My billionaire ex-husband divorced me after convincing himself I was the reason we couldn't have children. Years later, Luca Moretti walked into one of Chicago's most exclusive restaurants with his new wife and saw me sitting across the room with twin children. The moment he looked into their faces, the man who could negotiate billion-dollar deals without blinking froze, because both children had his unmistakable eyes.

Evelyn Shaw was not a woman who vanished quietly into the night.

Two days after Luca served her with annulment papers, a trashy scandal tabloid published a massive, front-page article: “MORETTI’S SECRET HEIRS: Ex-Wife Hid Billionaire’s Twins to Extort Massive Settlement!”

The article was filled with malicious lies leaked by Evelyn’s publicist. It painted me as a manipulative gold-digger who had deliberately hidden Luca’s children for five years to launch a high-society extortion plot. It published blurred pap shots of Leo and Maya playing at their preschool.

By 8:00 AM, my brownstone in Lincoln Park was completely surrounded by news vans, flashbulbs, and screaming reporters holding microphones over my fence.

“Mommy, why are those people taking pictures of our house?” Maya asked, holding her stuffed rabbit close to her chest as she peered through the window blinds.

“Are they bad guys?” Leo asked, pulling his toy fire truck back and standing protective in front of his sister.

My heart was hammering against my ribs. I was terrified. I had kept my children hidden from the harsh spotlight of the Moretti name for five years precisely to protect them from this kind of vultures' feast.

Before I could call my lawyer, three black armored Escalades pulled up to the curb outside my house, cutting off the media vans.

A dozen heavy-set private security guards in black suits poured out of the vehicles, creating a human wall between the reporters and my front door.

Then, the door of the middle Escalade opened.

Luca stepped out.

He was wearing a dark suit, his face carved out of solid granite. He didn't run inside to hide. Instead, he stepped right up to the bank of microphones being thrust into his face by the eager press core.

“Mr. Moretti!” a reporter shouted. “Is it true your ex-wife hid your biological children from you?”

Luca grabbed the microphone from the reporter’s hand, staring straight into the main camera lens of Chicago’s evening news.

“Listen to me very carefully,” Luca’s voice boomed across the street, cold and ruthless enough to silence the entire crowd. “Every single word published in the Chicago Daily Scandal this morning is a malicious, criminal lie.”

The reporters gasped, flashbulbs exploding like fireworks.

“Nia Carter is a woman of absolute integrity,” Luca continued, looking directly into the camera lens. “Six years ago, my ex-wife was the victim of a medical fraud conspiracy orchestrated by members of the Shaw family. She did not hide my children. I failed her. I allowed myself to be deceived, and I walked away from the best thing that ever happened to me.”

I stood behind my window blinds, holding my hand over my mouth, tears blurring my vision.

“My children—Leo and Maya—are the absolute light of my life,” Luca declared passionately to the entire city of Chicago. “And I will use every dollar of my fortune, every lawyer in my firm, and every ounce of my power to destroy anyone who attempts to harass them or their mother. As of this morning, Moretti Global has filed a fifty-million-dollar defamation lawsuit against Evelyn Shaw and the publication responsible for this filth.”

Luca dropped the microphone onto the pavement, turned his back on the media, and walked straight up my front steps.

I unlocked the door and pulled him inside before the press could recover.

Luca closed the door behind him, leaning his back against the heavy wood, breathing heavily. He looked at me, his eyes filled with fear—not of the media, but of my reaction.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I couldn't let them slander you, Nia. I had to stop it.”

Leo stepped out from behind the hallway wall, looking up at the tall man who had just shouted at the scary people outside. “Are you the man from the restaurant?”