Chapter 2 - Three Months
Rocco arrived to find the most dangerous man he knew peeling an orange.
Mia sat on the desk, watching Lorenzo pull the white strings off each slice.
“Those are yucky,” she told him.
“So I’ve been informed.”
Rocco closed the door.
Lorenzo handed Mia a slice, then turned.
“Vivien threatened her.”
Rocco’s expression emptied.
“Tell me exactly.”
Lorenzo did.
When he finished, his lieutenant reached for his phone.
“Do you want her out?”
“I want everything first. Bank records we have access to. Visitor logs. Security footage. Every member of staff she’s dismissed.”
“And Charles?”
“Her father too.”
Mia dropped an orange slice onto the desk.
“Mommy?”
Lorenzo softened his voice.
“She’s coming.”
He sent Rocco to bring Elena through the back hallway.
She entered two minutes later, pale and breathing hard.
When she saw Mia, her knees nearly gave.
“Oh, honey.”
Mia reached for her.
Elena held her daughter so tightly Lorenzo looked away.
Then she faced him.
“I’m sorry. She knows she isn’t supposed to bother you.”
“Your daughter didn’t bother me.”
“She wanders when she can’t sleep. I’ll put a latch—”
“No.”
The word frightened her.
He tried again.
“No locks on her door. No punishment.”
Elena looked at Rocco, then back at him.
Lorenzo stayed behind the desk.
“I heard Vivien.”
For several seconds, the only sound was Mia sucking orange juice from her thumb.
Elena’s face changed slowly.
Not relief.
Fear becoming something larger.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“She was angry.”
“Don’t do that.”
Elena straightened.
“Do what?”
“Protect her.”
“I’m protecting my daughter.”
The answer landed exactly where it should.
Lorenzo lowered his eyes.
“How long?”
Elena brushed Mia’s hair from her forehead.
“Since July.”
Three months.
“The broken plate tonight?”
“She threw a perfume bottle. It hit the mirror.”
“Has she touched either of you?”
“She grabbed my arm once. Mia saw.”
Rocco’s jaw moved.
Elena noticed.
“Please don’t make this worse.”
Lorenzo looked up.
“What would make it better?”
“My own phone. My papers. Somewhere she can’t enter.”
“Where’s your phone?”
“Vivien took it yesterday. She said staff weren’t allowed to record inside the house.”
Lorenzo turned to Rocco.
“Get it.”
Elena stepped forward.
“And I want to leave.”
He almost said no.
The word rose automatically, built from a lifetime of keeping things where he could control them.
Then Mia rested her cheek against Elena’s shoulder.
“All right,” he said.
Elena stared at him.
Before she could answer, Rocco’s phone vibrated.
He read the message twice.
“Boss. Someone checked the nursery corridor camera settings this afternoon.”
“Who?”
May you like
Rocco turned the screen.
The authorization had come from Lorenzo’s own account.
