Chương 4
She tightened her grip instead.
“Don't tempt me.”
He smiled once, nervously.
Mara watched Alessia's face.
“Almost done.”
The pressure eased after several seconds.
Sweat had broken along Alessia's hairline.
Valerio crouched near her shoulder.
For the first time since arriving, the severity left his face.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“Yes.”
The answer came too fast.
Alessia closed her eyes.
“No.”
Valerio waited.
“I don't know.”
“Okay.”
“I don't want everyone following me.”
“Then they won't.”
“You can't order everyone around.”
A faint crease appeared beside his mouth.
“I can try.”
She almost laughed.
Instead her eyes burned.
“I hate this.”
“I know.”
“Don't say you know.”
“All right.”
She looked at him.
He looked back.
There were people in the room who found Valerio frightening because he rarely raised his voice and because silence around a large man was easy to mistake for menace.
Alessia had known him long enough to recognize the differences.
His angry silence was rigid.
His worried silence contained movement he was refusing to make.
Right now his hands kept opening and closing at his sides.
Mara and her partner transferred Alessia onto a stretcher.
The shift sent another pulse through her lower leg.
She bit down hard enough that her jaw hurt.
Someone behind her murmured, “Jesus.”
Veronica stepped back as the stretcher rose.
For the first time, Alessia saw the room from something close to standing height.
Faces surrounded her.
Some sympathetic.
Some curious.
Some carefully blank.
At the far end of the ballroom, two hotel employees were already cleaning up the broken champagne glass.
The ordinary efficiency of it made her want to cry more than the pain did.
Even disasters had staff assigned to them.
Nina approached the stretcher.
Her phone was held against her chest.
“Alessia.”
Veronica moved instantly.
“Don't.”
Nina stopped.
Valerio straightened.
Veronica looked at him, then at the security manager, then at the guests watching her.
Her voice lowered.
“This is private.”
The security manager cleared his throat.
“Ma'am, because there has been an injury, we're going to document what happened.”
Veronica's expression sharpened.
“This is a family matter.”
“It's also an incident on hotel property.”
“My father rented this entire ballroom.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
“So there is no public incident.”
The manager blinked.
“I don't think that's how that works.”
A few guests looked away to hide reactions.
Veronica's face reddened.
Nina suddenly stepped around her.
“I have it.”
Everyone nearest her became silent.
Nina held the phone toward Alessia but did not play anything.
“I checked.”
Alessia's stomach turned.
“You can see it?”
Nina nodded.
“Clearly?”
Another nod.
Veronica walked toward her.
“Nina, don't do this.”
Nina's face crumpled for a second, not with tears but with the strain of choosing a side in public.
“You told me she slipped.”
“She did.”
“The chair moves before she falls.”
“You can't tell why.”
“I can see your hands on it.”
Veronica stopped.
The sentence remained in the air between them.
Alessia expected triumph.
Instead she felt tired.
Mara began guiding the stretcher toward the ballroom doors.
Valerio walked beside it.
Daniel followed several steps behind until Alessia shook her head.
“Stay.”
He hesitated.
“Are you sure?”
“No, but stay anyway.”
He nodded.
Veronica called after them.
“Alessia.”
The stretcher stopped because Mara glanced down at her.
Alessia could have told her to keep moving.
She didn't.
Veronica stood beside the gold chair in the center of the wedding reception she had spent a year planning.
Her full white skirt shimmered under the warm lights.
She looked beautiful from a distance.
Up close, her breathing had become shallow.
“I didn't mean for you to get hurt.”
Alessia studied her.
There it was.
Not an apology.
Not yet.
A boundary drawn around intent.
A way to admit the action while negotiating the consequence.
Alessia had heard variations of it before.
I didn't mean to embarrass you.
I didn't mean for Mom to hear.
I didn't mean to send it to everyone.
Always the damage as an unfortunate secondary event.
Never the choice preceding it.
Alessia shifted her gaze to Nina.
“Keep the video.”
Veronica's mouth opened.
Alessia looked back at her.
“Don't delete it.”
Then Mara pushed the stretcher forward.
The ballroom doors closed behind them.
The hotel corridor was cooler and nearly empty.
For twenty feet, nobody spoke.
Valerio walked on Alessia's right, matching the stretcher's pace.
At the elevator, Mara pressed the button.
Alessia stared at the illuminated number above the doors.
“Valerio.”
“Yes.”
“If my foot is fine tomorrow, I am going to feel completely stupid.”
He looked down at her.
“If your foot is fine tomorrow, I will personally celebrate your stupidity.”
The elevator chimed.
Alessia let out a weak laugh she hadn't meant to make.
Then the doors opened, and Valerio's phone began vibrating in his pocket.
He glanced at the screen.
His expression changed.
Alessia noticed.
“Who is it?”
Valerio did not answer immediately.
That was enough to make the fear return.
He turned the screen facedown in his hand.
“Your mother.”
Alessia stared at him until the elevator doors began sliding shut.
“Of course she is.”
Valerio caught the door with one hand before it closed and let Mara guide the stretcher inside.
The paramedics positioned Alessia against the wall, and Valerio stepped in after them.
His phone vibrated again.
Then again.
Alessia watched his pocket move.
“You should answer.”
“I don't think now is the best time.”
“She'll keep calling.”
“I know.”
“She'll call Veronica next.”
Valerio looked at her.
That landed.
He pulled out the phone and answered without greeting.
“Yes.”
Alessia could hear only the faint shape of her mother's voice.
Even compressed through the speaker, it carried the unmistakable speed of someone who had already decided what had happened.
Valerio closed his eyes for half a second.
“No, she is not fine.”
The voice sharpened.
“No.”
Another pause.
“No, I am with her.”
May you like
Alessia looked at the ceiling.
The elevator lights were too bright.
