Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF FEEDING LEO
Leo gained five ounces in six days.
That number meant nothing to most people.
To everyone around his hospital crib, it felt enormous.
My medical screening came back clear.
With Dr. Chen, a lactation consultant, and Lorenzo’s explicit consent, I agreed to pump temporarily while Leo transitioned to verified donor milk and formula prepared under supervision.
Direct nursing remained occasional and carefully documented.
It was not romantic.
It was not magical.
It hurt.
Every letdown reminded my body of Lily.
Sometimes I sat in the lactation room with the pump running and cried so quietly nobody heard.
One afternoon Lorenzo found me wiping my face before returning to Leo’s room.
“You don’t have to keep doing this.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
I looked through the glass at his son.
“Because milk shouldn’t have nowhere to go.”
Lorenzo nodded once.
He understood enough not to say anything comforting.
At the estate, alliances were changing.
Marco had been suspended pending investigation.
Evelyn’s nursing license was under emergency review.
The estate manager, Rosa Alvarez, admitted she had repeatedly questioned why Adrian controlled nursery purchases after Sofia’s death.
“Mr. Bellini said it was what Sofia would have wanted,” she told detectives.
Another employee remembered Adrian insisting Leo remain at the mansion rather than return to the hospital after two earlier dehydration episodes.
Each time he argued that Lorenzo needed privacy.
Each time Leo became worse.
Lorenzo listened to those interviews and looked physically ill.
Someone he trusted had not merely entered his home.
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They had used his obsession with secrecy as part of the mechanism.
The thing he thought protected his family had made Leo easier to isolate.
