Chương 8
The bottles contained the same clear solution.
Detective Bell arrested Vanessa before breakfast.
News cameras recorded her leaving the mansion in a gray coat with her hands hidden beneath it. Reporters shouted questions about the poison, the cash, the child witness, and the Moretti family. One of them asked whether the wedding had been canceled.
Vanessa turned toward the cameras.
For a moment, Winn feared she might speak.
She only lifted her chin and entered the car.
Salvatore Moretti arrived at the hospital thirty minutes later carrying two coffees and the expression of a man inconvenienced by death.
Cole met him outside Adrian’s room.
“My nephew asked for me.”
“He’s speaking with counsel.”
“I am family.”
“So is half the city when they need something.”
Salvatore looked at him. He was sixty-three, broad through the chest, with silver hair cut close and a dark overcoat that had never seen rain without someone holding an umbrella above it.
“You’ve been standing outside his doors for eleven years,” he said. “Do not mistake proximity for blood.”
Cole’s jaw moved.
Before he could answer, Adrian’s new attorney opened the door. Miriam Shaw was short, calm, and known for making prosecutors feel rushed without ever raising her voice.
“He’ll see you,” she said.
Salvatore handed one coffee to Cole as if forgiving him.
The hospital room had been cleared of everyone but Adrian, Dr. Harris, and Shaw. Adrian sat upright against raised pillows. Color had returned to his face, though the effort of remaining alert showed around his eyes.
Salvatore entered with his arms open.
“You look terrible.”
Adrian stared at the coffee.
Salvatore stopped. “Too soon?”
“Set it down.”
He placed it on the windowsill.
“I heard about Vanessa,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
“Are you?”
Salvatore’s face softened. “She was going to be family.”
“She put poison in my tea.”
“Then she was going to be a widow.”
Adrian watched him cross the room. Salvatore pulled a chair close and sat.
“You need to let us handle this,” the older man said.
“Us?”
“The family. Your people are frightened. The newspapers already have photographs of the ambulance. Three crews didn’t report to the Archer site this morning. Two clients called asking whether the construction companies will remain operational.”
“I’ve been in the hospital for six hours.”
“Fear is efficient.”
“What are they afraid of?”
Salvatore leaned forward. “That if someone could poison you in your own bedroom, there is no center anymore.”
Adrian glanced at Shaw. She gave nothing away.
Salvatore continued. “We issue a statement. Sudden illness. Domestic dispute. No threat to business operations.”
“A child found two bottles.”
“A child with a mother who has motive to create leverage.”
Dr. Harris looked up.
Adrian’s voice remained quiet. “What motive?”
Salvatore hesitated just enough.
There it was.
Adrian’s fingers curled against the blanket.
“How do you know?” he asked.
“Know what?”
“Elena’s motive.”
Salvatore looked toward Shaw. “Perhaps this should be private.”
“It is.”
The older man sat back. “People are talking.”
“Who?”
“The police. Staff. Someone said the girl may be yours.”
Adrian watched him.
Salvatore adjusted one cuff. “Is she?”
“Yes.”
The answer seemed to disturb him less than it should have.
Adrian noticed.
“You knew,” he said.
“No.”
“You weren’t surprised.”
“I have learned not to be surprised by you.”
“When did you learn about Lily?”
Salvatore’s expression hardened. “Do not interrogate me because your fiancée tried to kill you.”
“Answer.”
“I heard a rumor months ago.”
“From whom?”
“A driver noticed the resemblance.”
“Which driver?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You remember the birthdays of men you met once in 1989.”
Salvatore’s eyes cooled. “You are sick, Adrian. That does not make every question wise.”
The room fell silent.
Shaw leaned against the wall, arms folded. Dr. Harris examined the IV line with unnecessary concentration.
Adrian said, “The cash under the blanket came from you.”
Salvatore looked at him.
“Didn’t it?”
“Why would I pay Vanessa?”
Adrian had not told him the cash was payment.
The mistake passed across Salvatore’s face like a shadow beneath water.
Dr. Harris saw it.
So did Shaw.
Salvatore stood. “You need rest.”
“Sit down.”
“I came because I was worried.”
“You came to control the story.”
“I came because while you lie here chasing the lies of a housekeeper, people are deciding whether you can still lead.”
Adrian’s breathing remained steady, though the monitor showed his pulse rising.
“What did you pay her to do?”
Salvatore looked toward the door.
Cole stood outside.
For the first time in Adrian’s life, the older man appeared uncertain whether the guard would obey him.
“I paid her to leave you,” Salvatore said.
“Why?”
“Because she was unstable.”
“She was poisoning me.”
“I did not know that.”
“You gave her eighty thousand dollars.”
“To disappear before the wedding.”
“Why not tell me?”
“You would have refused.”
“Yes.”
“You confuse refusal with judgment.”
Adrian’s eyes narrowed. “What did she have on you?”
Salvatore gave a small shake of his head.
Adrian saw the answer there too.
Vanessa had not been paid simply to leave.
She had been paid because she possessed something.
Or because she had already done something worth buying.
Shaw stepped forward. “This conversation is over.”
Salvatore ignored her. “You should think carefully before turning a family humiliation into a public war.”
“A public war already exists.”
“Only if you feed it.”
“The police have the poison.”
“The police have a woman, two bottles, and the word of a child. That is not a war. It is a scandal. Scandals can be narrowed.”
“To Elena.”
Salvatore’s silence confirmed it.
Adrian’s face emptied of expression.
“You want the mother blamed,” he said.
“I want you alive.”
“You want Lily discredited.”
“I want people to stop asking who inherits your authority if you cannot recover.”
Dr. Harris turned from the IV stand.
Adrian looked at his uncle for a long time.
May you like
Salvatore picked up the untouched coffee from the windowsill.
“You are tired,” he said. “Call me when you are thinking like yourself.”
