Chapter 1

Beside me, a man I've never seen before is still asleep.

This is the third time my husband has found me like this.

"Sign it. You leave with nothing. Leo stays with me."

Dante Bellini throws the papers onto the hotel bed.

The first time, I begged him to believe me.

The second time, I went to the police.

This time, I hold out my hand for the pen.

Dante doesn't move.

His lawyer does.

Serena Costa steps forward and opens the folder she brought with her.

"You understand what you're signing?"

I look at her.

She arranged the visits with my son.

She decided which gifts he could keep.

She once made me wait outside her house for forty minutes because he hadn't finished his lunch.

Now she wants to make sure I understand.

"Give me the pen."

Dante catches her wrist before she can hand it over.

"The first time, you said you didn't know the man."

"I didn't."

"You expect me to believe you just happened to end up in a room with Lorenzo Vitale?"

The name fills the silence.

Even here, people know it.

Don of the Vitale family.

The Bellinis' enemy.

The man who had been standing by the door when I woke up, telling someone on the phone that the hotel had given him the wrong room.

He was gone before Dante arrived.

That hadn't mattered.

Nothing I said had mattered.

"The second time," Dante continues, "you claimed you didn't even know how you got there."

I remember the emergency room.

The questions.

The nurse asking whether there was someone safe she could call.

I gave her my husband's number.

Dante looks at the sleeping man.

"And now this."

My head aches.

There's a bitter taste in my mouth. I remember a drink downstairs, then almost nothing until I woke up beside a stranger.

Serena pulls her wrist free.

"Let her sign, Dante."

He looks at her.

Then he drops the pen onto the bed.

I turn to the pages she has marked.

Lucia Moretti.

I write my name carefully.

Serena takes the papers as soon as I finish.

"She's signed."

Dante keeps watching me.

He was ready for tears.

For me to get out of bed and follow him down the hall, trying to explain while his men pretended not to listen.

I've done that before.

Please. You know me.

Think about Leo.

Just give me a chance to show you.

This time, I put the cap back on the pen.

"I'll collect my things tomorrow."

"Serena will have them packed."

"As for Leo—"

"You're not taking him."

His voice sharpens.

"After this, you should be grateful I'm letting you walk out."

I look at the two men standing outside the open door.

Neither looks back.

Dante steps closer.

"You went near a Vitale. Then you did this twice more. You think I'm trusting you with my son?"

I feel the words where I always do.

Behind my ribs.

But I don't start arguing.

"I wasn't going to ask Serena for another visit."

His expression changes.

Just enough for me to notice.

For four years, he has known exactly what to threaten.

Take Leo away, and I'll apologize.

Cancel a visit, and I'll stop asking questions.

Tell me my mother's care depends on keeping the peace, and I'll keep it.

Now he looks at me as though I've broken a rule.

"You're giving him up?"

"I'm done asking her permission to be his mother."

Serena closes the folder.

"Those aren't separate things anymore, Lucia."

I turn toward her.

Her eyes narrow with satisfaction.

The first time, Dante called the restrictions temporary.

Until we know what you told Vitale.

Then Serena moved Leo into the guest rooms at her house.

It was safer there, she said.

I saw him once a month.

She stayed for every minute.

After the second hotel, I wasn't allowed at his preschool.

Dante said the families talked.

He didn't want my behavior embarrassing his son.

The last time I visited, Leo refused to kiss me goodbye.

Serena told me not to force him.

Now Dante is waiting for me to fight for another hour under her supervision.

I look at the papers.

"You have what you came for."

He stares at me.

For the first time tonight, neither of them knows what to say.