Chapter 2
I did not go to the hotel immediately.
That frustrated Grant.
Good.
Men who hide something often prepare for the obvious reaction. Grant expected anger to send me racing toward the Marlowe while someone else cleaned whatever waited there.
Instead, I stayed with Luca.
Claire sat on the nursery sofa holding him while a doctor checked his temperature and breathing. I stood beside them and watched her hands.
They were shaking now.
They had not shaken when Grant struck her.
“You said this wasn’t the first time.”
Claire looked up.
Vanessa, under guard near the doorway, immediately interrupted.
“She’s been here three weeks.”
I turned.
“I wasn’t asking you.”
Claire swallowed.
“The first time was four days after Luca came home.”
My jaw tightened.
“What happened?”
“Mrs. Bellandi told me he cried too much because everyone picked him up too quickly.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
Claire continued.
“She made staff leave him alone while he was crying.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know. I ended it.”
Vanessa laughed. “You spoiled him.”
I stared at her.
“He is a newborn.”
She shrugged as though age were an inconvenience.
Claire kept going.
“The second time, his feeding tray disappeared.”
One of the bodyguards looked toward Vanessa.
“I found it later in the laundry room.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“Staff lose things.”
Claire shook her head.
“You told me he needed to wait because the house shouldn’t revolve around him.”
Grant laughed from across the room.
“That’s your conspiracy? A missing bottle?”
I looked at him.
“No.”
Then at Vanessa.
“It’s repetition.”
Neither answered.
Claire held Luca closer.
“I tried telling the night supervisor.”
“What happened?”
“She was replaced.”
That got my attention.
“By whom?”
Claire looked at Vanessa.
Of course.
Three weeks.
A newborn.
Multiple incidents.
A caregiver removed every time she challenged the wrong person.
May you like
This was not spontaneous cruelty.
Someone had been testing how much control they could exercise around my son before anyone brought it to me.
