Chapter 4 - The Ultrasounds
The gala ended without a speech.
Guests were told there had been a family medical issue.
Technically true.
Marcello moved everyone important into the library.
His mother, Lucia DeLuca, arrived furious.
“What have you done?”
Marcello held up the folder of ultrasound images.
“Ask Vanessa.”
Lucia looked at the prosthetic belly in an evidence bag Elena had found in the estate security office.
Her anger turned to confusion.
Vanessa entered behind her.
“You bagged my private medical property?”
Marcello stared at her.
“You told us it wasn’t yours.”
“Vanessa.”
The older woman had spent months planning a nursery in Luca’s wing.
She had knitted blankets.
Chosen a christening gown.
Spoken to the unborn baby every Sunday after lunch.
“Tell me this is stupid,” Lucia whispered.
For the first time, she seemed ashamed.
Then she said:
“I was pregnant.”
“I took the test two days before Luca died.”
Lucia covered her mouth.
“I didn’t tell him. I wanted to surprise him.”
“Then he died.”
Elena felt some of her anger soften.
“I had a miscarriage six weeks later.”
Marcello closed his eyes.
“When did you tell the family you lost the baby?”
“You didn’t.”
“I couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t?” Marcello said. “Or wouldn’t?”
“You think I planned this?”
Marcello pointed toward the ceiling.
“You have five fake bellies upstairs.”
“I panicked.”
“For six months?”
She looked at him with tears in her eyes.
Then Marcello asked the question that mattered.
“When did you find out Luca’s shares came with the pregnancy?”
Vanessa’s crying stopped.
And nobody needed her answer.
Then the family attorney, Daniel Price, rushed into the library carrying a tablet.
“Marcello.”
“What?”
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
“You need to freeze the trust vote immediately.”
May you like
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa approved a seventy-eight-million-dollar transfer this morning.”
