Chapter 7 - The Lie That Almost Took Nico Away|
By the time we returned to the mansion, Valentina Russo had disappeared.
Her bedroom was empty.
Her personal documents were gone.
And according to Gabriel, she had used a visitor's access card to leave through the rear service entrance.
"Someone warned her," Dante said.
He stood in his office, staring at the security report.
"She was not supposed to enter the house again," I reminded him.
"She wasn't authorized to."
"That doesn't explain how she obtained the card."
Gabriel's expression darkened.
"We're investigating."
Dante rubbed his forehead.
"I trusted the wrong people."
I wanted to tell him that guilt wouldn't fix anything.
But looking at his face, I knew he had already figured that out.
That evening, Nico sat beside me on the couch while we watched an animated movie.
He had begun asking questions without immediately apologizing.
He had also discovered that I couldn't say no to homemade popcorn.
"Alessia?"
"Yes?"
"Can I ask something?"
"Always."
He pulled his knees toward his chest.
"Are you going to be my mommy?"
My heart stumbled.
I glanced at Dante, who sat in an armchair nearby.
He looked equally unprepared.
I carefully brushed a curl away from Nico's forehead.
"You already have a mommy, sweetheart."
"But she's in heaven."
"I know."
"Can somebody have two?"
I took a moment before answering.
"Families can have all kinds of people who love each other."
He studied me.
"So you could stay?"
"That's something your dad and I are still figuring out."
His smile faded.
I hated the uncertainty in his eyes.
But I refused to make a promise I wasn't yet sure I could keep.
Instead, I pulled the blanket around his shoulders.
"Whatever happens between the grown-ups, you haven't done anything wrong."
Nico leaned against me.
After a while, he whispered, "I wish people would stop leaving."
Across the room, Dante closed his eyes.
The next morning, two investigators from Illinois's child welfare agency arrived.
Someone had reported that Nico was being mistreated by a recently arrived woman in the household.
Me.
The complaint claimed I was isolating Nico from his father, manipulating his inheritance, and attempting to take control of his belongings.
I almost laughed when I heard the last accusation.
The box.
Valentina had turned Nico's desperate offer into evidence against me.
Dante was furious.
"This is malicious."
The lead investigator, Ms. Porter, remained calm.
"We still have to assess the child's safety."
I touched Dante's arm.
"Then let them."
He looked at me.
"We have nothing to hide," I said.
And we didn't.
Rosa supplied her account of the locked blue room.
Gabriel provided the preserved camera hardware and evidence of access being altered.
Dante explained his own absence from the household and accepted responsibility for failing to recognize what was happening.
The investigators arranged for Nico to be interviewed by a trained child specialist in an appropriate setting.
I didn't try to coach him.
I didn't tell him what to say.
I only told him the truth.
"You're allowed to tell people how you feel."
That afternoon, I stood outside the family room while Ms. Porter spoke privately with Dante.
I couldn't hear the entire conversation.
But I heard one sentence clearly.
"Your son needs a father who is present, Mr. DeLuca."
Dante didn't defend himself.
"You're right," he answered.
For some reason, that moved me more than anything else he could have said.
Later, Ms. Porter explained that the investigation would continue, that they would review the available evidence, and that the allegations against me had not been substantiated.
There would be follow-up visits and a safety plan.
Dante agreed to everything.
After the investigators left, he stood beside me near the front window.
"I used to think protecting my family meant making enough money that nothing could touch them."
I looked at him.
"And now?"
"Now I think I was paying strangers to replace me."
I didn't offer false comfort.
Instead, I said, "Nico still wants you."
Dante swallowed.
"I don't deserve that."
"Children don't measure love the way adults do."
He watched Nico outside, where Rosa was helping him plant small purple flowers.
"I don't know how to repair three years of absence."
"Start by being there tomorrow."
He nodded slowly.
Then he asked, "Will you help me?"
It was the first time Dante DeLuca had asked me for anything without sounding as though he expected the world to obey.
"Yes," I said.
"But Nico's safety comes first."
"Agreed."
For a moment, something gentle passed between us.
Then Gabriel entered with his phone.
"Sir, you need to see this."
A social media account had posted photographs from our wedding reception.
The caption accused me of marrying a grieving billionaire to steal his son's inheritance.
Within an hour, thousands of strangers were repeating it.
One comment made my blood run cold.
Ask the new bride what happened to her own mother before you let her near another child.
Dante stared at the screen.
I knew exactly who had written that line.
My father had spent fifteen years teaching people that my mother's death was a subject nobody should discuss.
Now somebody was using it as a weapon.
May you like
And I realized the attack wasn't just meant to humiliate me.
It was meant to frighten me into giving up the one thing my father wanted.
