Chapter 5 - THE FIRST LIE
The first report reached Dante at eight that morning.
Emma had not checked into any hospital. Her credit cards were untouched. Her passport remained in the estate safe. There was no record of a flight, train ticket, or hotel reservation under her name.
It was as though she had vanished into thin air.
Dante stood in his study while Marco delivered the updates.
"She may have had help," Marco said. "Someone knew the security schedule."
"Who?"
"We're checking."
Dante turned toward the window. Below, two gardeners were removing the white roses Emma had chosen for the dinner.
He remembered her standing in the dining room, one hand covering her stomach.
Who protects our baby from you?
He pushed the memory away.
"Find Bianca."
His mistress arrived twenty minutes later wearing sunglasses and a cream coat.
"Darling, I've been calling you all morning."
"Where is Emma?"
Bianca removed her sunglasses.
"How would I know?"
"You were the last person she confronted."
"She attacked me first."
Dante's expression hardened.
"You shoved her."
Bianca blinked.
"She told you that?"
"Fourteen people watched it happen."
For the first time, Bianca appeared uncertain.
Dante approached her slowly.
"What did you say to my wife before dinner?"
"Nothing important."
"Try again."
Bianca's fingers tightened around her handbag.
"I told her she should stop pretending our marriage meant something. I thought she needed to understand the situation."
"What situation?"
"That you and I have a future."
Dante looked at her as though he had never seen her clearly before.
"You were never invited to decide my wife's future."
"But you chose me."
The words landed between them.
Dante said nothing.
Bianca mistook his silence for weakness.
"Emma will come back when she realizes she has nowhere else to go. She's pregnant, dependent on you, and completely alone."
Dante's eyes narrowed.
"Leave."
She stared at him.
"What?"
"Get out of my house."
When she reached the doorway, he spoke again.
"If I discover you had anything to do with her disappearance, I will personally make sure you regret it."
Bianca left without another word.
Minutes later, Dante opened the estate's security recordings again.
He watched Emma enter the dining room. He watched her serve the food. He watched Bianca shove her.
Then he watched his own hand strike his pregnant wife.
May you like
He stopped the recording.
For the first time in years, Dante Romano was afraid of the man he had become.
