"Put Mia on the line. I need to speak with her. How can she be so irresponsible as to not even call me once..."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Sara's confusion was genuine, and it cut through Xavier's composure like a blade. "Mia didn't come to the office today."
The café seemed to tilt.
"What do you mean she didn't come in?" His voice dropped. "She... she's not at home either."
Sara said nothing. There was nothing to say.
Xavier's confidence, that ironclad certainty he wore like armor, began to crack. Each second of silence widened the fissure. He stood from the table, his chair scraping against the tile floor, and that was when his gaze caught the television mounted above the café bar.
The broadcast had shifted to a breaking news bulletin. Red banners scrolled across the bottom of the screen. The anchor's face was grave.
The headline filled the screen in bold white letters:
VALDUCCI HEIRESS IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER DEVASTATING CRASH
Xavier's blood turned to ice.
His phone buzzed. A conference call. He answered on reflex, his eyes still locked on the screen.
Vanessa's voice came first, thick with tears, her words tumbling over each other in a performance of distress. Then his mother's voice, Jane Salvatore, sharp and commanding even as she attempted to soothe.
"Xavier, the banquet has been canceled." Jane's tone was clipped with irritation. "The Commission members have refused to attend. Every senior Don on the Eastern Seaboard has pulled out. They said they will not celebrate while the Valducci princess lies between life and death. Vanessa is devastated. All her preparations..."
"I don't care."
The words left Xavier's mouth before he could stop them, low and raw, carrying a growl that made two patrons at the next table flinch.
"The banquet is not important." His voice shook. He did not recognize it. "I cannot find my wife."
Silence. Then Jane's voice returned, colder now, edged with contempt.
"What? Where is Mia? To think she would throw such a tantrum and disappear when she is already carrying a child. Xavier, I told you from the beginning. You should never have married that orphan. A girl with no name, no family, no standing. This is what comes of..."
The rest of her words dissolved into static.
The phone slipped from Xavier's fingers and clattered against the marble tabletop.