“Daddy, why can't I see Nemo?” Millicent whimpered on the other end of the video call, looking sullen, sitting on Micah's lap “I want to see his photo, even if it's black and white...!”“We’ve already talked about this, honey.” It was Alice who responded, laughing at her daughter’s expression of outrage “This is just the first of many times we will do tests to see if Nemo is healthy. Today we won't even be able to know if it's a boy or a girl. So, have some fun with Grandpa and I promise that Daddy and I will be home again soon…”“You don’t want to take me because you’re afraid the bad guys will try to steal me again?” Millie whimpered softly, making Massimo let out a pitiful sigh.“Sometimes, she is too smart for her ow
“Amber…” he gritted his teeth, wondering how his security could have made a serious mistake like that, letting that woman even get close to where he and Alice were without the police being called, until he looked up.Her white-blonde hair was gone and was now hidden beneath a brown wig that not only perfectly mimicked human hair, but more specifically Alice's hair, with the same length and the same soft waves at the ends. There was a giant pair of sunglasses hiding her eyes, but behind that, Massimo could see that she had used makeup to almost reshape her face, making it rounder, with a slightly darker skin tone. All that, added to the long coat that was hiding part of her body, had left her practically looking like Alice, at least to eyes that didn't know what details to look for.“You and your mother will pay for what you did to my daughter…” he growled, not
The moment Alice followed the nurse, leaving her husband behind as she climbed those stairs, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, typing a message to Henry, with her heart pounding in her ears.“Any news? Have you been able to confirm if any of them are really here?” she asked.“Yes, Mrs. Bianchi.” His immediate response made her feel relief and despair at the same time “But, I must point out that, although your plan of pretending that our security team let their guard down to lure them to you worked, it was still very risky. I'm sure Mr. Bianchi won't approve when he finds out, no matter how effective it was.”“I guarantee that neither you nor anyone on your team is at risk of losing your jobs. They are coming after me non-stop. There was no reason not to use this t
“Let me talk to him first.”At the sound of that bitch's demands, Kendra gritted her teeth. As if it wasn't enough that she was locked in that dusty, rust-stinking warehouse for hours, surrounded by all kinds of old hospital equipment, that girl was still daring to impose conditions on that situation. Shit, if Massimo had really been in her range at that moment, she would have certainly buried several bullets in his head and made Alice hear him die over the phone call. That fucking slut…And what was making Amber so late, anyway? The fucking elevator that Morris' men had stuck them in earlier, to get up here, had almost stopped, but it was certainly still working. She had to have gotten there with him more than fifteen minutes ago! Although Kendra only got a single real gun, the same one th
“Please take this pill, Mrs. Bianchi.” one of the paramedics asked, holding out a glass of water and a small pill to her eyes “It will help you calm down, but it won't make you too drowsy, I promise.”“Give this a chance, love.” Massimo asked, while stroking her back to try to reduce the frequency of the sobs that were making her body shake “You'll feel better.”“I…” Alice tried to recover enough to accept the tranquilizer, but the image of Amber's dead body falling against the ground, just a few feet away from her, came back to haunt her once again “I never wanted that to happen. We should have captured them both alive. Despite of everything that happened between me and Amber, I never wanted her to…”“That wasn’t your
“And so we say our goodbye to Amber Dawsey, gone so soon, but with the knowledge that the Lord has plans for her in his kingdom.” the pastor said, his voice calm and almost diplomatic, probably because it was not the first funeral he had performed in which the deceased had so few people willing to mourn her departure “Please, may you lower the coffin.”As Amber's only family, Alice had been in the front pew throughout the wake, but now they had reached the cemetery, she had allowed herself to stay a little distant while her only cousin was placed in that deep grave. The normal tradition among the Dawseys would be to bury her near her grandfather, as he had been the last to die, but most of High Society were speculating that Alice would place her in some cemetery somewhere, almost as a pauper. Alice, however, had done neither. Amber was
“The Honorable Judge Roberts concluded her considerations. The court can stand.”At the sound of the bailiff's voice, Alice stood up immediately, but without ever letting go of Massimo's hand. Like the many witnesses who had spent the entire day testifying, she, her husband and her father were in one of the last rows of benches in the courtroom. However, she could still clearly see the woman with white hair and serious features returning to her pulpit, with a thick sheaf of papers in her hands. The trial had been long due to Kendra's list of crimes, but the jurors' deliberation had been much faster than Alice had expected.Probably because Kendra's behavior during the entire trial had not advocated in her favor, in the eyes of the oath-bearers.In the dock, two officers were still sitting on either
“Look, mommy! These boats are so small! They look like the bathtub toy Dad gave me!” Millicent pointed out, trapped in Alice's arms, as she seemed too excited about the sea view outside the hotel window, maybe even enough to try jumping straight into the sea “Can we ride in one? I want to see the fish!”“Those are fishing boats, piccola.” Massimo explained, looking more than proud that Millie is loving every detail of his homeland “This town is small, so most residents survive on fishing, in addition to tourism. But, don't worry. As soon as we go to Florence in two days, there will be lots of boat trips for us to do.” He opened his arms so she could jump into his lap “We came here first because I wanted to show you the place where I was born.”“I want to see the house where you were a baby!&rdquo