Chapter 2
Marina slept for almost six hours.
Damiano stayed.
When she finally woke, he did not demand explanations.
He asked one question.
“Do you want to go back to the estate?”
Her answer came instantly.
“No.”
That settled it.
Damiano arranged a private recovery suite near the hospital rather than taking her home.
His security remained outside.
Marina chose who entered.
No Helena.
No Ricci relatives.
No family staff unless Marina personally approved them.
That evening Damiano finally called Matteo DeLuca, his head of estate security.
“The suitcase.”
Matteo was quiet.
“Whose order?”
“Helena’s.”
Damiano frowned.
“She packed herself?”
“No. She ordered staff to pack it this morning.”
“For where?”
“The lake guesthouse.”
“Why?”
“She said she’d be staying there beginning tonight.”
Damiano leaned back.
“Alone?”
Another silence.
“No.”
His voice changed.
“With whom?”
Matteo hesitated.
“She told the nursery staff to prepare an overnight case for Nico.”
Damiano did not speak.
Matteo continued quickly.
“She said Mrs. Ricci was too weak to manage the baby and would probably need to return to the hospital.”
That sentence landed differently.
Helena had ordered her own suitcase packed hours before Marina collapsed.
She had also ordered staff to prepare Nico’s things.
“Did she say I approved this?”
“Yes.”
Damiano closed his eyes.
There was the first crack.
“I never approved it.”
Matteo sounded sick.
“I believed you had.”
“Why?”
“Because the request appeared in the house-management system under family authorization.”
“My authorization?”
“Yes.”
Damiano looked through the hotel-suite doorway toward Marina sleeping beside Nico’s bassinet.
His mother had not simply anticipated Marina getting worse.
May you like
She had made plans for the baby if Marina did.
And everyone around her believed Damiano was part of those plans.
