Chapter 31

Luca’s account didn’t end everything.Four days later, Alan received an anonymous email.It contained a photograph of his daughter leaving school.No explicit threat.Only one sentence: “A father should think of his child first.”Claire reported it and postponed the planned meeting.I sat in her office, struggling to breathe.This was how they silenced people.First, tell them something matters more than the truth.Then show them the person they cannot bear to lose.“I can stay off the witness stand for now,” Alan said.“You have the record. I can’t risk her.”“Take care of your daughter.”I didn’t ask him to be brave.I had no right to demand another father gamble with his child’s safety for mine.That evening, Bianca called from another number.The sweetness was gone.“Do you understand now? People won’t keep destroying their lives for you.”I started recording.“Did you arrange the photograph?”“Don’t make accusations.”A pause.“I’m reminding you Leo is little. If something happens

Chapter 32

When Bianca was called for further questioning, Rosa came to see me again.She waited beneath the law office without the authority she’d carried into our first meeting.“Ten minutes.”I agreed, with Claire present.Rosa took a photograph of Leo from her bag.“He’s grown.”The baby slept beside a little stuffed lion.I didn’t push the picture away.“Who’s caring for him?”“A nanny. We can still afford to feed a child.”The sharpness remained, but her eyes reddened.“He doesn’t know any of this.”“I know.”She seemed startled.As though no one had reminded her whom I blamed.“I haven’t asked anyone to hurt Leo or take away his care.”“But you can’t use him to excuse three adults.”Her fingers creased the photograph.“Luca’s falling apart. He handed everything over. He won’t even defend himself.”“That’s his choice.”“You were husband and wife.”I met her eyes.“I was a mother too.”At last, she went quiet.Then she spoke softly.“The hospital gave me that consent form. I knew something w

Chapter 33

I didn’t sleep before my first court appearance.Claire rehearsed the likely questions.Why hadn’t I gone straight to the police?Why had I stayed at the estate?Why leave alone while injured?They would ask about medication.Whether my memory could be confused.Afterward, I washed my face.The scars in the mirror had faded.My calf still ached if I stood too long.In court, Luca sat across the room.He rose when he saw me.His lips moved.I kept walking.When it was my turn, opposing counsel asked exactly what Claire had predicted.“If you believed your husband intended to harm you, why didn’t you seek help immediately?”I held the edge in front of me.“He controlled the hospital and the people who brought me there.”“I woke up injured. My baby was missing.”“I didn’t know whom I could speak to without it getting back to him.”The lawyer turned a page.“Yet you were able to arrange international travel?”“Yes.”“So you weren’t entirely incapable of taking action.”“Being afraid doesn’

Chapter 34

The case didn’t end after one hearing.Additional records. Verification. Waiting for the next date.Life divided into long stretches between them.I began working again.My first new restoration was a small painting with a damaged corner.It wasn’t valuable.The owner asked whether I could make the damage disappear completely.I studied the tear in the canvas.“I can repair it. But it’s been damaged. I can’t make it something that never was.”He said to preserve what needed preserving.The work took six weeks.On delivery day, Claire called.Luca would no longer deny his principal actions.His account didn’t settle Bianca’s part.She still tried to place everything that happened near the morgue on the physician.Only after the original recording, device data, and witness accounts were checked against one another did she stop denying she had entered.When the judgments finally came, I sat with my hands on my knees.Luca faced a long prison term.Bianca and the physician would serve sent

Chapter 35

Before winter, Luca requested one final visit.I thought about it for two days.Then I agreed.Across the glass, he looked thinner.He lifted the receiver.“Does your leg still hurt?”I didn’t answer.“Why did you ask me here?”He lowered his eyes and picked up a sheet of paper.“I wrote an account. The time he was born. The orders I gave. Everything I did.”“My lawyer will send it to you. Not for forgiveness. So no one can tell you that you remembered it wrong.”I looked at the paper.At last, he was leaving the truth under his own name instead of burying it in my emotions, my body, my silence.“What else?”His eyes reddened.“I wanted to ask whether you gave him a name.”“Yes.”He tightened his hold on the receiver.Waiting.I didn’t repeat it.He’d heard it before. He didn’t need me to offer it again now.That name belonged to the nights I’d woken alone, the appointments I’d attended alone, the child I’d carried.Not to him.His mouth trembled.“I’m sorry.”Once, I had wanted those

All Chapters of The Don Killed My Son for His Mistress’s Heir: Chapter 31 - Chapter 35

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35