Matteo brought a chair over, flipped it around, and sat down. “I want to believe you. I really do. But we’re struggling to understand why, after you’ve taken such good care of us all these years, you would send someone who would administer a drug to trigger the premature birth of a baby not yet able to survive outside of the womb.”
Frantic brown eyes shifted from my brother to me. “You’re not listening! I didn’t send anyone!”
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out my phone and opened the text thread with Corsi before handing it to Matteo.
After a quick pause to scan the words, Matteo turned the screen around to show the doctor. “So you’re saying youdidn’tsend this text to Gio that you were granting his request for a female physician for Rory?”
“One, I never received a message asking for a female physician for Mrs. Bellini, and two, I don’t have one on my staff.” His gaze lifted to meet mine. “For obvious reasons. It’s simply not safe to send a woman alone to treat the type of men involved in organized crime, even when they’re incapacitated by illness or injury.”
Matteo twisted around, lifting one shoulder as if to say,He’s got a point.
Pressing my fingers into my eye sockets, I rubbed hard. “If we look through your phone, pull its records, you’re confident that we will find zero history of our conversation on your end?”
“That’s correct,” Corsi replied with confidence.
I stepped forward menacingly, my voice going low and lethal. “If I find out you’re lying to me, that you’ve been working with Dario all along, I’ll—“
“Dario?” The doctor reared back, eyebrows raised.
When I peered over at Matteo, he gave a subtle shake of his head, silently telling me that our current enemy wasn’t common knowledge.
Corsi was smart—he’d have to be with all the schooling required to become a physician—and picked up on our wordless exchange. “Is Dario behind the attacks on the Bellinis?”
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I breathed out, “Yes.”
“And you think I’d help him? After I spent years patching up Gemma and Enzo because the man found pleasure in hurting his children?”
Matteo sighed. “Honestly, we don’t know what to believe, who we can trust. Not when our own blood is actively plotting against us.”
Corsi nodded his understanding. “That’s fair. Do whatever digging you need to; I have nothing to hide. My loyalty has been and always will be to the rightful don of the Bellini Family.” Turning his attention to me, he asked, “Are Mrs. Bellini and the baby okay?”
I gave a jerky nod; the events from earlier still rattled me to the core. “They will be.”
“Good. That’s good. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do for them.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I warned. “We still have to sort out this mess first.”
Matteo stood, beckoning me to follow him to the far end of the room so that we were out of earshot. Keeping his voice hushed, he said, “This tracks with the type of digital sabotage we saw a few years back when Dario had someone spoof my email toconvince the lawyer to sell off property without our permission and steal the profits.”
A persistent pounding picked up near my temples. “Cross all the T’s and dot the I’s before you let him go, you hear?” I jerked my chin in the direction of our prisoner.
When I turned to leave, his voice halted me. “Hey, can you send Summer home when you get there?”
I spun around slowly. “Get where?”
My brother stared at me like I’d lost my mind when he was the one not making any sense. “Uh, the hospital?”
“Why would I be going to the hospital?”
“Come on, Gio. I know you’re mad at her after everything that’s happened, but she’s carrying your baby and had a terrifying scare only a few hours ago.”
“And?” I prompted, not understanding what he was getting at.
He shook his head. “You really don’t have a heart, do you?”
“My heart’s never been part of the equation when it comes to Rory.” Just like it hadn’t been with his first wife. Arranged marriages weren’t love matches; they were business arrangements. Why should it come as a surprise when I treated mine as such?
An expression of pure disappointment flickered over Matteo’s features. “I feel sorry for your son.”
