Chapter 2
Matteo carried Lily into his private study.
No guests.
No capos.
Only Lily, his physician, and one female housekeeper the child trusted.
The doctor examined the red abrasion around Lily’s ankle.
Matteo stood beside the window while she worked.
His hands stayed clasped behind his back because if he looked at the mark too long, they began to shake.
The doctor finally stood.
“No serious injury.”
Matteo exhaled once.
Then the doctor’s gaze hardened.
“But this should never have happened.”
“I know.”
There was no defensiveness in his voice.
That surprised her.
After Lily ate and changed clothes, Matteo sat beside her on the sofa.
The torn paper hidden behind the photograph contained only six surviving lines.
Most had been ripped away.
The handwriting belonged to Elena.
Matteo’s late wife.
He recognized it immediately.
The surviving words were incomplete.
...if Veronica comes back...
...Richard knows why...
...don't let Lily...
...you need to ask what happened...
Matteo stared at the fragment.
Lily leaned against him.
“Mommy wrote it?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Matteo swallowed.
“Before she died.”
Lily looked at the paper.
“Veronica tried to take it.”
Matteo’s eyes sharpened.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
His hand stopped against Lily’s hair.
“How did you find it?”
“In Mommy’s picture.”
“Did Veronica know it was there?”
Lily nodded.
“She asked where the rest was.”
Matteo felt the room narrow.
There was supposed to be more.
He stood.
Outside the study, Veronica waited with an attorney now.
Richard sat farther down the hall with ice against his shoulder.
Matteo stepped out.
Veronica lifted her chin.
“You’re frightening Lily by turning scraps of paper into conspiracy.”
Matteo watched her eyes.
Not her mouth.
“Did you know Elena?”
The question hit harder than a threat.
Veronica’s breath caught.
Barely.
Matteo had met Veronica fourteen months after Elena died.
At least that was what he believed.
Her eyes shifted toward Richard.
Matteo noticed.
Richard slowly removed the ice pack from his shoulder.
Then Veronica answered.
“Yes.”
Matteo said nothing.
The silence lengthened.
She finally added:
“Before you and I ever met.”
May you like
Matteo’s fingers curled once beside his thigh.
The woman he planned to marry had just admitted that the beginning of their relationship was another lie.
