Chapter 2 - THE LITTLE GIRL WHO WASN’T SUPPOSED TO SEE
Elena hesitated in the doorway.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “Lily is downstairs.”
Vanessa turned toward me.
“You need rest, Dominic.”
I ignored her.
“Bring Lily up.”
Elena’s face changed.
Not dramatically. Elena never did anything dramatically.
But I saw fear move through her eyes.
“She’s already eaten,” she said. “I can keep her in the kitchen.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“This is a sickroom, not a daycare.”
I looked at her.
For six weeks, Vanessa had been making decisions around me as though my illness had quietly promoted her from fiancée to widow.
“Bring the girl.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
Elena disappeared.
Ten minutes later, Lily entered wearing a faded Cubs cap, sneakers with pink laces, and the solemn expression of someone arriving for a business meeting.
She held a coloring book against her chest.
When she saw the machines beside my bed, her eyebrows pinched together.
“You look worse.”
Dr. Harris made a choking sound that might have been a laugh.
I smiled despite myself.
“Thank you.”
“My mom says you’re supposed to tell sick people they look better,” Lily said. “But that sounds like lying.”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Lily.”
“What?”
I laughed, and the effort immediately turned into a cough.
Lily walked closer.
She did not seem afraid of me.
Adults had been afraid of me since I was nineteen.
That child looked at me like I was simply a man with bad color.
She stopped beside the bed.
“Are you cold again?”
Every person in the room went still.
My eyes narrowed.
“How do you know I get cold?”
Lily glanced at Elena.
Elena answered quickly.
“The staff talks.”
“No,” Lily said.
Vanessa’s face hardened.
Elena whispered, “Baby, not now.”
But Lily pointed toward the clock on my nightstand.
“You get cold when the numbers say two-one-seven.”
My heartbeat changed.
Dr. Harris straightened.
“How do you know that?”
Lily looked genuinely confused by our reaction.
“Because I heard Miss Vanessa talking about it.”
The room became silent enough for me to hear rain hitting the glass.
Vanessa smiled.
A perfect smile.
“Children misunderstand things.”
Lily frowned.
“I don’t.”
“Lily,” Elena said sharply.
I raised one hand.
“Let her speak.”
Vanessa’s eyes met mine.
Something passed between us.
For the first time, I understood exactly what had bothered me about her calmness.
It was not confidence.
It was timing.
“Where did you hear Vanessa talking about 2:17?” I asked.
Lily looked at the floor.
“In the hallway.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
Vanessa laughed softly.
“This is absurd.”
Lily looked at her.
“You told the nurse, ‘Make sure it happens at two-seventeen like always.’”
Dr. Harris slowly turned toward my private nurse, Diane Parker.
Diane’s face lost every trace of color.
Vanessa spoke first.
“Enough.”
Lily jumped.
The reaction was tiny.
But I saw it.
And so did Elena.
Elena moved immediately, putting herself between Vanessa and her daughter.
I had seen bodyguards do that for me.
The motion sent something sharp through my chest.
“Get out,” I told Vanessa.
She stared at me.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“Dominic, you have a fever.”
“And I still know what my own bedroom looks like.”
Her lips parted.
“Are you seriously allowing the child of a maid to accuse me of poisoning you?”
Interesting.
Lily had never used the word poisoning.
Neither had I.
Dr. Harris looked at me.
I looked at Vanessa.
She realized the mistake one second too late.
“You said it,” I murmured.
Her face stayed composed, but the pulse at the base of her throat moved.
“You’ve been discussing poisoning all evening.”
“Not in front of Lily.”
“That proves nothing.”
“No.”
I leaned back against the pillow.
“But it makes me curious.”
Vanessa picked up her purse.
The movement was controlled, dignified, almost bored.
That frightened me more than anger would have.
“Fine,” she said. “Call me when you’re thinking clearly.”
She walked toward the door.
I nodded once to Marco Bellini, the man standing silently outside.
Marco had been with me since we were twenty.
He understood my signals before I made them.
“Vanessa.”
She stopped.
“You’re staying in the house tonight.”
Her back stiffened.
“Excuse me?”
“Nobody leaves.”
She turned slowly.
“Am I a prisoner?”
“Not yet.”
The diamond on her finger seemed suddenly obscene.
She smiled.
“You’re sick, Dominic.”
“And someone wants me sicker.”
Her eyes went flat.
Then she left.
Diane tried to follow.
Marco blocked the doorway.
“Not you.”
Diane froze.
Dr. Harris stepped closer to the IV line.
“I want everything disconnected and replaced.”
“No,” I said.
He looked at me.
“Leave it.”
“Dominic—”
“Take samples first.”
His expression sharpened with understanding.
For the next twenty minutes, nobody spoke more than necessary.
Dr. Harris sealed the IV bag, tubing, medications, and even the water glass beside my bed.
Marco brought two men upstairs and placed them outside every exit.
Diane began crying.
Not loudly.
Just enough to be noticed.
“I never hurt him,” she whispered.
I watched her.
“Then you have nothing to fear.”
Lily tugged Elena’s sleeve.
“I’m tired.”
Elena immediately bent toward her.
“We’re going downstairs.”
I caught Elena’s gaze.
“Stay.”
She went still.
“Sir?”
“Lily can sleep in the sitting room.”
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Everyone stared at her.
Elena swallowed.
“I mean, thank you, but we should go home.”
“You live in staff housing.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you afraid?”
Her eyes filled with something I could not read.
Vanessa?
Me?
Or the secret standing beside her in a Cubs cap?
Lily looked between us.
Then she said the sentence that tore through every layer of control I possessed.
“My mom doesn’t want you to know you’re my dad.”
Elena went white.
I stopped breathing.
Marco stared at the floor.
Dr. Harris suddenly became deeply interested in a medical case.
Lily looked at Elena.
“I wasn’t supposed to say that?”
Elena closed her eyes.
“Lily.”
“I’m sorry.”
I heard nothing after that.
The rain disappeared.
The machines disappeared.
Even the sickness seemed to retreat beneath something much larger.
I looked at Elena.
“Is she?”
Elena’s eyes opened.
Eight years of absence lived inside them.
“Yes.”
One word.
That was all.
I had faced loaded guns with steadier hands.
I looked at Lily again.
My daughter.
My eight-year-old daughter.
The child I had unknowingly allowed to sleep downstairs while I lay upstairs preparing to marry a woman who might be murdering me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Elena’s expression hardened.
“Because the Dominic Romano I knew at twenty-four was dangerous.”
“I’m still dangerous.”
“I know.”
“Then why come here?”
Her eyes moved toward Lily.
“Because I ran out of safe places.”
That answer hurt more than I expected.
Before I could ask another question, Dr. Harris spoke.
“Dominic.”
Something in his voice pulled me back.
He was staring at one of the sealed medication vials.
“What?”
“This label has been replaced.”
Diane made a sound behind him.
Dr. Harris held the vial toward the lamp.
“The lot number was printed twice.”
Marco moved.
Diane backed into the wall.
“I didn’t do anything.”
Dr. Harris turned the vial over.
“This did not come from my pharmacy.”
My skin suddenly felt colder.
The clock read 10:46 p.m.
Three hours and thirty-one minutes until 2:17.
I looked at Marco.
“Lock the mansion.”
May you like
Then I looked at Elena and Lily.
“And nobody gets near them.”
