Chapter 7: What Elena Changed
The call about Elena came at 7:40 AM, while I was in the kitchen drinking the coffee I had finally remembered to pour.
Alessio appeared in the doorway.
"I need to ask you something," he said.
"All right."
"When Giada mentioned Leo's mother — did you believe her?
That Elena is building a case?"
I set the cup down.
"I believed that Giada said it to stop you," I said.
"Whether it's true is a different question."
"It might be true."
"It might be."
He came into the kitchen and stood at the counter across from me.
He looked like a man who had been awake for thirty hours and had decided that sleep was something that happened to other people.
"Elena left when Leo was six weeks old," he said.
"She signed paperwork.
Full custody, no visitation, no contest.
In exchange for a financial arrangement." He paused.
"I thought it was finished."
"People change their minds about arrangements."
"Not this kind."
"What kind is it?"
He looked at the window.
The grounds were gray and wet in the early morning light, the garden paths still dark with rain.
"The kind where she was not a willing participant," he said.
The kitchen was very quiet.
"Alessio."
"She was young.
She was frightened.
My lawyers were better than hers." He said it without inflection, the way people say things they have rehearsed accepting.
"I'm not proud of it."
"Did she want Leo?"
"I don't know what she wanted.
I know what she signed."
I looked at him carefully.
"If she's building a case," I said, "and if what you just told me is accurate, she may have grounds.
Depending on how those documents were obtained."
"I know."
"That changes things."
"I know that too."
"It doesn't change what Giada did," I said.
"Those are two separate problems."
"They're not separate if Giada knew about Elena's case and decided Leo was a liability either way." He looked at me.
"If Leo is gone, the inheritance question is settled.
And if Elena's case succeeds and Leo goes with her, Giada loses the leverage she has over me through him." He paused.
"She wins either way.
That's what I've been sitting with since four in the morning."
I absorbed that.
"You think she knew about Elena's case before last night."
"I think she's known for weeks.
I think that's why she came here unannounced." He straightened.
"And I think she told me about Elena just now not to warn me, but to see if I would pull back from the DA's office to protect myself."
"Will you?"
He looked at me for a long moment.
"No," he said.
"Because Leo is alive.
And the only reason he's alive is that you were in that nursery." His voice was steady.
"If I protect myself at the cost of letting her walk away from this, and she tries again — I won't survive that."
I believed him.
"Then you need to call your own lawyer," I said.
"Not about Giada.
About Elena.
Before the DA intake, before anything else becomes part of a record, you need to know where you stand with those original documents."
He nodded slowly.
"And Leo?" I said.
"Where is he now?"
"With Dr.
Rossi.
He's stable.
His airway is clear.
Rossi wants to keep him under observation until noon."
"Good."
"Will you stay?" he said.
"Until this is resolved.
I'll pay whatever you ask."
I thought about the nursery.
The blue lips.
The weight of the forceps in my hand.
The way Leo's cry had cut through the room like something that refused to be silenced.
"I'll stay," I said.
He nodded once and walked back toward the study.
I picked up my coffee.
It had gone cold.
Down the corridor, I heard the sitting room door open.
Then Marco's voice, low and firm.
Then Giada's — sharp, controlled, asking for her phone.
Marco said no.
A pause.
Then Giada said something I couldn't hear clearly.
But Marco's answer carried.
"Mr.
Romano's instructions, Miss.
I'm sorry."
Another pause.
Then, very clearly, Giada said: "He'll regret this."
Not a threat.
Not quite.
May you like
The tone was too quiet for that.
It sounded more like a promise she had already made to herself.
