Chapter 1
Dominic did not strike Veronica again.
He wanted to.
That was obvious from the way every muscle in his shoulders locked.
Instead, he turned toward the bodyguard holding Rose.
“Take her to the library. Lock the interior door. Stay with her.”
The man nodded.
Veronica wiped blood from the corner of her mouth where Dominic’s open-handed slap had split the skin.
“You think that changes anything?”
Dominic looked at her.
“No.”
Then he called the police.
Half the ballroom thought they had misheard.
Dominic Bellaforte did not call police.
Police usually arrived after people like Dominic had already decided what happened.
But a baby carriage still stood inches from the marble staircase.
Security cameras covered the foyer.
Dozens of guests had seen Veronica release it.
And Veronica had just made a statement about Rose’s missing mother.
Dominic was not going to let family employees become the only record.
Detective Mara Quinn arrived twenty minutes later with uniformed officers and child-protection personnel.
The mansion security system was immediately preserved.
The carriage was photographed.
Its brake worked.
The wheels worked.
Nothing had failed.
Someone had released it.
Video showed Veronica’s hand.
Then the push.
Then Dominic catching it.
Veronica’s attorney would later argue she never intended the carriage to go over the stairs.
That she expected Dominic to stop it.
That she wanted to frighten him.
Mara’s expression did not change.
“You intentionally sent a four-month-old infant toward a staircase because you expected somebody else to catch her?”
Veronica said nothing.
Then Mara asked about the threat.
“Who is Rose’s mother?”
Dominic answered.
“Sofia Bellaforte.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“How long has she been missing?”
“Seven weeks.”
“Any body recovered?”
“No.”
“Any proof she’s dead?”
“No.”
Mara looked toward Veronica.
“Then why did everyone at this party believe otherwise?”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
Because there had been a memorial service.
No coffin.
No death certificate.
No body.
A memorial.
Sofia’s abandoned car had been found near Lake Erie.
Her coat and phone were inside.
A smear of her blood was found on the driver’s door.
Search teams found nothing in the water.
Authorities classified her as a missing endangered adult.
The Bellaforte family gradually began using another word.
Dead.
Veronica used it first.
“She’s gone, Dominic.”
Then:
“You need to accept it.”
Then tonight:
“Touch me again, and her mother disappears.”
Mara turned to Dominic.
“Did you believe your wife was dead?”
He answered honestly.
“I was starting to.”
Then Rose began crying behind the closed library doors.
Dominic looked toward the sound.
For seven weeks he had been grieving Sofia.
For four months he had been learning how to hold their daughter.
And in one careless sentence, Veronica had transformed grief into a location problem.
Sofia was not a body nobody could find.
She was somewhere.
May you like
Alive.
And Veronica knew enough to be afraid of saying so.
