Emma screamed when the investigator reached for Elena.

“No!

My mama didn’t do anything!”

Alejandro moved between them.

“You will not separate them.”

The investigator raised the warrant.

“We found Elena’s code on the deleted footage, a payment in her name, and a matching vial in her room.”

“Evidence found by my security chief,” Alejandro said.

“The same man who left his assigned post.”

Luca lifted his chin.

“I followed procedure.”

“No,” Gabriel said.

“You entered the basement after being ordered to remain upstairs.”

Luca turned on him.

“Are you accusing me?”

“I’m stating what I saw.”

Isabella stepped beside the investigator.

“Alejandro is confused after a medical emergency.

Elena must be removed.”

Emma buried her face in her mother’s shoulder.

“Are they taking you because I saved him?”

Elena’s body folded around her daughter.

“Listen to me.

You did nothing wrong.”

“But if I stayed downstairs, nobody would be mad.”

Elena began to shake.

“Don’t ever say that.”

Alejandro knelt beside them.

“Emma, look at me.”

She raised her wet face.

“You came upstairs, and I opened my eyes again.

Whatever happens next began with your courage, not your mistake.”

The investigator lowered his hand.

“The child can stay with a guardian while we question her mother.”

“I am her father,” Alejandro said.

Isabella’s head snapped toward him.

“You have no proof.”

“Then arrange the test.”

“You would claim a child tonight to protect a suspect?”

“I am protecting my daughter until someone proves she is not mine.”

The investigator allowed Elena ten minutes alone with Emma.

In the study, Elena held her so tightly that the rabbit was trapped between them.

“Gabriel will stay with you,” Elena said.

“I want you.”

“I know.”

Gabriel placed the replacement injector in Emma’s backpack.

“I promise she won’t be alone.”

Elena looked at him.

“You tried to stop her.”

“And I’ll spend the rest of this night making sure nobody stops her from reaching you.”

At the door, Isabella blocked Elena’s path.

“Confess,” she whispered.

“Say you acted alone, and Emma will receive the finest care money can buy.”

Elena stared at her.

“You put that substance in his wine.”

“You have no recording, no account, and no witness.”

“You forgot the phone.”

“The phone proves someone called you.”

“You said my name.”

Isabella leaned closer.

“And if you repeat this conversation, I will tell the board Alejandro invented his daughter while impaired.

He will lose the company, the house, and every resource protecting Emma.”

Elena’s hands curled at her sides.

“You threatened my unborn child five years ago.

You won’t threaten her again.”

“You returned to my house.”

“It was never yours.”

Isabella’s bracelet chimed against the doorframe as she stepped away.

Three small diamonds surrounded a missing fourth stone.

Alejandro approached after Isabella left.

“What did she say?”

“She offered to care for Emma if I confessed.”

“And what did you say?”

“That she forgot one thing.”

Elena reached into her pocket and held up the hidden phone.

Its screen showed the call history—and a recording symbol.

“The phone recorded the incoming call automatically.”

Alejandro took it.

“Then we have her voice.”

A loud crash came from the study.

They ran inside.

Smoke curled from the laptop, and the memory card lay broken beneath Luca’s shoe.

“I smelled something burning,” Luca said.

Gabriel grabbed his arm.

“Move your foot.”

Luca shoved him away.

“Don’t touch me.”

Alejandro checked the phone.

The recording symbol had vanished, and the screen had gone black.

Isabella stood in the doorway.

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“What a terrible night for evidence,” she said.

Then Elena noticed a tiny red mark on Luca’s cuff—the same red wax used to seal the Moretti board’s private envelopes.