Chapter 2 - The Things He Had Never Asked
At the hospital, Dante discovered how little his name could do.
It could not move the hands of the clock.
It could not turn a frightened nurse’s careful expression into a promise.
It could not make a doctor tell him that June and the baby would be fine.
A physician explained that June needed urgent treatment, specialist consultation, and close monitoring. They were contacting the appropriate toxicology experts and evaluating the pregnancy.
Dante listened without interrupting.
When the doctor finished, he asked one question.
“Can I see her?”
“When she’s settled, and if she wants you there.”
The qualification struck him harder than he expected.
Of course.
If she wanted him there.
He sat in a plastic chair beneath a television playing a cooking show nobody watched.
A police detective approached.
“Mr. Voss? Elena Ruiz.”
Dante stood.
She did not offer her hand.
“We recovered your phone from Ms. Aldridge. She told the responding officers it contains a recording.”
“It does.”
“And the firearm?”
“Mine. Legally registered. Your officers have it.”
“We’ll establish what happened upstairs.”
He nodded.
Ruiz studied the dried blood on his hand.
“Is that from tonight’s shooting?”
“No.”
“Then we’ll need to discuss that too.”
For once, Dante did not ask her to call his attorney and leave.
“I’ll cooperate.”
“Good. Start with Roland Vane.”
He told her about the blackout, the confession, the shots.
Then he told her about the medical records.
Ruiz’s expression hardened.
“You opened her confidential envelope?”
“Yes.”
“Did she authorize that?”
“No.”
He had expected condemnation to feel different when it came from someone who didn’t fear him.
It simply felt accurate.
Two hours later, a nurse led him into June’s room.
She looked smaller against the white pillows.
There was an IV in her arm. Monitoring equipment glowed beside the bed. Her hair had been loosely gathered away from her face.
Dante stopped near the doorway.
“May I come in?”
June looked at him for a long moment.
“Yes.”
He sat in the chair, leaving space between them.
“How are you feeling?”
“Like everyone keeps asking me questions I’m too tired to answer.”
“Then I won’t ask another.”
She watched him.
After a while, she said, “The baby’s heartbeat was there.”
His hands tightened together.
“That’s good.”
“It doesn’t mean everything’s okay.”
“I know.”
“No. You don’t.”
He lowered his eyes.
“You’re right.”
The room settled around them.
Somewhere outside, a cart rattled down the hall.
June looked toward the window.
“I tried to tell you in September.”
Dante’s head lifted.
“You came out of a meeting with Roland. I asked for ten minutes.”
He remembered the day.
A delayed shipment. An angry investor. June standing beside his door with a folder pressed against her chest.
“I told you to schedule it.”
“You said if it wasn’t about keeping the company alive, it could wait.”
He closed his eyes.
“I remember.”
“I put it on your calendar. Roland canceled it.”
Dante felt a fresh wave of nausea.
“Why didn’t you come directly to me?”
June gave him a look so tired it hurt.
“I just told you.”
He sat with that.
She continued.
“Then I got sick. I thought it was the pregnancy. When the doctor called about the bloodwork, I was already scared someone had been in my apartment.”
“You never told security.”
“Roland ran security.”
Dante looked at the floor.
His world had offered her one door, then stationed the threat in front of it.
“I should have made it safe to tell me.”
“Yes.”
“June, Miami—”
“Was my choice,” she said immediately. “I need you to understand that.”
“I do.”
“But afterward, you acted like I’d imagined something that mattered.”
He had no defense.
“I was afraid of what wanting you would change.”
“And I was the one who paid for that.”
“Yes.”
She wiped a tear angrily.
“I don’t know what happens next.”
“Neither do I.”
She seemed surprised by the admission.
Before either could say more, Detective Ruiz appeared at the door.
She looked at June first.
“Ms. Aldridge, do you feel able to answer a few questions?”
“A few.”
Ruiz stepped inside.
Dante rose.
“Do you want me to stay?”
June hesitated.
“Yes. But don’t answer for me.”
He sat back down.
Ruiz opened her notebook.
“Roland Vane wasn’t in the building when officers reached your floor. We’re looking for him.”
June went pale.
“There’s something else,” Ruiz continued. “Your apartment door was open when officers arrived.”
Dante’s jaw tightened.
June looked at him, then back at the detective.
“My blue notebook,” she said. “Please tell me they found the blue notebook.”
Ruiz paused.
“What’s in it?”
May you like
June’s voice shook.
“The reason I knew this wasn’t only about my pregnancy.”
