Chapter 2
The engagement ended before midnight.
Bianca was escorted from the property after police completed their initial work.
Her personal belongings would be collected later through attorneys.
The engagement ring stayed on her hand.
Domenico did not care about it.
Emma cared about something else.
Her room.
He carried her upstairs himself.
Four wardrobe boxes stood beside the bed.
Her clothes had been removed from drawers.
Books were stacked in plastic bins.
Stuffed animals had been stuffed into clear moving bags.
Even the framed photograph of Emma with Domenico had been wrapped in brown paper.
The child stared.
“Why?”
Domenico had no answer he was willing to invent.
He sat on the floor beside her.
“Nobody is taking your room.”
“Bianca said new mom gets upstairs.”
Domenico went still.
“What?”
Emma picked at a tear in her dirty sleeve.
“She said big girls sleep far away.”
Emma was three.
Domenico knew better than to interrogate her.
He stopped immediately.
The next morning, a child therapist recommended by Emma’s pediatrician came to the estate.
Dr. Lauren Whitaker told Domenico something he did not enjoy hearing.
“Don’t turn her into a witness.”
“I need to know what happened.”
“You need adults to investigate what adults did. Emma needs permission to be three.”
That sentence stayed with him.
So Domenico investigated the adults.
The moving company had received instructions two days earlier.
Not that morning.
The work order listed Emma’s room as:
Primary suite expansion — Phase One.
Domenico read it twice.
His bedroom was at the opposite end of the hall.
Bianca’s planned suite was beside Emma’s.
Ethan spread the floor plans across Domenico’s office desk.
Emma’s bedroom had been marked for conversion into a dressing room and private sitting area connected to Bianca’s future suite.
“What was Emma getting?” Domenico asked.
Ethan pointed toward the third floor.
A smaller room.
Originally designed for live-in staff.
It was two levels away from Domenico.
The change had never been approved by him.
But the design company believed it had.
Someone had sent them an authorization through the Bellandi estate office.
The email ended with:
Approved on behalf of the family. Proceed discreetly before the reception.
Domenico looked at the sender.
Helena’s executive assistant.
He called his aunt immediately.
Helena arrived twenty minutes later.
Domenico put the printout in front of her.
“You told me you learned about the boxes yesterday.”
“I learned Bianca intended to move them yesterday.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Helena looked at the document.
Then at him.
“The designers contacted my office.”
“When?”
“Several weeks ago.”
There was the first crack.
“You knew Emma’s bedroom was being redesigned.”
“Yes.”
“And said nothing.”
“I thought you knew.”
Domenico leaned back.
“No, you didn’t.”
May you like
Helena did not answer.
Because if she had truly believed he knew, there would have been no reason to proceed discreetly.
