CHAPTER ONE

      AT FIVE TO three in the afternoon, Valentina Montanari finished her timed online engineering test and sent it into the testing site at the University of Naples Federico II. She could now forget her graduate studies for a semester and concentrate on the baby.

      The strange backache that had come on during the test hadn’t stopped. She got up from the table on the terrace, where she’d been working with her laptop and walked inside the villa to the kitchen for a drink. Maybe because of the way she’d been sitting, she’d developed a cramp.

      “What’s wrong, Valentina?”

      She darted a glance at her brother’s ever-watchful housekeeper, Bianca. “Oh, just a backache.”

      “When did it start?”

      “While I was taking my test. Don’t worry about it.” She poured herself a glass of freshly made lemonade. Bianca was a fifty-year-old treasure who cooked and cleaned for Valentina’s older brother, Rinieri, who was still a bachelor. She watched her like a hawk.

      “A backache this close to the due date could mean your baby is ready to come.”

      “I’m due July 6. That’s four days from now. At my checkup last week, Dr. Pedrotti said the baby hadn’t dropped yet and I might even go past my due date.”

      “All my babies started with a backache that never went away.” The widowed mother of three no doubt knew what she was talking about. Right now Valentina wished her own mother were alive and here to talk to.

      “The doctor said some backache was to be expected.” She drank half a glass. “I’ll walk around for a few minutes to work it off.” But she’d only made it to the doorway of the kitchen when the pain reached around, gripping her like a pair of giant tongs.

      “Caspita!” Valentina exclaimed. She braced herself against the door frame, surprised by the degree of pain.

      Bianca nodded. “I knew it! I’m calling your doctor.”

      “I hate bothering him yet, Bianca.”

      The housekeeper ignored her and made the call. After a quick conversation, she hung up. “He says this could be the beginning of labor. First babies generally take a long time to be born, and your water hasn’t broken yet. But he suggests you leave for the hospital. He’ll check you out there. If it’s a false alarm, no harm is done and you can come home. Rinieri said he’d be in Milan today, so I’ll phone Carlo to drive you.”

      Before she could stop her, Bianca had made the call to Valentina’s married