Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN PEARLS
I stopped breathing.
The hallway blurred around me.
Lily’s name had not been spoken.
Derek did not need to say it.
My daughter had died three weeks earlier because he shoved me down a staircase.
I remembered the hospital lights.
The blood.
The doctor refusing to meet my eyes.
I remembered Derek disappearing before police arrived.
“You were angry,” I whispered.
“You pushed me because I tried to leave.”
Derek’s eyes filled with something that might have been shame.
“I was paid.”
Lorenzo pressed the gun against his forehead.
“By whom?”
Derek looked toward the approaching footsteps.
A woman appeared at the top of the staircase.
Camilla Rossi descended wearing a black silk robe and a strand of white pearls.
She was Lorenzo’s stepmother.
She had lived in the mansion since his father died.
Everyone called her the family matriarch.
Her biological son, Enzo, stood behind her with four armed guards.
Camilla looked at Victor bleeding on the floor.
Then at Derek.
Then at me.
Her expression held perfect concern.
“What happened?”
Derek laughed bitterly.
“You know exactly what happened.”
Enzo stepped forward.
“You should choose your next words carefully.”
Derek’s face went pale.
Camilla looked at Lorenzo.
“Your son needs medical attention.”
“You are wasting time with frightened employees.”
Lorenzo did not lower his weapon.
“Someone poisoned his bottles.”
Camilla’s hand touched her pearls.
“That is impossible.”
“He has been under constant medical supervision.”
“That supervision is unconscious inside the nursery,” I said.
Camilla’s eyes shifted toward me.
For a second, her polite mask disappeared.
She looked at my open uniform.
At Leo pressed against my chest.
Then she smiled.
“How disturbing.”
I pulled the blanket higher around the baby.
“He was starving.”
“You are breastfeeding a child who does not belong to you.”
“I was keeping him alive.”
Camilla turned toward the guards.
“Take the baby from her.”
Lorenzo moved in front of me.
“No one touches them.”
The guards froze.
Camilla studied him.
“You cannot be thinking clearly.”
“You walked into the nursery and found a grieving maid holding your son against her naked body.”
“The nurse was drugged.”
“The door was locked.”
“The air vent was releasing chemicals.”
Lorenzo pointed at Derek.
“And he says you arranged the death of her child.”
Camilla laughed softly.
“Derek Hale is a violent criminal.”
“You would believe him over your family?”
Derek reached inside his borrowed jacket.
Enzo’s guards raised their weapons.
He slowly removed a phone.
“There are messages,” he said.
“Payment instructions.”
“A photograph of Maya leaving the clinic.”
Camilla’s expression did not change.
Enzo’s did.
He moved toward Derek.
Lorenzo fired into the marble floor between them.
The gunshot shook the corridor.
“I said nobody moves.”
Leo whimpered against me.
I felt his mouth weaken again.
“Mr. Rossi.”
“He needs a hospital.”
Camilla stepped closer.
“The family doctor is already coming.”
“No,” Lorenzo said.
“Not Dr. Vale.”
That was the first moment Camilla looked frightened.
Lorenzo turned toward Dante Morelli, his oldest loyal guard, who had arrived from the opposite staircase.
“Bring Dr. Hannah Reed from Saint Joseph’s.”
“Use my private helicopter.”
“Do not tell anyone where she is going.”
Dante nodded.
Lorenzo looked at the remaining guards.
“Lock the estate.”
“Collect every phone.”
“Nobody leaves.”
Camilla folded her arms.
“You cannot imprison your own family.”
Lorenzo looked at Leo.
Then at the drugged nurse.
Then at me.
“I do not know who my family is yet.”
Camilla’s gaze returned to Derek’s phone.
Enzo suddenly drew his weapon.
May you like
He fired once.
Derek fell.
