Chapter 3 - The Darkness Had Started Cracking Four Days Earlier
After Natalie and Mia left with the driver, Vincent remained.
Bianca tried to remain too.
Lorenzo stopped her.
“I need ten minutes with my brother.”
“We can all talk.”
“No.”
Bianca’s voice hardened slightly.
“You’ve had a long day.”
Vincent stood near the coffee table.
“He asked you for ten minutes.”
Bianca looked between them.
Then forced a smile Lorenzo could not fully see but had learned to hear.
“Fine.”
Her heels crossed the marble.
The bedroom door closed farther down the hall.
Vincent waited.
Then:
“Can you see?”
Lorenzo removed his sunglasses.
Vincent inhaled.
Lorenzo blinked against the warm living-room lights.
“What do you see?”
“Light.”
“And?”
“Movement.”
Vincent moved one hand.
Lorenzo’s eyes tracked late.
“Large shapes,” Lorenzo continued. “Sometimes color if there’s enough contrast.”
“How long?”
“Four days.”
Vincent stared.
“And Bianca doesn’t know?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Lorenzo looked toward the hallway.
“Because she started talking to me differently after the doctors said I might not recover.”
Vincent’s jaw tightened.
“What do you mean?”
Lorenzo described the kick.
Exactly one kick.
No exaggeration.
Then Bianca’s words.
I didn’t marry you just to spend my life pushing a blind man around.
I married you for what you own.
Vincent swore under his breath.
“You heard that before we walked in?”
“Yes.”
“And you sat there?”
“I needed to hear how far she would go.”
Vincent started pacing.
“You should have told me.”
“About what? A sentence?”
“She kicked your chair.”
“I know.”
Vincent stopped.
Lorenzo continued.
“The bigger problem started before today.”
He told his brother about the specialist.
Four days earlier Lorenzo woke before Bianca.
The penthouse bedroom was still dark, but something had changed.
He saw the rectangle of the window.
Not clearly.
A gray block inside blackness.
That afternoon, when Bianca crossed in front of the windows wearing a bright white robe, he saw movement.
The next morning he saw the vague outline of his own hand against the lamp.
He said nothing.
Not because he wanted to trap his wife.
Because he wanted one day to understand what was happening before everyone else started narrating it for him.
That was when Bianca told him Tuesday’s ophthalmology appointment had been canceled.
Lorenzo asked why.
“Scheduling problem.”
He asked when it had been rebooked.
“I’ll handle it.”
Something in her tone bothered him.
Then came the papers.
Two days ago, Bianca placed a folder on his lap.
“Home-care authorization.”
She guided his hand toward the signature tabs.
Lorenzo signed the first page.
Then the second.
On the third, his thumb caught the raised edge of an embossed seal.
Home-care forms had never carried that kind of seal.
He asked:
“What is this?”
Bianca answered too quickly.
“Notary section.”
“Why does home care need notarization?”
“It’s New York. Everything needs paperwork.”
Lorenzo stopped signing.
Bianca became irritated.
Then sweet again.
“We can finish later.”
Vincent’s face changed.
“What was actually in the folder?”
“I don’t know.”
“You signed?”
“Two pages.”
Vincent cursed again.
Lorenzo leaned forward in the wheelchair.
“I need you to find out.”
Vincent nodded.
“Company counsel?”
“No. Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because if Bianca is doing nothing, I don’t want half Manhattan hearing my marriage is under investigation.”
“And if she is?”
Lorenzo put his sunglasses back on.
“Then I want to know what I already signed before she knows I’m looking.”
Vincent stared at him.
“You’re sure about this?”
“No.”
That answer mattered.
Lorenzo was not building a fantasy where every strange thing proved betrayal.
The accident made him vulnerable.
Vulnerability made him suspicious.
He knew that.
So he wanted records.
Not instinct.
Vincent moved toward the door.
Then paused.
“One more question.”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“The accident. Do you think Bianca had anything to do with it?”
Lorenzo answered immediately.
“No.”
Vincent looked surprised.
“The elevator cable failed. The city report, building report, and insurer all agreed. Bianca wasn’t even there.”
“Then this started after?”
Lorenzo nodded.
“That’s what scares me.”
May you like
Because if Bianca had not caused his blindness—
then she had simply seen it happen and decided it was useful.
Related Stories
