Chapter 2
The estate physician stabilized Luca before sending him to the hospital for observation.
The initial assessment suggested that whatever Luca had consumed was causing gastrointestinal distress and dehydration.
Nothing yet suggested a lethal dose.
Vittorio found no comfort in that distinction.
He remained beside Luca until the boy finally slept.
Only then did Maria speak.
Her hands had been folded together for almost twenty minutes.
Vittorio noticed how white her knuckles had become.
“You know something.”
Maria looked toward Luca.
Then toward the door.
“I know Mrs. Rossetti has given him drinks before.”
Vittorio’s eyes hardened.
“How many?”
“I saw two.”
“You told me?”
Maria inhaled.
Held it.
Released slowly.
“I tried.”
Vittorio remembered an argument three weeks earlier.
Maria telling him Luca kept complaining about his stomach after family lunches.
Bernadette had laughed and accused the maid of babying him.
Vittorio had been leaving for a meeting.
He told Maria to stop turning every stomachache into an emergency.
The memory landed badly.
Maria looked down.
“You were busy.”
“That isn't an excuse.”
“No.”
She met his eyes.
“You're right.”
That was worse.
Back at the estate, the drink was sent for independent analysis.
Bernadette demanded to leave.
Vittorio refused until law enforcement and his attorneys determined what restrictions were appropriate.
“You're imprisoning me in my own family’s estate?”
Vittorio stood across from her.
“No.”
His voice remained low.
“You lost the privilege of calling anything here yours when my son collapsed.”
Bernadette’s lips tightened.
“You always were dramatic when someone challenged your authority.”
Vittorio said nothing.
Her confidence slowly returned.
Then he placed Luca’s statement in front of her.
Nico.
Inside her car.
Bernadette’s fingers stopped moving.
Vittorio watched them.
“When?”
She remained silent.
“Why was he there?”
Her eyes lifted.
For the first time, arrogance disappeared completely.
“Ask Nico.”
Vittorio already had.
Security had reached him thirty minutes earlier.
Nico’s phone was off.
His driver could not locate him.
May you like
And his last verified location was not two hundred miles away.
It was the Rossetti estate.
