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has its perks.”
    â€œI don’t want her as my mistress.” Benito gave a wry smile at his cousin’s shocked expression, but Luca soon recovered, and with acquired skill, palmed off his date and collected a glass of champagne as Benito braced himself for the scorn.
    It never came.
    â€œWhy are you still here?” Luca asked.
    â€œI have never run after a woman.”
    â€œYou’ve never needed to.”
    Need. There was that word again. What was it Alisa had said? Need was about obligation, fulfilling one’s duties. He had no obligation to her. Her duty was supposedly to him…and yet…he’d expected contempt from Luca, a derisive laugh. Luca, who should be the last to understand how he felt, actually was the first.
    â€œI’m sorry, Your Highness!” Giovanni apologized profusely as he approached to the two princes. “I would never normally interrupt on such an occasion, however, when I heard the child’s health was so critical, I felt I had no choice—”
    â€œThe child!” Benito’s face was as pale as his shirt. “Marietta?”
    â€œShe stopped breathing.”
    Â 
    Benito knew the hospital well.
    Even though he lived in Contarini, many events had seen him rush along these corridors: his sister’s horrific boating accident, royal births, deaths… Yes, Benito knew the polished floors of the hospital too well…
    Or he thought he did.
    The incredulous face of the nurse as he swung into the dimly lit children’s ward would stay in his mind forever.
    His dark eyes scanned the two rows of beds as the contrite nurse scuttled behind him.
    â€œI thought she had stopped breathing, that she…”
    â€œShe did.” Alisa held the pale hand of her sister’s more tightly. “But she is better now.”
    â€œWhere’s the doctor?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œWhat did he say?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” He raked a hand through his hair, struggled to keep his voice and breathing regular. Where the hell was everyone? “He must have said something?”
    â€œNot to me!” Her worried jade eyes met his, bitterness soaking her words. “We’re not in the royal wing. The nurse says that Marietta is to rest. She needs to have medicine through a drip. Had I bought her here sooner…”
    â€œIt’s not your fault.” For the first time Benito noticed the elderly lady sitting quietly in a chair. Saw her face turn unseeing to Alisa’s. “I was the one who said to wait.”
    â€œAnd I was the one out dancing and…” Alisa didn’t finish—couldn’t—her eyes closing in regret as elusive doctors, administrative staff and porters all scrambled like fighter pilots toward Marietta’s bed. Now that royalty was here, she didn’t have to wait. And for Benito, utter realization hit. The disparity Alisa had eluded to had never been more apparent than it was now.
    Staring down at little Marietta, the strain and effort in her tired face as she struggled to just breathe, he asked himself, Why was this small life less precious?

Chapter Eight
    Living off Benito’s scraps mightn’t be so bad.
    Seeing Marietta’s usually pale face rosy and laughing as she sat up in bed in her private room, playing with the doll Benito had bought her, Alisa knew, not for the first time, she’d been too hasty declining his offer to be his mistress. Even if her heart bled for the other twenty-nine children lying in the children’s ward, even if the injustice enraged her, Alisa knew she couldn’t change the world.
    But she could change Marietta’s.
    â€œCome back to the villa,” Benito suggested. “Have a bath and lie down…”
    â€œI don’t want to leave her.”
    â€œPrince Benito is right.” Bella’s voice was insistent. “You have sat by her bed for two days now.