Chapter 4 - The Boy in the Hallway
At two in the morning, I found Ethan sitting outside Ruby’s door.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?”
He looked at the floor.
“Mom said I have to leave.”
“No one told you that.”
“She said when you get mad, you send people away.”
I sat beside him.
“Did she tell you anything about Ruby’s room?”
His fingers tightened around the blanket.
“Mom said Ruby was going to a school.”
“What school?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Ruby want to go?”
He shook his head.
Then he whispered, “Mom said if Ruby left, we’d be a real family.”
I closed my eyes.
Ethan was seven.
“What did you say?”
“I said Ruby is already family.”
That nearly broke me.
“Am I in trouble because I sat in her chair?”
“No.”
“But it was hers.”
“You’re not responsible for what adults put in front of you.”
He started crying.
I pulled him into my side.
Security brought me another discovery before dawn.
A staff access log showed Valentina had entered my office seven times in the past month while I was away.
Marcus entered twice.
The office safe had not been opened.
But my desktop computer had.
My security chief, Nico Rinaldi, placed a printout in front of me.
“Someone copied your digital signature certificate.”
Three corporate consents had been signed in my name during the previous six weeks.
I had never seen them.
One approved a new credit line.
One authorized a property appraisal.
The third granted Marcus temporary proxy power “during medical or family emergency.”
I looked at Nico.
“Medical emergency?”
He nodded.
“Effective the moment you are declared unavailable.”
I thought about the false neglect case.
The plan was bigger than taking Ruby.
They wanted me legally distracted, publicly discredited, and temporarily removed from control.
Then Teresa called from upstairs.
Her voice shook.
“Mr. Falcone, Ruby is asking for you.”
I ran.
Ruby stood by the window holding a small red notebook.
“Found Mommy book.”
It had been hidden inside the lining of Isabella’s old stuffed rabbit.
May you like
On the first page, my late wife had written one name.
VALENTINA BELLINI.
