Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN DOMINIC NEVER STOPPED LOVING
Vanessa recovered first.
She always did.
“That child is not yours.”
Dominic’s face became unreadable.
Grace had learned during forty hours beside his bed that his silence was more dangerous than shouting.
“Leave,” he said.
Vanessa blinked.
“Dominic—”
“Leave.”
“My father will hear about this.”
“I assume that’s supposed to frighten me.”
Her cheeks flushed.
“You’re injured. You’re confused.”
Dominic looked toward Marco.
Marco opened the door.
Vanessa stared at everyone, then walked out with the dignity of a queen leaving a burning palace.
Dominic waited until the latch clicked.
Then he looked at Leo.
“Come here.”
Leo approached.
Dominic lifted his hand but stopped before touching him.
“Can I?”
Leo nodded.
Dominic rested his palm against the boy’s cheek.
Grace looked away.
Some moments felt too private to witness.
Elena Russo had been Dominic’s first love.
He told Grace later that afternoon after Leo fell asleep beside Lucia.
Dominic had been twenty-seven.
Elena was a graduate student studying architecture.
She had nothing to do with his world.
That was why he loved being around her.
“She hated bodyguards,” Dominic said.
Grace adjusted his IV.
“She hated expensive restaurants. She said every place I chose served portions designed for birds.”
Grace smiled despite herself.
“What happened?”
“My father happened.”
Salvatore Moretti believed marriage was strategy.
Dominic’s relationship with Elena threatened an alliance with the Bellini family.
Then Elena disappeared.
No goodbye.
No explanation.
Dominic searched for two years.
Eventually he believed she had chosen another life.
“What changed three weeks ago?”
“A letter.”
Dominic pointed toward the drawer beside his bed.
Marco retrieved an envelope.
Inside was a photograph.
Elena standing beside Leo.
On the back:
He deserves to know you.
If anything happens to me, find Sister Catherine at St. Matthew’s.
Dominic had met the nun secretly.
She told him Elena had died eleven months earlier after losing control of her car during heavy rain.
She also told him Leo was his son.
“DNA?”
Dominic nodded.
“Confirmed.”
Grace looked toward Leo.
“Why wait eleven months?”
“Sister Catherine was afraid.”
“Of whom?”
Dominic’s eyes moved toward the door Vanessa had left through.
“Elena told her someone had found them.”
Two nights earlier, Dominic had driven to retrieve Leo from a protected apartment outside Brooklyn.
Nobody except Marco knew the route.
Then the SUV exploded at a traffic light.
Grace’s stomach tightened.
“Someone knew.”
“Yes.”
“And Vanessa knew Leo before tonight.”
“Yes.”
Dominic looked at Grace.
“That’s why they were removing you.”
“What?”
“You saw her recognize him.”
Grace remembered Vanessa’s face in the emergency department.
The half-second of terror.
She nodded.
Dominic closed his eyes.
“You’re a witness now.”
“I’m a nurse.”
“You’re both.”
Grace stepped back.
“I don’t want protection.”
“Everyone says that before they understand the danger.”
She stiffened.
“Don’t decide for me.”
Dominic opened his eyes.
There was something like surprise there.
Most people didn’t speak to Dominic Moretti that way.
Grace continued.
“I have a mother in chemotherapy and a brother who depends on me. If someone is coming after witnesses, I need information—not men deciding where I’m allowed to go.”
Dominic studied her.
Then nodded.
“Fair.”
That surprised her.
Marco returned carrying an evidence bag.
Inside was Leo’s broken black cross.
“The pediatric nurse found this caught in his jacket.”
Dominic reached toward it.
Then stopped.
“Grace.”
She lifted it carefully.
The cross was heavier than it looked.
One edge had separated during the explosion.
There was a tiny cavity inside.
Something metallic glinted beneath the black enamel.
Marco found sterile forceps.
Grace pulled out a small brass key.
Leo woke at the sound.
His eyes landed on it.
“Mommy said never lose that.”
Dominic looked at him.
“What does it open?”
Leo shook his head.
“She didn’t tell me.”
Then he remembered something.
“She said if the lady with diamonds ever came back, I should hide the cross.”
Grace’s eyes moved toward Dominic.
Vanessa Bellini always wore diamonds.
Dominic slowly closed his hand around the key.
May you like
And for the first time, he looked less like a crime boss recovering from an assassination attempt—
and more like a man realizing his engagement had been built on a grave.
