Chapter 4
She was younger than Alessandro expected.
Early forties.
Short brown hair.
Steady eyes.
No visible reaction to the two men waiting outside Genevieve’s room.
She shook Mateo’s hand first.
Then Alessandro’s.
“Mr. Romano.”
“Ms. Bennett.”
“I understand you broke a hospital door.”
Alessandro glanced at Genevieve.
“She told you?”
“I have several sources.”
Mateo coughed into his fist.
Claire looked at him.
“You are one of them.”
Mateo gave her an innocent expression.
“I believe in transparency.”
“Convenient.”
She entered the room.
Genevieve smiled with visible relief.
Claire crossed directly to the bed and squeezed her hand.
“How are you?”
“Tired.”
“Good tired or terrible tired?”
“Ask me tomorrow.”
“Fair.”
Claire looked into the bassinet.
Her entire expression softened.
“So that’s Lucia.”
Genevieve smiled.
“Yes.”
“She’s beautiful.”
Alessandro, standing near the wall, said quietly, “She is.”
Claire glanced at him.
Something passed through her face.
Not hostility.
Assessment.
She sat.
Genevieve handed her the phone.
“We found the second authorization code.”
Claire read the screen.
“Nico.”
Alessandro straightened.
“You know that name?”
Claire looked at Genevieve.
“She told me about your brother.”
“When?”
“Months ago.”
Alessandro turned to Genevieve.
“You knew about Nico?”
“Only his name.”
Genevieve looked uncomfortable.
“I found a photograph in the Southampton house.”
“What photograph?”
“Your mother’s piano room. In the locked cabinet.”
Alessandro frowned.
“That cabinet was locked?”
“Yes.”
“I never locked it.”
“You may not have.”
Claire placed the phone on the table.
“Genevieve found several old family photographs there while preparing to leave.”
Alessandro looked at his wife.
“You went through the cabinet?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because by then I did not know who I could trust.”
The words stopped him.
Genevieve looked down.
“One photograph had writing on the back.”
“What writing?”
She reached into the small bag beside her bed and handed Claire a folded piece of paper.
Claire opened it.
May you like
It was a photocopy.
Alessandro took it.
