Chapter 6 - The Night She Really Left
“Bathroom,” Luciano ordered.
Daniel and Margaret moved Kate while nurses stuffed wet towels beneath the bedroom door.
Luciano smashed the bathroom window.
Cold rain blew inside.
“We’re two floors up,” Kate gasped.
“I know.”
Another contraction hit.
She screamed.
Luciano returned to her.
Smoke thickened.
Vittorio disappeared through a connecting servants’ passage and returned moments later.
“Hallway is clear. Fire is contained.”
“You knew about that passage?” Luciano demanded.
“I grew up visiting this house.”
Kate stared at him.
“My grandmother knew your family that well?”
Vittorio looked at her.
“Yes.”
The bedroom door opened from outside.
Daniel appeared.
“Fire’s out. Whoever started it is gone.”
Luciano helped Kate back.
Margaret checked the baby.
“Heartbeat.”
Everyone listened.
Fast.
Small.
Alive.
Kate cried.
Luciano kissed her forehead without thinking.
She didn't pull away.
Later, while Margaret prepared for a possible delivery, Luciano sat beside Kate.
“Tell me about the night you left.”
“You were there.”
“Apparently I wasn't.”
Kate looked at him.
“I found the medical file in my suitcase.”
“And?”
“There was another page.”
“What page?”
“A photograph of me.”
“Where?”
“Asleep in our bedroom.”
Luciano’s jaw tightened.
“Our bedroom?”
“Yes.”
Someone had entered their home.
Past his guards.
Past his security.
Past him.
“There was a message,” Kate continued.
“Tell me.”
“Your husband cannot protect you from his own blood.”
Luciano stared at the floor.
“And that was why you left.”
“Partly.”
“What was the rest?”
Kate's eyes filled.
“You.”
He absorbed that without defending himself.
“I was suffocating,” she said. “You loved me like everything outside your reach was dangerous.”
“In my world, it often is.”
“I know. But eventually you made me feel dangerous to myself.”
Luciano lowered his head.
“I’m sorry.”
Kate blinked.
He had apologized before.
But usually apologies came with explanations.
This one didn't.
“I thought keeping you safe was the same as loving you well,” he said. “It wasn't.”
Kate’s lips trembled.
“I still loved you.”
Luciano looked up.
“That made leaving worse.”
“Kate—”
“I found out about the pregnancy after I left. I picked up the phone a hundred times.”
“Why didn't you call?”
“Because every time I imagined telling you, I imagined twenty guards appearing around me.”
Luciano almost smiled.
“Probably thirty.”
She gave a tiny laugh.
It was the first sound of warmth between them.
Then she winced.
Luciano immediately leaned closer.
“Contraction?”
“No.”
She placed his hand against her belly.
“Wait.”
Something moved.
Luciano froze.
Again.
A small kick beneath his palm.
His entire expression changed.
Kate watched him.
“That’s your baby.”
Luciano couldn't speak.
The man who had negotiated with criminals, politicians, bankers, and men who considered fear currency sat speechless because a tiny foot had moved against his hand.
“Does it do that often?”
“She.”
Luciano looked up.
“She?”
Kate smiled faintly.
“It’s a girl.”
He stared at her belly.
“My daughter.”
“Yes.”
He whispered the words again.
“My daughter.”
Then the lights flickered.
Kate’s smile vanished.
Luciano stood.
A nurse entered carrying a laptop.
“Mr. Aruri, Daniel found this connected to the security system.”
On the screen were archived camera files.
Hundreds.
Luciano opened one.
His townhouse.
Seven months earlier.
Kate leaving.
Another angle showed a man watching from across the street.
Luciano enlarged the image.
Carlo.
His brother.
Kate whispered, “Why was Carlo there?”
Luciano opened another recording.
Date: April 4.
Time: 6:12 a.m.
Kate was upstairs packing.
Carlo entered Luciano’s study.
He walked to the desk.
Opened Luciano’s phone.
Deleted something.
Then he accessed the security terminal.
Luciano watched his brother erase thirty-seven outgoing calls and block Katherine’s number.
Kate covered her mouth.
“It was Carlo.”
Luciano felt something inside him break.
Not because his brother had betrayed business.
Business betrayal was ordinary.
Carlo had stolen seven months of his daughter’s life.
He had stolen seven months from Kate.
The laptop chimed.
A new live feed appeared.
The camera showed Hawthorne Ridge’s wine cellar.
Carlo sat tied to a chair.
Blood ran down his face.
Behind him stood Adrian Vescari.
Adrian looked directly into the camera.
Then he smiled.
“Come downstairs, brother.”
Luciano stood.
May you like
Adrian raised a gun to Carlo’s head.
“And come alone.”
