Chương 7
Valentina looked at the page in front of her.
“Three months ago.”
“Why?”
“Because I was scared.”
“Of what?”
She took a breath.
“Of losing Ruby.”
Domenico nodded.
“Why did you think you would lose her?”
Valentina looked at him.
“Because you had already started building a life where I wasn’t necessary.”
He frowned slightly.
“That is not an answer.”
“It is.”
“No.”
His voice remained steady.
“It is a feeling.”
The distinction bothered her.
Because feelings were difficult to prove wrong.
Facts were not.
Valentina tapped the document.
“These are facts.”
Domenico looked at the report.
“These are observations.”
“From a professional.”
“Paid by you.”
She had no response.
Marcus shifted in his chair.
Domenico looked at him.
“What exactly did Daniel tell you?”
Marcus hesitated.
“He said if there was evidence that you were unpredictable, it would matter.”
“Did he say Ruby was in danger?”
Marcus looked uncomfortable.
“No.”
“Did Valentina say it?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Valentina closed her eyes briefly.
Not because she was surprised.
Because she knew the answer exposed something.
Domenico leaned back.
“Was Ruby ever unsafe?”
Nobody answered.
The silence was enough.
Valentina finally spoke.
“That depends on what you mean.”
Domenico stared at her.
“No.”
His voice was quieter.
“It doesn’t.”
She looked at him.
“There are different kinds of unsafe.”
“Ruby was not afraid of me.”
Valentina looked down.
“You don’t know that.”
The sentence hit him.
Not because he believed it.
Because it forced him to consider whether he had missed signs.
Had Ruby ever hidden something from him?
Had she ever stopped asking because she thought he was too busy?
The possibility hurt.
Domenico stood.
Not dramatically.
Just enough to walk away from the table for a moment.
He went to the window.
Outside, a gardener trimmed the hedges near the driveway.
A delivery truck passed through the gate.
The world continued.
That ordinary movement bothered him.
Inside the house, everything felt broken.
Outside, nobody knew.
Valentina watched him.
For the first time, she seemed to understand that she had not only frightened Ruby.
She had wounded the one person she wanted to control.
“I was lonely,” she said.
Domenico did not turn around.
The honesty was unexpected.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Her voice cracked slightly.
“I was surrounded by people every day.”
She looked around the dining room.
“This house has employees, guests, meetings, parties.”
She touched the edge of the table.
“And I was still alone.”
Domenico remained silent.
“My entire identity became being Ruby’s mother.”
“That is not a small thing.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“But when you came home, you were the hero.”
The word sounded bitter.
“You walked through the door and everything changed.”
Domenico looked back.
“You wanted that?”
“No.”
She looked embarrassed.
“I hated that I wanted it.”
That admission was more human than anything she had said before.
Domenico sat again.
The anger did not disappear.
But it became less simple.
People rarely destroyed things because they felt nothing.
Sometimes they destroyed things because they could not manage what they felt.
That did not excuse what they did.
It only explained how it happened.
“What is Daniel’s full name?”
Valentina hesitated.
“Daniel Reeves.”
“Where is he now?”
“I don’t know.”
Domenico studied her.
“You don’t know?”
She shook her head.
“He stopped responding last night.”
That detail bothered him.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
For once, she sounded like she truly did not know.
Domenico picked up his phone.
He searched the name.
Nothing useful appeared immediately.
A few professional profiles.
A company website.
Public information.
No obvious connection.
He looked at Marcus.
“You said there were papers.”
Marcus nodded.
“There was another folder.”
“Where?”
“Valentina kept it separate.”
Valentina looked at him sharply.
“Marcus.”
He ignored her.
“In the bedroom.”
Domenico’s expression hardened.
“You searched her room?”
“No.”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“She asked me to put it there.”
“What folder?”
Marcus looked toward Valentina.
She did not answer.
Domenico stood.
“Show me.”
Nobody moved.
Then Valentina slowly stood as well.
“I’ll get it.”
Domenico watched her walk toward the stairs.
Not with trust.
Not yet.
But with the understanding that the truth was no longer something she could control alone.
At the top of the staircase, she stopped.
The hallway stretched ahead.
Ruby’s bedroom door was open.
Inside, the little girl was sitting with Elena, coloring a picture of a house with a bright yellow door.
Valentina looked at it.
For a moment, her face changed.
The anger, fear, and pride all disappeared.
What remained was regret.
Then it was gone.
She continued toward the bedroom.
Domenico followed several steps behind.
And for the first time since entering the mansion the night before, he wondered whether the biggest betrayal was not what Valentina had done.
It was how many people had watched it happen and convinced themselves it was easier not to interfere.
In the bedroom, Valentina opened the bottom drawer of the wardrobe.
The drawer was filled with clothing that still had tags attached.
Ruby’s old sweaters.
Dresses she had outgrown.
Things that had been placed there instead of given away.
Domenico noticed that she did not look at the clothes.
She looked past them.
She knew exactly where she was going.
Behind the drawer was a thin wooden panel.
She pressed the corner.
The panel moved slightly.
Marcus looked away.
Domenico noticed.
“You knew about this.”
Marcus shook his head.
“I knew she had somewhere private.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
Marcus sighed.
“It isn’t.”
Valentina removed the panel.
Behind it was another folder.
Smaller than the first.
Older.
The cover was worn from being handled.
She held it for a moment before giving it to Domenico.
He expected resistance.
He expected another argument.
There was none.
That worried him more.
“What is this?”
Valentina looked at the folder.
“The reason I started everything.”
Domenico opened it.
The first page was not about him.
It was about Ruby.
A medical summary.
May you like
Then another page.
Then another.
