Chapter 1
The first thing Domenico did was take back the last sentence he had spoken.
Not from Bianca.
From the room.
“No one touches her.”
His bodyguards stopped immediately.
Bianca remained on the sofa, stunned.
Domenico had spent thirty years building the kind of reputation that made people treat his anger like an order. He knew exactly what “about to die” sounded like coming from him.
He also knew Emma was listening.
That mattered more.
“Call the police,” he told his security chief. “And my attorney.”
Several capos looked at him as though he had lost his mind.
Bianca looked equally surprised.
“You’re calling the police?”
“You put your hands on my daughter.”
“You just threw me across a sofa and threatened to kill me.”
“You reached for her after shoving a sixty-two-year-old woman.”
Helena corrected him automatically.
“Sixty-three.”
Nobody laughed.
Domenico crouched beside Emma.
Her torn little family project was still in his hand.
One cardboard corner had been crushed almost flat beneath Bianca’s heel.
“Are you hurt?”
Emma shook her head.
Then she looked toward the staircase.
“My bed gone?”
Domenico’s attention shifted to Helena.
“What did she mean?”
Helena folded her hands.
“Not here.”
“Here.”
Bianca stood.
One bodyguard moved slightly.
Domenico raised a hand.
She could stand.
She simply was not going near Emma.
Helena looked around at the guests.
“Bianca instructed staff to box Emma’s room this morning.”
Domenico stared at her.
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Helena hesitated.
Bianca answered first.
“Renovation.”
Domenico looked at her.
“You don’t renovate a three-year-old’s bedroom during an engagement reception.”
“The designers are changing the second floor after the wedding.”
“My daughter lives on the second floor.”
Bianca’s jaw tightened.
“She would have another room.”
“Where?”
Silence.
Domenico turned back to Helena.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
Helena’s answer came too slowly.
“Since this morning.”
Domenico saw it.
He had known Helena his entire life.
She was good at lying to outsiders.
She was less good at lying to him.
Police arrived eighteen minutes later.
Domenico gave them the estate security footage without argument.
Bianca called her own lawyer.
Statements were taken separately.
No one was arrested that night, but officers documented the shove, the damaged project, the physical confrontation, and Domenico’s threat.
His attorney, Ethan Cole, arrived before the last officer left.
When he heard the exact wording Domenico had used, he closed his eyes.
“You really said she was about to die?”
“Yes.”
“On camera?”
“Yes.”
“Wonderful.”
Domenico looked toward Emma, who was now sitting with the estate nanny near the fireplace.
“I’ll deal with that.”
Ethan lowered his voice.
“You may have to.”
Then he glanced toward Helena.
“But I think you have another problem.”
Domenico followed his gaze.
Helena was standing alone beside the staircase.
Not looking at Bianca.
May you like
Looking at the boxes being carried back into Emma’s room.
And she looked less surprised than anyone else in the house.
