Chapter 1 - The Bowl on the Floor
The bowl hit Lucy Romano before anyone could stop it.
Dog food scattered across the polished breakfast-room floor of the Romano mansion, bounced off the leather furniture, and stuck to the pale blue dress of the sixteen-month-old girl standing beside the table.
Lucy froze.
Then she screamed.
Bianca Moretti stood over her without moving.
There was no panic on Bianca’s face. No regret.
Only disgust.
“Why should trash like you even eat?”
Lucy’s tiny hands trembled as she tried to wipe food from her cheeks.
Across the room, twenty-year-old housekeeper Emma Clark stood rigid beside the antique map rack, one hand hidden inside the pocket of her gray uniform.
She had seen Bianca lose her temper before.
This was different.
Emma already knew what she had to do.
Then the dining-room door opened.
Vittorio Romano stepped inside.
He had returned almost two hours earlier than expected from a meeting in Manhattan.
His briefcase slipped from his fingers.
Lucy turned toward him.
Her face was smeared with food. Tears ran down both cheeks.
“Daddy… but I’m a human being.”
Vittorio stopped breathing.
Behind him, Marcus Hale rose abruptly from a chair.
Bianca’s expression changed for the first time.
Emma moved before either of them could.
She pulled out her smartphone, crossed the room, and placed it in Vittorio’s hand.
“She does this every time you’re away.”
Vittorio looked down at the screen.
Whatever he saw erased the shock from his face.
Something colder replaced it.
Marcus charged toward him.
Vittorio blocked him and drove one hard punch into him.
Marcus crashed backward into the antique map stand.
Bianca rushed toward Lucy.
Vittorio knocked her hand aside and slapped her hard enough to send her sprawling onto the leather ottoman.
Then he picked up the dog bowl.
He placed it on the floor in front of Bianca.
He moved between her and Lucy.
“Enjoy your last meal.”
But Bianca wasn’t staring at Vittorio.
May you like
She was staring at Emma’s phone.
And the terror on her face told Vittorio that the video he had just watched was only the beginning.
