Chapter 1
Enzo did not open a single letter in the dining room.
That surprised everyone.
Lucinda was still sitting against the shattered pantry threshold.
Family members had risen from their chairs.
Two capos were already speaking over one another.
One bodyguard asked whether Enzo wanted Lucinda removed.
He ignored all of them.
His attention remained on Lily.
She was trembling inside clothes that looked as though they had been pulled from a garbage bag.
Her knees were red from the marble.
There was flour on one sleeve and something dark dried across the front of her dress.
“Greta.”
The housekeeper hurried forward.
“Take Lily upstairs.”
Lily tightened her hand around the oldest envelope.
“No.”
Enzo crouched.
“You can keep it.”
“Mom wrote it.”
“I know.”
“You read it?”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
Because his hands were shaking.
He did not tell her that.
“Because I want to read it with you when you’re safe and clean.”
Lily studied him.
Then nodded.
Greta took her upstairs.
Only after his daughter disappeared did Enzo turn toward Lucinda.
“What did you do to her?”
Lucinda stood slowly with help from the pantry frame.
“You’re asking the wrong question.”
Enzo’s expression hardened.
“I decide which question is wrong.”
“She has become spoiled.”
“She is five.”
“She refuses meals. She refuses instructions. She constantly asks about that woman.”
Enzo looked at the scattered envelopes.
“Her mother.”
Lucinda’s jaw tightened.
“The woman who left.”
A relative near the dining table murmured agreement.
Enzo heard him.
“Everyone out.”
Nobody moved.
Enzo looked around the room.
“Dinner is over.”
That moved them.
Within minutes, family members began leaving under security supervision.
Lucinda tried to remain.
Enzo stopped her.
“You go too.”
“This is my family’s house.”
“It is my house.”
“I helped raise you.”
“And tonight you knocked my daughter onto her knees because she was hungry.”
Lucinda’s face tightened.
“You have no idea what that child has been doing.”
Enzo almost stepped toward her.
Then he stopped himself.
“You are leaving before I forget she is upstairs listening.”
That ended it.
Lucinda was escorted out.
Enzo ordered the entire pantry sealed.
Nobody touched an envelope.
Nobody inventoried anything until his attorney arrived.
Then he went upstairs.
Greta had bathed Lily and found clean pajamas.
The torn clothes lay inside a plastic laundry bag.
Enzo looked at them.
“Where did those come from?”
Greta’s face changed.
“The old service room.”
“Why was she wearing them?”
“Mrs. Lucinda said Lily needed to learn gratitude.”
Enzo became very still.
“How long?”
“Today was the first time I saw the clothes.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Greta looked toward Lily.
Then lowered her voice.
“Lucinda has been restricting her meals for two days.”
Enzo stared at her.
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“I received nothing.”
Greta swallowed.
“Your aunt said you had ordered that all problems involving Lily go through her while you handled the family dinner.”
Enzo looked toward the child sitting on the bed with the envelope in both hands.
Lucinda had not only hidden letters.
May you like
She had been speaking in Enzo’s name.
And for the second time that night, he wondered how long that had been happening.
