Chapter 3: The Number He Hadn't Called in Years
Vittorio stepped out of the breakfast room without a word.
Lucy stayed pressed against Emma's side.
Neither of them moved.
Through the open doorway they could hear his footsteps cross the marble hall, then stop.
Back in the breakfast room, Bianca stood up from the ottoman and smoothed her skirt a second time.
"This is embarrassing for everyone," she said.
"He'll calm down.
He always does."
Marcus had moved to the window.
He was watching the garden below, his jaw tight.
"The second video," he said quietly.
"Where was she standing when she recorded it?"
"I don't know."
"Think, Bianca."
"I said I don't know." Her voice sharpened.
"It doesn't matter.
It's a housekeeper's phone.
Any decent lawyer can question her motive, her position, her relationship with the child—"
"Her relationship with the child is the problem," Marcus said.
He turned from the window.
"She's been here eleven years.
Vittorio trusts her more than he trusts us."
Bianca said nothing.
In the hallway, Vittorio's voice reached them — low, controlled, the tone he used when he was not asking permission.
"I need you here by noon.
Bring everything."
A pause.
"I don't care what you had scheduled.
Cancel it."
Emma guided Lucy gently toward the kitchen.
Lucy walked without lifting her eyes from the floor.
At the kitchen table, Emma poured a small glass of orange juice and set it down without speaking.
Lucy wrapped both hands around it but didn't drink.
"Is Daddy angry at me?" Lucy asked.
"No," Emma said.
"He is not angry at you."
"He looked angry."
"He looked like a man who found out something he should have known sooner." Emma sat down across from her.
"That is a different kind of face."
Lucy considered this.
"Will Bianca have to leave?"
Emma didn't answer immediately.
She reached across the table and straightened the sleeve of Lucy's sweater where it had bunched at the elbow.
"Drink your juice," she said.
Vittorio appeared in the kitchen doorway.
He had his phone in his hand and his jacket was gone.
He looked at Lucy for a moment — just looked at her, the way a person looks when they are recalculating something important.
"Come here," he said.
Lucy slid off the chair and crossed to him.
He crouched down to her level.
"Did anyone else see what happened in that room?
Any of the other staff?"
Lucy glanced at Emma.
"It's all right," Vittorio said.
"You can tell me."
"Rosa," Lucy said quietly.
"She brought the laundry in once and Bianca told her to leave.
But she saw."
Vittorio stood up slowly.
He looked at Emma.
"Where is Rosa now?"
"Her day off," Emma said.
"But she lives in the staff cottage.
She hasn't left."
Vittorio nodded once.
He looked back at Lucy.
"You're going to stay in the kitchen with Emma.
Don't come back to the main rooms until I come for you."
"Okay," Lucy said.
He was already turning when Lucy spoke again.
"Daddy."
He stopped.
"Marcus said if I told you anything, you wouldn't believe me because I was just a child." She said it without drama, the way children report facts.
"He said children make things up."
Vittorio's hand tightened around his phone.
May you like
He didn't say anything.
He walked back down the hall toward the breakfast room, and this time his footsteps were not quiet at all.
