Chapter 1 - THE BOY DOMINIC WAS HIDING
“What do I want you to do?”
Dominic’s voice was weak, but every man in the hospital suite leaned closer.
He kept one hand wrapped around Grace Bennett’s bruised wrist.
“Bring me the boy.”
Vanessa Bellini’s expression changed instantly.
“Dominic, you nearly died.”
“I heard you.”
“You need rest.”
“I need the boy.”
Grace felt Vanessa’s eyes cut toward her.
It wasn’t concern.
It was warning.
Dominic noticed.
That was what frightened Vanessa most.
Marco Moretti stepped toward the door.
“I’ll bring him.”
“No,” Vanessa said too quickly.
The room froze.
Dominic finally looked at his fiancée.
“Why?”
Vanessa recovered almost immediately.
“A traumatized child shouldn’t be dragged into an intensive-care suite.”
Grace spoke before she could stop herself.
“He asked for Mr. Moretti twice.”
Vanessa turned.
“When?”
“After he woke up in pediatrics.”
“And you didn’t tell anyone?”
“I told hospital security.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
Dominic squeezed Grace’s hand faintly.
“What did he say?”
Grace remembered the little boy waking after sedation, terrified and confused, his fingers searching frantically for the broken black cross.
“He asked whether the man from the car was alive.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
Relief crossed his face.
Then he whispered:
“Leo.”
Vanessa went pale.
Grace stared.
“You know his name?”
Dominic opened his eyes.
“Yes.”
Marco stopped halfway to the door.
Even he looked surprised.
“How?”
Dominic didn’t answer.
Ten minutes later, Leo was wheeled into the room.
Six years old.
Dark curls.
Gray-green eyes.
A bandage near his temple.
The moment he saw Dominic, his entire face changed.
“You’re alive.”
Dominic tried to sit.
Pain stopped him.
Leo climbed carefully from the wheelchair and approached the bed.
Dominic looked at him in a way Grace had never seen him look at anyone.
No command.
No calculation.
Only fear.
“I’m sorry,” Dominic whispered.
Leo’s mouth trembled.
“You said they wouldn’t find us.”
Vanessa slowly stepped backward.
Dominic noticed.
“So did Grace.”
His gaze sharpened.
“Find you where?”
Leo looked toward Vanessa.
That was enough to make her stop moving.
Then Leo reached inside his hospital gown and pulled out the broken silver chain.
The black cross rested in his palm.
Dominic stared at it.
Grace watched every trace of color leave his face.
“Where did you get that?”
“My mom.”
“What was her name?”
Leo looked confused.
“You know her name.”
Dominic stopped breathing.
The boy continued.
“Elena Russo.”
Marco whispered a curse.
Lucia covered her mouth.
Grace didn’t understand.
Vanessa did.
And Leo saw it.
He pointed toward her.
“She knows Mommy too.”
Vanessa’s voice hardened.
“No, I don’t.”
Leo frowned.
“Yes, you do.”
Dominic’s eyes slowly moved toward his fiancée.
“How?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“He’s confused.”
Leo became agitated.
“You were at our apartment!”
The room went silent.
Vanessa stared at the child.
Grace could practically see her deciding which lie to use.
Dominic’s voice became frighteningly quiet.
“When?”
Leo answered before Vanessa could.
“Three days before Mommy died.”
Dominic’s hand tightened around Grace’s.
Elena Russo had supposedly died in a highway accident eleven months earlier.
Dominic had learned only three weeks ago that she had left behind a child.
He had told no one except Marco.
Not Lucia.
Not Vanessa.
Nobody.
Yet Vanessa had been inside Elena’s apartment before she died.
Dominic looked at Marco.
“Close the door.”
Marco did.
Then Dominic turned toward Vanessa.
“You have thirty seconds.”
She laughed nervously.
“For what?”
“To tell me why my six-year-old son remembers you.”
Grace forgot how to breathe.
So did everyone else.
Leo stared at Dominic.
Vanessa’s confidence finally shattered.
May you like
And Grace realized the little boy nobody was supposed to know existed wasn’t merely connected to Dominic Moretti.
He was his son.
