Chapter 3 - THE BILLIONAIRE'S EMPTY CHAIR
By midnight, Lily was in intensive care.
Enzo sat beside her hospital bed, holding her small hand.
The room smelled of antiseptic.
Machines hummed.
A nurse checked Lily's vital signs.
Enzo barely noticed.
His daughter looked impossibly small beneath the white blanket.
Six years old.
She had spent the morning choosing a birthday dress.
She had asked whether her cake could have real strawberries.
She had insisted that her father sit beside her instead of taking business calls.
And now she lay unconscious because someone had put something dangerous into her drink.
Enzo looked at her face.
"Come back to me, sweetheart."
His voice broke.
"Please."
At one in the morning, Detective Rebecca Sloan arrived.
She was forty-three, direct, and unimpressed by expensive suits.
"Mr. Castellani."
Enzo stood.
"Detective."
"I need to ask you some questions."
"Ask."
"Does anyone have a reason to hurt your daughter?"
Enzo stared at her.
The question sounded absurd.
And then it didn't.
He had enemies.
Business rivals.
Former partners.
People who hated him.
People who feared him.
He had spent years convincing himself that the walls around his home protected Lily from the consequences of his life.
Now he looked at her hospital bed and understood how foolish that belief had been.
"Yes," he answered.
Sloan waited.
"Several people."
"Names."
Enzo gave them.
He included business associates, former employees, and men connected to disputes he had never allowed near his daughter.
Then Sloan asked:
"What about Marcus Bell?"
Enzo frowned.
"My lawyer?"
"He was present."
"So were twelve other people."
"He also tried to have the waitress removed before she could explain what she noticed."
Enzo looked toward Lily.
"Marcus has worked for me for eighteen years."
Sloan didn't soften.
"That wasn't my question."
Enzo said nothing.
At three in the morning, a doctor entered.
Enzo stood so quickly his chair struck the wall.
"How is she?"
The doctor explained that Lily was responding to treatment and that further tests were underway.
Her condition remained serious.
But there were encouraging signs.
Enzo closed his eyes.
For the first time that night, he breathed.
Then he asked:
"Can I stay?"
The doctor nodded.
"Of course."
Enzo returned to his chair.
He looked at his daughter's hand.
May you like
And made a promise he wasn't sure he knew how to keep.
"If you wake up, Lily, I'll change everything."
