My three-year-old broke the estate's absolute rule and entered the forbidden medical wing, completely unaware of who was lying inside.

Isabella didn't hesitate for a fraction of a second.

"The medical wing is locked twenty-four hours a day, Matteo," she said calmly, walking over and placing herself between Matteo and my ladder. "The staff children are restricted to the third-floor residential quarters. The spikes were caused by an adjustment in his ventilator pressure."

Matteo leaned back, turning his sharp gaze onto Isabella.

"Is that so?" he whispered. "Because I brought my own medical specialist tonight. Dr. Vance will be taking over Lorenzo's care starting immediately. Elena Whitmore is dismissed."

My hand tightened around the ladder rung so hard my knuckles turned white. Dismissing Elena meant removing the only person protecting Lorenzo and Mia.

"Elena is a certified ICU nurse appointed by Lorenzo's personal physician," Isabella stated coldly. "You do not have the legal authority to replace her without a full board vote."

"I have the authority of six family lieutenants who want results, Isabella," Matteo snapped, his calm demeanor fracturing into cold fury. "Lorenzo has been a vegetable for fifty days. The family business is stalling. Contracts are being stolen by the Chicago syndicates. If Lorenzo isn't going to wake up, we need to declare him incapacitated and transfer executive authority to me."

He stepped closer to Isabella, leaning down into her face.

"And if someone is hiding something in this house," Matteo added, his eyes flicking back toward me, "I will find it. And I will burn it out."

Matteo gestured to his guards. "Search the upper floors. Check every room."

Panic, raw and blinding, surged through my veins. Mia was in our third-floor room alone. If Matteo's armed thugs went upstairs, they would find her—and they would see her gray eyes, her facial structure, the undeniable resemblance to Julianna Moretti.

"Mr. Moretti, please," I said, stepping off the ladder, trying to sound like a frantic, humble servant. "My daughter is sleeping upstairs in the maid quarters. Please don't scare her—"