His expression changed. Not much. But enough.
“That,” he said quietly, “doesn’t look like a fall.”
My heart stopped beating.
Isabella laughed — a soft, practiced sound. “She’s embarrassed. You know how staff can be.”
Luca rose slowly to his full height and turned toward his fiancée. The temperature of the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
“What exactly happened in the pantry?”
Isabella opened her mouth. Luca raised one hand — not to strike her, but to stop her from coming closer. Then he looked back down at me, and stepped between the two of us. Shielding me. Or trapping me. In that moment, I honestly did not know which.
His voice, when it came, was quiet and final.