Don't Trust the Father of My Child의 모든 챕터: 챕터 41 - 챕터 49

My abdomen seemed to tighten slowly. It wasn't exactly pain. It was the urge to fold my body inward. "Did you open it?" Elina lowered her eyes. "I told Dr. Moretti." "I'm asking whether you opened the door." She didn't answer. I gripped my chair. I wasn't sure I could walk if I stood. Ethan's reflection appeared in the café window. He was standing across the street. When I looked outside, he started to move, then stopped. I gave a small shake of my head. I needed to hear this through to the end. "I was told the patient was confused and shouldn't be allowed outside," Elina said. "I followed that instruction." She took out a tissue and pushed it toward me. I didn't accept it. I felt close to tears, but they hadn't come yet. I wanted to tell her that asking calmly didn't make the answers hurt less. But then she mi

I didn't turn around.This time I wanted to distinguish the doubt my father was trying to plant from the questions I had a right to ask for myself.◇I called Ethan from the taxi."Did you tell my father I went to the hospital?"He said no immediately."Who knows?""You and me, the hospital staff. We called a car, so the driver knows, too."I wrote that down. Ethan asked what had happened. I repeated my father's words at the door exactly."He wouldn't say who told him. He made me suspect you first."Ethan was silent for a moment."I'll ask our transport coordinator who they spoke to.""Don't pressure anyone.""I won't."I looked out the window. After hearing Father, I'd been ready to take my anger straight to Ethan. I had no proof that he hadn't said anything. But my father's knowledge alone wasn't proof of who had told him."I want to be alone today.""Call if you need me."I said I would. He didn't hang up first, and I held the phone against my ear a little longer. One more sentence

Matteo's secretary sat down only after looking at my hand, bare of the engagement ring. "I'm not here to discuss the wedding." She said it before anything else. We were in Bianchi's office. Afternoon sunlight came through the blinds, and the recording time was advancing on a phone set at one end of the desk. She had been the one to ask that her words be recorded. Her name was Clara. At every party held at Matteo's house, she checked the guests' names and arrival times. I always handed her my coat. I'd never once asked when she got to go home, even while I took my time deciding which wine to drink. Clara turned her laptop toward us. "This is exactly how I received it. The attachment alone doesn't show the sequence, so I brought the emails too." My father's company's legal department address was on the screen. Two men had been excluded and two required further

"What about the file from before you erased it?" Belli opened a folder at the top of the screen. Several files bore the same date. *Draft. Revised. Issued.* Between those three words lay what I was permitted to know. He opened the draft. *Condition explained to guardian Vito. Interview with patient to follow.* I read the sentence twice. I'd never spoken to Moretti alone after coming back from the villa. Father had told me I'd be all right, that I'd simply fallen and been shaken. Even when something felt wrong with my body, everyone behaved as though I'd already been told what happened. "Did you check whether anyone explained it to me afterward?" Belli shook his head. "I followed the revision request." "If I say nobody explained it, who's going to look like the liar?" He opened his mouth, then clos

I ended the call. The phone had left an imprint on my palm. ◇ We saw the police car from across the street. It was a low office building with gray walls. My father's company's black car and a white van were parked outside. Bianchi stopped beside a convenience store without crossing the road. I opened my door before he'd turned off the engine. "Ms. Sera." I stepped onto the sidewalk but didn't approach the building. Two officers entered the lobby. Renato came out soon after, a file tucked under his arm. He gestured toward the parking lot as he explained something to the police. His movements looked so ordinary, like a man telling lost visitors where to park. Belli emerged much later. He hadn't managed to put one sleeve of his coat on. He held the collar with his left hand. From this distance, I couldn't tell whether hi