Chapter 1
Matteo did not ask the question twice.
Dominic remained near the doorway with two bodyguards blocking his path. Helena sat in the chair she had stumbled into, one hand against her face.
Ava hid behind Matteo’s leg.
The entire dining room had gone silent.
Family members who had spent years watching Matteo settle disputes understood that his stillness was more dangerous than shouting.
But Matteo was not thinking like the head of the Bellini family.
He was looking at the red mark on his three-year-old daughter’s cheek.
“Everyone except Helena and Dominic leaves.”
His mother immediately stood.
“You are not interrogating me like some outsider.”
Matteo looked at her.
“You hit my daughter because she said one sentence.”
“She was confused.”
“A confused child doesn’t make a forty-two-year-old man run for the door.”
Dominic stopped looking at the floor.
“I wasn’t running.”
“You were moving fast enough.”
The guests filed out.
Matteo ordered one of the senior housekeepers, Ruth, to take Ava into the adjoining family room but leave the connecting doors open.
Ava refused to release Matteo’s hand.
He crouched.
“I’m right here.”
“Grandma gets mad.”
“I know.”
“She said you’d get mad too.”
“At you?”
Ava nodded.
That hurt him more than Helena’s behavior.
Matteo touched his daughter’s hair.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Ava looked uncertain.
Then she whispered, “I practiced.”
Matteo’s eyes narrowed.
“Practiced what?”
Ava glanced toward Helena.
Helena immediately said, “Enough.”
Matteo stood.
“Not another word from you.”
Ava pointed toward Dominic.
“Calling him Daddy.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“How many times?” Matteo asked.
Ava held up several fingers, changed her mind, then used both hands.
She was three. Numbers beyond four were mostly decoration.
But the answer was obvious.
This had happened repeatedly.
“Who practiced with you?”
“Grandma.”
“Anyone else?”
Ava looked at Dominic again.
“He watched.”
Dominic finally spoke.
“Matteo, there’s an explanation.”
“Good.”
Matteo pulled out a chair.
“Sit down and give me one.”
Dominic sat.
Helena refused.
Matteo turned toward her.
“What did you mean by when I’m gone?”
Helena’s jaw tightened.
“You travel.”
“I’ve traveled her entire life. She has never needed another father.”
Helena looked toward Dominic.
That glance lasted barely a second.
Matteo caught it.
May you like
So did Dominic.
And Dominic suddenly looked more afraid of Helena than of Matteo.
