Chapter 4
Julian claimed Anthony left the city that morning.
Before the party.
That was impossible.
Lily saw him with Genevieve less than an hour before the cake was served.
Julian corrected himself quickly.
“He planned to leave.”
I stared.
“You’re getting worse.”
His jaw tightened.
Genevieve sighed.
“Dominic, enough.”
I looked at her.
“Ethan almost ate something you’re terrified to discuss.”
“You don’t know that anything was wrong with the cake.”
“Neither do you.”
Her expression changed.
That mattered.
If she truly believed the cake was harmless, certainty would have been easy.
Instead, she kept arguing about proof.
I sent the remaining cake away under guard.
Not to police.
Not to some public institution.
To one of our private physicians who had served the Moretti family for decades.
Genevieve laughed.
“So now you’ll have your own man tell you whatever you want to hear.”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“I’ll have him tell me whether my son was in danger.”
Ethan stood across the room beside Sarah.
He was watching me differently.
Not frightened.
Studying.
I crossed to him.
“You okay?”
He shrugged.
“Am I still having a birthday?”
The question almost broke the tension in half.
I crouched.
“Yes.”
He looked toward the destroyed cake.
“With what cake?”
Despite everything, I nearly smiled.
“We’ll solve that.”
Lily whispered:
“I’m sorry I broke it.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You saved me.”
She frowned.
“But it was dinosaur frosting.”
He nodded seriously.
“That part was bad.”
Sarah laughed before she could stop herself.
For one second the room breathed.
Then my security chief entered.
His face ended it.
“We found Rusk’s coat.”
“Where?”
“Service alley.”
“And Rusk?”
“Gone.”
He handed me something wrapped in a cloth.
A second silver box.
Empty.
Inside the lid was a symbol.
The old Moretti crest.
Not mine.
My father’s.
May you like
Genevieve stared at it.
And I understood immediately that whatever this plan was, it had roots older than my son.
