"Mom—Dad! Dad is back!" I cried, pressed to the window, pointing at the man stepping out of the car below.
It had been six months since he'd come home.
But he didn't come inside. The moment he got out of the car, he ran straight into the fire.
I called and called, terrified, begging him to come back. He didn't answer. After a long while, he finally came out—carrying the neighbor woman from earlier. I breathed a long, relieved sigh.
Mom's face had gone hard.
At four in the morning he returned for real. I ran to meet him, eager to be lifted the way he always did. Instead, he shoved me toward his bodyguards and ordered them to seize me. Then he walked to Mom and grabbed her by the throat, hauling her up.
His voice was a cold thing I'd never heard from him before.
"You set the villa next door on fire, didn't you? The child Bella was carrying is gone—my blood! You're also a mother—how could you be so cruel?" he spat. "Do you know what the doctors said? If I'd arrived a moment later... Bella—she's just a child!"
Mom's face turned blue beneath his hand, but she still smiled, bitter and furious.