Chapter 1
Dominic did not hit Marcella again.
The room waited for him to.
Marcella wanted him to.
That was the first thing he understood.
Her smile was too steady.
Her cheek was red, her gown was tangled in fallen birthday ribbons, and Lulu was crying behind a bodyguard with one hand over her mouth.
But Marcella’s eyes were fixed on Dominic, daring him.
So he stepped back.
“Call 911.”
The ballroom went silent.
A cousin whispered:
“Dom—”
Dominic turned.
“Now.”
Paramedics arrived first.
Lulu’s tooth was a loose baby tooth that had come out from the impact. She had no serious injury, but her cheek was swollen, and she shook whenever Marcella looked toward her.
Police arrived next.
Then child protective services.
That changed the temperature of the mansion faster than any gun could have.
Detective Hannah Vale photographed the tooth, the crown, the overturned birthday table, and the security-camera angles.
She also watched the ballroom footage.
It showed Marcella ripping the crown away.
It showed Lulu reaching for it.
It showed Marcella slapping the child.
It showed Dominic entering after.
It showed Dominic kneeling beside Lulu.
Then it showed Dominic walking to Marcella and slapping her after Lulu had already been moved behind the bodyguard.
Hannah looked at Dominic.
“You understand your strike is separate from hers?”
Dominic nodded.
“I hit her.”
“After your daughter was no longer in immediate danger.”
“Yes.”
His lawyer looked sick.
Marcella’s lawyer arrived within the hour.
Her first claim was that Lulu had “lunged” at her.
The footage contradicted that.
Her second claim was that Dominic’s violence proved the child lived in a dangerous home.
The footage did not contradict that as easily.
Lulu was interviewed gently by a child specialist.
She said Marcella had been angry about the birthday pictures.
“She said I ruined them.”
“How?”
“I cried.”
“Why were you crying?”
“Because she took my crown.”
“Did she say anything else?”
Lulu nodded.
“She said Mommy picked someone better, and Daddy never knew.”
That was the line that made Dominic stop outside the interview room.
Mommy picked someone better.
Lulu’s mother, Natalia Carvelli, had been dead for three years.
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Whatever choice Marcella meant had been made before that.
And Dominic had never heard of it.
