Chapter 6 - The Brother Nobody Named
Alessandro locked the library doors.
“Tell me everything,” he said to Enzo.
His uncle looked older than he had an hour earlier. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”
“Then tell me what you hid.”
Enzo admitted Alessandro’s father had paid Victor’s medical school tuition through an anonymous scholarship. He had also insisted Victor be hired by the Romano family foundation after residency. Nobody had asked why because Alessandro Romano Sr. had been the kind of man whose decisions became facts once he spoke them.
“Did my mother know?” Alessandro asked.
“Yes.”
“And she accepted it?”
Enzo’s jaw moved. “Acceptance is not the word I’d use.”
Alessandro turned away before he said something he could not take back.
Detective Grant received the preliminary lab report just after noon. The substance in the butter was a prescription sedative combined with another medication that could cause dangerous cardiac effects in the wrong person.
Not a prank. Not vitamins. Not a misunderstanding.
Isabella sat down hard.
“I didn’t know about the second medication.”
Alessandro turned.
The room changed.
Detective Grant spoke first. “You’re admitting you put something in the butter?”
Isabella closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Alessandro’s hands went numb.
“Why?”
She looked at him, crying now but not collapsing. “Because Victor told me you needed to sleep. He said you were close to a breakdown and refusing treatment.”
“So you drugged my breakfast?”
“He gave me tablets. He said a small amount would calm you. I know how that sounds.”
“It sounds like you poisoned me.”
“I thought I was helping you.”
Detective Grant asked, “Why hide it?”
Isabella’s answer came in a whisper. “Because he said Alessandro would never agree.”
Alessandro laughed once, without humor. “That part was true.”
Then Emma’s voice came from the doorway.
“Miss Isabella is lying.”
Marco stood behind her, furious with himself. “She slipped past me.”
Emma held Rosie, now wrapped in a towel.
“You said the doctor gave you the medicine?” she asked.
Isabella wiped her face. “Yes.”
Emma shook her head.
“The man in the kitchen called you Isabella.”
“So?”
“Dr. Hale calls you Bella.”
Nobody spoke.
May you like
Emma hugged the doll tighter.
“And the man said, ‘After tomorrow, Romano won’t be able to stop us.’”
