Chapter 1 - The Paper Hidden Beside Elsie’s Birthday Gifts
“You aren’t part of this family. You’re just Marcus’s bastard child.”
Helena ripped the yellow paper crown from three-year-old Elsie’s blonde head and threw it onto the floor.
Elsie startled backward.
Her white shoe slipped against the polished floor beside the banquet table, and she dropped onto one knee.
Then she began crying.
Not the offended cry of a child whose birthday crown had been taken.
She reached both hands toward Helena as though trying to protect herself from what might come next.
Vittorio saw that.
He crossed the room immediately.
Before Helena could say another word, Vittorio lifted Elsie into his left arm.
The little girl buried herself against his dark blue suit.
Vittorio turned.
“Who gave you permission to speak to Elsie like that?”
Helena opened her mouth.
Vittorio’s right hand landed against her upper shoulder and shoved her backward.
She stumbled into the banquet table.
Her hip struck the edge. The tablecloth pulled sideways. Plates slid onto the floor with the bread basket and serving utensils, several of them breaking beneath the table.
Helena caught herself against the edge, food splattered across the front of her wine-red dress.
Elsie was still crying against Vittorio’s shoulder.
Then she slowly raised her head.
Her small finger pointed across the room.
At Marcus.
“There were so many times you just stood there and watched her hit me, Dad.”
Vittorio stopped moving.
Marcus’s face changed.
He took one step backward.
Vittorio looked at his son.
Not Helena.
Marcus.
He gently lowered Elsie beside a chair and turned toward the thirty-seven-year-old man who suddenly seemed incapable of meeting his father’s eyes.
Marcus raised both hands.
“Dad, Elsie’s got it all wrong.”
Vittorio stepped toward him.
Marcus continued backing away.
The rage Vittorio had felt toward Helena became something colder.
He kicked Marcus once in the outer thigh.
Marcus’s leg buckled.
He collided with a nearby chair, missed the backrest when he tried to catch himself, and dropped onto one knee beside it.
Helena remained frozen against the damaged banquet table.
Vittorio stood over Marcus.
“Look at me.”
Marcus did not.
That was when Elsie spoke again.
“Grandpa?”
Vittorio immediately turned.
Elsie was pointing toward Helena’s black handbag beside the buffet table.
“You gave Dad a piece of paper before my party.”
Marcus went pale.
Helena moved first.
Her hand shot toward the handbag.
Vittorio’s eyes followed it.
Helena stopped with her fingers only inches from the leather handle.
Nobody moved.
The birthday music continued softly from the other room.
Balloons floated above unopened gifts.
Elsie’s yellow crown lay crushed near Vittorio’s shoe.
“What paper?” he asked.
Helena looked at Marcus.
Marcus looked at the floor.
May you like
And Vittorio understood something before he ever opened the bag.
Whatever was inside it frightened both of them more than what Elsie had just said aloud.
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