Chapter 3
Vanessa stared at Tobin.
Then laughed.
Too loudly.
“You’re taking a three-year-old seriously?”
Tobin moved closer to Alessandra.
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“Oh, stop hiding.”
Her tone became sharper.
“I’m not going to eat you.”
Alessandra stood between them.
“You’re done speaking to him.”
Vanessa’s mouth curled.
“That little rule only works if I respect you.”
She stepped closer.
“I don’t.”
Luca looked at her.
“Vanessa.”
She snapped:
“What?”
He held her gaze.
She finally looked away.
That was new.
Alessandra noticed.
“So.”
Her eyes moved to Vanessa.
“You knew his birthday.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Maybe somebody told me.”
“Who?”
“Maybe I don’t remember.”
“Convenient.”
Vanessa smiled.
“You think because a few capos stood up behind you, I owe you answers?”
Alessandra’s expression remained calm.
“No.”
A pause.
“You owe Luca.”
That irritated Vanessa more.
She turned toward him.
“You’re really going to let her do this?”
Luca did not answer.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“There he is.”
She pointed toward Alessandra.
“One look from the ex-wife who couldn’t give you a baby and suddenly you forget who stayed after she left.”
Alessandra’s eyes remained still.
Luca’s face hardened.
“You came into my life three months after the divorce.”
Vanessa smiled.
“That’s the version we use in public.”
Silence.
Luca froze.
Ethan closed his eyes.
Vanessa realized.
Too late.
Alessandra watched Luca.
His voice lowered.
“What did you say?”
Vanessa’s arrogance returned as defense.
“Oh, don’t be dramatic.”
“How long?”
“Luca.”
“How long?”
She exhaled.
“We were talking.”
“When?”
A pause.
“Before the divorce.”
The room shifted.
Luca stared.
“How long before?”
Vanessa rolled one shoulder.
“Months.”
Alessandra did not react outwardly.
That hurt more.
Luca saw it.
“You told me nothing happened.”
“Nothing physical.”
Vanessa lifted her chin.
“And frankly, if your marriage had been healthy, a few conversations wouldn’t have mattered.”
Alessandra almost smiled.
Not because it was funny.
Because the contempt had finally stopped pretending to be anything else.
Ethan cut in.
“You two were finished anyway.”
Alessandra turned.
“How would you know?”
Ethan smirked.
“Because Luca was miserable.”
“And you were very concerned.”
“More than you were.”
Alessandra’s eyes narrowed.
Ethan kept going.
“You spent years making him feel defective because you couldn’t get pregnant.”
Luca turned sharply.
“I never said she made me feel defective.”
Ethan looked at him.
“No?”
Luca’s face changed.
A memory.
Alessandra saw it.
“What?”
He looked away.
“Nothing.”
“No.”
Her voice lowered.
“What?”
Luca hesitated.
Then:
“There was one night.”
Vanessa stiffened.
Luca continued.
“The fertility specialist asked me to repeat one of the tests.”
Alessandra stared.
“You never told me.”
“I was told it was routine.”
“By who?”
Luca looked toward Ethan.
The room went still.
Ethan laughed.
“You’re serious?”
Luca’s eyes hardened.
“You took the call.”
“I took dozens of calls for you.”
“You told me the doctor said my results were normal.”
Ethan shrugged.
“Maybe he did.”
Luca’s gaze sharpened.
“Maybe?”
Alessandra watched Ethan’s face.
There.
Another tiny crack.
She asked:
“What was the doctor’s name?”
Luca answered.
“Dr. Warren Hale.”
Alessandra went completely still.
Tobin noticed.
“Mom?”
She looked down at him.
Then back at Luca.
“You know Hale?”
Alessandra’s voice became quiet.
“He came to see me.”
Luca froze.
“When?”
“Two weeks after our divorce.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
Ethan’s confidence vanished for half a second.
Alessandra looked straight at them.
“He told me there was nothing wrong with me.”
Silence.
Luca’s face drained.
Alessandra continued.
May you like
“He said somebody had ordered him to make sure you never learned whose test actually failed.”
And Ethan had just admitted he was the person taking Luca’s calls.
