Chapter 1
Lorenzo’s rage lasted exactly as long as it took Bianca to whisper that her abdomen hurt.
Then everything else stopped mattering.
“Hospital.”
Victor pushed himself out from beneath the collapsed screens.
“She didn’t even fall.”
Lorenzo turned toward him.
“You shoved a woman who is thirty-seven weeks pregnant at the top of a staircase.”
“I barely touched her.”
“The camera disagrees.”
Victor’s expression changed.
That was enough.
Lorenzo did not touch him again.
He had already crossed one line tonight, and he knew it.
Marcella sat on the entry bench with one hand against her face.
She looked less frightened by Lorenzo now than by the security monitor.
A bodyguard picked up Bianca’s hospital bag.
Another supported Bianca toward the front doors.
Lorenzo followed.
“Dad.”
He stopped.
Bianca looked toward Victor.
“Don’t let him come.”
Lorenzo’s voice softened immediately.
“He won’t.”
Victor took one step forward.
“You can’t keep me away from my wife.”
Bianca answered before Lorenzo could.
“I’m asking you to stay away from me.”
That distinction mattered.
Lorenzo looked toward security.
“Preserve the footage. All of it. Nobody deletes anything.”
Several older Vitale men in the adjoining council room exchanged uncomfortable looks.
Lorenzo noticed.
He did not care.
The hospital evaluated Bianca for several hours.
Fetal monitoring was reassuring.
No placental abruption was detected.
She had not entered labor.
The baby’s heart rate remained strong.
Her obstetrician still admitted her overnight for observation because a near-fall and significant physical stress at thirty-seven weeks were not something she was willing to dismiss.
Lorenzo sat outside the room while Bianca spoke privately with physicians.
He had spent decades being admitted anywhere he wished.
Tonight, a nurse told him to wait.
He waited.
Nearly an hour later, Bianca asked for him.
She was lying in bed with one hand across her stomach.
“The baby’s okay.”
Lorenzo exhaled.
“So are you?”
“Physically.”
He took the chair beside her.
Neither spoke for several seconds.
Then Bianca said:
“It wasn’t the first time Victor said I slipped.”
Lorenzo’s eyes lifted.
“What does that mean?”
She stared at the blanket.
“Twice this month I lost my balance.”
“Did he push you?”
“I don’t know.”
Lorenzo became very still.
“The first time was in the nursery. I stepped backward and almost went over a footstool. Victor was behind me.”
“And the second?”
“Outside Marcella’s house.”
“Was he behind you then too?”
“No.”
“Who was?”
Bianca looked at him.
“Marcella.”
Lorenzo felt anger rise again.
He forced it down.
“What happened afterward?”
“Victor told everyone I’d been getting dizzy.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
That answer mattered.
Then Bianca added something worse.
“He’s been telling people that for weeks.”
Before Lorenzo could respond, his attorney called.
The police had arrived at the estate.
They wanted the footage.
They also wanted statements about Lorenzo striking Victor and Marcella.
Lorenzo looked toward his daughter.
May you like
For once, there would be no private family version of what happened.
“Give them everything,” he said.
