Chapter 1
Vincent did not strike Marcella again.
The banquet room waited for it.
Some guests almost wanted it.
Instead, Vincent turned toward his oldest bodyguard.
“Take Elsie upstairs. Stay with her. No one enters.”
Elsie clung to his tuxedo.
“Daddy.”
Vincent’s face changed.
Only for her.
“I’m right here.”
Then he handed her over.
Marcella wiped blood from the corner of her mouth and laughed.
“You opened it.”
Vincent looked at the torn DNA report in his hand.
The report was private, not court-ordered.
But the language was clear enough to shake the room.
The tested child was genetically consistent with being the biological child of Vincent’s full sister, Serena Corvino.
Vincent read the line again.
Serena had been missing for eight years.
Officially presumed dead.
Unofficially never spoken of unless someone wanted the room to go cold.
Vincent called for a doctor first.
Elsie had no serious injury from the fall, only a bruised hip and a torn ribbon.
Then he called the police.
His men stared at him.
Marcella did too.
“You’re inviting police into this house?”
Vincent folded the DNA report carefully.
“She pulled a chair from under a child.”
“You slapped me.”
“Yes.”
He did not deny it.
That mattered later.
Detective Lena Hart arrived with uniformed officers.
She separated everyone.
Guests said Marcella pulled the chair.
Several had seen her kick the gift box.
One waiter saw her near the fireplace earlier, holding the same laboratory envelope over the flame before Elsie grabbed it.
Marcella’s attorney arrived before midnight.
Her first position:
The DNA report was unreliable.
Her second:
Elsie tripped.
Her third:
Vincent assaulted Marcella to suppress a family dispute.
Lena asked Vincent:
“How did Elsie become your daughter?”
He answered:
“Private adoption. Seven years ago.”
“Biological parents?”
“Unknown.”
“Who arranged it?”
Vincent looked across the ballroom at Marcella.
“My brother’s widow handled the attorney.”
Marcella’s face tightened.
For the first time that night, the staircase, the slap, the insult, and the envelope formed one question.
May you like
If Elsie was Serena’s child, then the adoption story was false.
And if the adoption story was false, Vincent might not be the only adult in danger of losing her.
