me off of her unconscious body. When I look down at what I’ve done, she just lies there, bleeding and unmoving. The sight makes me smile and lunge forward, hoping to continue.

“Stop fighting,” Brian grunts, trying to hold me in place while I kick and squirm to get away. “If I bruise you even accidentally, he’ll kill me.”

I stiffen, immediately going still. He’s talking about my father. The father I didn’t know existed. The man Kim wants to kill me. But if he wanted to kill me, why would he kill Brian for bruising me?

“He won’t hurt you, Jade,” he whispers the vow into my ear like he’s read my mind. “Dante is a complicated man. But he takes care of his children.”

I wonder if he’s telling the truth, but something about his soft, reassuring tone, coupled with the way he lets me go, makes me think he is. Maybe Kim doesn’t know Dante as well as she thinks she does.

He takes care of his children. The declaration replays inside of my head, latching on to one word. Children. He has more than one, and that doesn’t include me.

I have siblings.

I have a dad.

Unless Kim is lying, which would make this the sickest thing she’s ever done to me. I won’t give her the satisfaction of getting my hopes up. I refuse.

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