Chapter 21: Bad Perfume

Noah woke before I could take off the ring. He was sitting upright in the middle of the bed, his dinosaur clutched under his chin. Rocco stood outside the open door. Dante had stopped in the hall when he heard the small, frightened sound Noah made. "Mom," Noah whispered. "She was here." I crossed to him and sat on the mattress, keeping my hands where he could see them. "Who was here, baby?" He pressed his face into the dinosaur. "The lady with the bad flowers." The scent reached me then. White roses and something sharp beneath them, sweet enough to turn my stomach. It clung to the toy's faded green fabric. The same perfume Bianca had worn into the dining room, floating above the De Luca table like she owned every breath in it. "Did you smell her tonight?" I asked. Noah shook his head hard. "At the hospital. When you were gone because the doctor was talking. She came in and said I had Daddy's eyes." His fingers tightened around the dinosaur's tail. "I didn't like her. She said I would live in the big house if I was good." Dante made a sound behind me. I did not turn. "Do not ask him anything." "I won't," Dante said. I pulled Noah against me. His heart beat fast through his pajamas, but his forehead was cool. This was not a new sickness. It was an old fear finally finding words. "You did exactly right telling me," I said into his hair. "You never have to be good for someone to keep you safe. You only have to tell me when something feels wrong." He looked up. "She wasn't supposed to be there?" "No." I kept my voice steady. "She was not." My phone was already in my hand. Dr. Hall answered on the second ring, her voice low with sleep. "Bianca De Luca came into Noah's room after surgery," I said. "Noah remembers her perfume and what she told him. I need the hallway camera from that night held before anyone touches it." Silence snapped awake on the other end. "The west-wing footage was flagged after an unauthorized visitor alert," Dr. Hall said. "The system overwrites it at midnight. Mara has twenty-three minutes, and a De Luca representative just arrived asking for the clip." Of course they had. "Tell Mara not to hand it over. I'm coming." Dante moved from the door. "I'll have the car—" "You stay." I stood, careful not to jolt Noah. "He asked for you once. You sit outside this door and you do not make a promise I haven't made." His face changed, not with anger. With the effort of accepting it. "I will," he said. Rocco had the elevator open before I reached the hall. I did not ask him to call men or clear a route. I only said, "Drive." The hospital lobby was almost empty when we arrived, all blue light and waxed floors. Mara stood at the security desk with both hands over a small sealed evidence sleeve. Across from her, a man in a De Luca suit smiled as if he were waiting for dessert. "Ms. Vale," he said. "This is a private family matter. My client requests that no distressed child's imagination be turned into a spectacle." Mara's knuckles whitened over the sleeve. I walked past him and put my hand over hers. "My child is not your client's private matter." The man reached for the sleeve. Rocco caught his wrist before he touched it. "Don't," I said. The word was quiet. It landed anyway. Mara looked at me. "The hallway camera catches every person who entered Room Seven while you were with Dr. Hall. The clip is six minutes." "Show it here," I said. "With all of us watching." The De Luca man smoothed his cuff. "One frightened child's story will not erase what his mother has done." "This is not a story," I said. "It shows a woman who wants my child used against him alone, without my consent. A custody judge needs to see the difference between a mother protecting her son and the woman who walked in to frighten him." I looked at Mara. "When it ends, this clip goes to Ms. Reyes and the officer holding the fake nurse's phone. Not to him." Mara nodded. The De Luca man stopped smiling. The security guard slid the memory card into the desk monitor. I kept one hand on the counter until the picture steadied. There I was at the far end of the corridor, following Dr. Hall toward a consultation room. Thirty seconds later, Bianca came around the corner in white. No badge. No flowers. Only that cruel, expensive perfume trailing behind her. She paused outside Noah's door, looked both ways, and slipped inside. Before the door closed, another hand entered the frame. A woman in a pearl-gray sleeve held it open for Bianca. A green stone flashed on her finger, cut with a hard black V—the same mark scratched into the fake nurse's token and hidden behind Noah's lock—then vanished before the camera caught her face. The De Luca man went still. Bianca had not gone into Noah's room alone.