Chương 13
“He prefers this one,” he said.
“I heard.”
“He dislikes blue.”
“Babies are unreasonable.”
“I have noticed.”
She fed Leo from the bottle.
He drank greedily now. His throat moved with each swallow. Lorenzo watched from across the room, his hands loose at his sides.
The sound was no longer faint.
When Leo finished, Elena held him upright. He burped against her shoulder and left a damp mark on her sweater.
Sofia laughed.
Elena laughed too, startled by it.
Lorenzo’s mouth moved at one corner.
For ten quiet minutes, nothing important happened. Sofia answered emails. Rain tracked down the windows. Lorenzo tried to assemble a plastic mobile and discovered he had attached two pieces backward. Elena did not correct him until he swore in Italian.
Then her temporary phone rang.
Only one person had the number.
Carlo.
Everyone in the room became still.
Elena answered on speaker.
“Elena,” Carlo said.
His voice sounded tired.
“What do you want?”
“To end this.”
Lorenzo stepped closer.
Carlo continued, “Daria has made accusations to protect herself. Marco has done the same. You are the only person whose account may still be viewed as innocent.”
“I’m not changing it.”
“I am offering you enough money to leave the country.”
“No.”
“Enough to pay every debt associated with your daughter’s care.”
Elena’s grip tightened around the phone.
Lorenzo reached for it.
She shook her head.
Carlo said, “You should not have been placed in that room. I accept responsibility for that.”
“Not for starving Leo.”
“He was never supposed to die.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
There it was.
Not a full confession. Not enough by itself. But the first direct admission that Carlo knew what had been happening.
Elena kept her voice steady. “What was supposed to happen?”
“Lorenzo was supposed to understand that he could not dismantle the structure protecting him.”
“By watching his son become sick?”
“By recognizing dependence.”
Leo stirred in Elena’s arms.
Carlo continued, “You think this family is a collection of violent men. It is also hundreds of people whose mortgages, medical care, and children’s tuition depend on businesses Lorenzo was prepared to destroy because grief made him sentimental.”
“You harmed a baby to save payroll.”
“I controlled a crisis.”
“You lost control.”
“Because people became emotional.”
Elena looked at Lorenzo.
His face had become frighteningly calm.
“Where are you?” she asked Carlo.
“At the mansion.”
Police had searched the mansion twice. Carlo still had legal access to part of it through shared ownership.
“Why?”
“Because Lorenzo will come.”
“No,” Elena said.
Carlo laughed softly. “He is already putting on his coat.”
Lorenzo was not.
He stood beside Leo’s play mat, looking at his son.
“You misunderstand him,” Elena said.
“I raised him.”
“You trained him.”
“Same thing, in our family.”
The line ended.
Sofia immediately called Detective Pike.
Lorenzo walked to the kitchen and poured a glass of water. He drank half, set it down, then stared at the remaining half as if he had forgotten why he was there.
“Elena,” he said, “give Leo to Sofia.”
“No.”
His gaze lifted.
“You’re going to the mansion,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Then I’m going.”
“No.”
“Carlo called me because he wants me there.”
“He wants leverage.”
“I already am leverage.”
Sofia covered the phone. “Pike says do not approach the property. Officers are securing a warrant.”
“Carlo will leave,” Lorenzo said.
“Then let him.”
“He has Daria’s phone.”
Elena looked at him. “How do you know?”
“He would not call unless he had removed the evidence he feared.”
Sofia relayed the possibility to Pike.
The detective asked how Lorenzo knew.
“He knows his uncle,” Sofia said.
Lorenzo picked up his coat.
Elena handed Leo to Sofia.
“You are staying here,” he said.
“You do not give me orders.”
“I am not taking you into that house.”
“You took me there when you hired an agency controlled by your uncle.”
“I did not know.”
“Neither did I. We are finished using that excuse.”
Sofia stepped between them with Leo against her shoulder.
“Both of you stop. Pike wants Lorenzo on the phone.”
Lorenzo took it.
The conversation lasted three minutes.
When he ended the call, he looked furious.
“What?” Elena asked.
“They want me to enter.”
Sofia stared. “Why?”
“Carlo requested me. If he believes I am coming alone, he may stay.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Officers will surround the property.”
“That is not the same as being inside.”
“No,” Lorenzo said. “It is not.”
Elena understood the arrangement. Police did not trust Lorenzo enough to share every detail. They trusted Carlo even less. They wanted the confrontation contained and observed, but the mansion’s thick walls and damaged security system limited surveillance.
“You’ll wear a transmitter,” she said.
“They asked.”
“Do it.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“If you go without it,” she said, “you are choosing your family’s rules again.”
He said nothing.
Sofia shifted Leo higher. “And Elena stays here.”
Elena shook her head. “Carlo will not speak freely if he thinks Lorenzo left me behind.”
“You are not bait,” Sofia said.
“I was bait before anyone asked permission.”
“That does not mean you volunteer twice.”
Elena looked down at Leo.
The baby’s eyes were closing.
She thought of Evan accusing her of not caring whether she came back. She had hated him for saying it because some part of her had believed death would be simpler than the life waiting after June.
That was not why she wanted to go now.
Now she was afraid to die.
The discovery felt almost like betrayal.
“I want officers beside me,” Elena said. “I want Rachel informed. I want my location shared with my mother and Evan. I want it stated clearly that I am cooperating, not disappearing into a Rossi car.”
Lorenzo frowned. “Evan?”
“Not relevant.”
Sofia watched her carefully. “You’re sure?”
“No.”
May you like
It was the only honest answer.
An hour later, police vehicles waited beyond the Rossi estate’s western wall without lights. Elena sat in an unmarked van wearing a small microphone beneath her sweater. Rachel sat beside her, furious but present.
