Chapter 6 - The Promise John Kept
Nora woke to a heartbeat.
Fast.
Mechanical.
Steady.
She opened her eyes.
White ceiling.
Hospital.
Her hand moved instantly toward her stomach.
Still there.
“Lily.”
“She's alive.”
Matteo sat beside the bed.
His shirt was wrinkled.
There was dried blood on one cuff.
Nora stared.
“How long?”
“Eleven hours.”
“What happened?”
“Placental bleeding. They stopped it.”
“The baby?”
“Stable.”
Nora closed her eyes.
A sob escaped.
Matteo stood and leaned closer.
“You scared everyone.”
“Everyone?”
He looked toward the doorway.
John sat there in his wheelchair.
Nora smiled through tears.
“Hi, Grandpa.”
John broke.
His face crumpled.
He rolled toward her.
Nora reached out.
He took her hand and pressed it against his cheek.
Neither spoke for a while.
They didn't need to.
Later, Matteo told her what happened.
Victor was in federal custody.
So was Gable.
Brody had agreed to cooperate.
The flash drive had been copied before police arrived.
John had planned for that possibility years earlier.
But Victor had lied about one thing.
The files did not destroy Matteo.
John had separated evidence of his own crimes from records involving Victor.
He had also documented his efforts to dismantle the organization's illegal operations.
Matteo might face investigations.
But Victor's leverage was weaker than he claimed.
“And the DNA test?” Nora asked.
Matteo became quiet.
“We don't have to discuss that now.”
“Yes, we do.”
He sat.
Nora studied him.
“You didn't know.”
“No.”
“About the sample?”
“I knew it existed. I believed it had been destroyed.”
“Who was your fiancée?”
“Isabella.”
“What happened?”
“She died.”
Nora immediately regretted asking.
“I'm sorry.”
“Car accident.”
The words hung between them.
Nora's eyes narrowed.
“Victor?”
“We don't know.”
John struck the wheelchair.
Both looked at him.
He nodded.
Matteo went still.
“You knew?”
John nodded.
Matteo stood.
“Victor killed Isabella?”
John's eyes filled.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
John tried to speak.
“Proof.”
“You didn't have proof.”
He shook his head.
Matteo turned away.
Years of grief rearranged themselves inside him.
Nora understood that feeling.
The dead did not change.
But truth could change every memory you had of them.
“Matteo.”
He looked at her.
“Sit.”
He almost laughed.
“Are you ordering me around in my own hospital?”
“Is this your hospital?”
“No.”
“Then sit.”
He did.
Nora took his hand.
Not romantically.
Not yet.
Just because grief recognized grief.
“You didn't know,” she said.
“Neither did you.”
“No.”
“We were both used.”
“Yes.”
He looked toward her stomach.
“If Lily is mine…”
Nora waited.
“I don't know what that means.”
“Neither do I.”
“But I know one thing.”
“What?”
“She won't be used again.”
Nora believed him.
Three weeks passed.
Nora remained on restricted activity.
Matteo moved her into a private apartment on the estate's west side.
She protested until John spoke three words.
“My granddaughter. Stay.”
That ended the argument.
John improved rapidly.
Doctors concluded that his speech loss had been partly neurological and partly psychological.
With therapy, words returned.
Slowly.
Painfully.
But every day there were more.
Nora often sat beside him.
This time she wasn't feeding him.
They ate together.
At the same table.
Matteo joined them whenever possible.
The mansion changed.
Gable's rules disappeared.
Curtains opened.
Employees ate proper meals.
John's nurses returned.
And Nora discovered something unexpected.
Matteo could cook exactly one thing.
Pancakes.
Badly.
“They're burned,” Nora said.
“They're caramelized.”
“They're black.”
“Caramel gets dark.”
John tasted one.
“Terrible.”
Nora burst out laughing.
Matteo stared at his father.
“You haven't spoken for five years and you're using your recovery to insult my cooking?”
John nodded.
“Worth it.”
They laughed.
For a moment, they looked almost like a normal family.
Then the DNA results arrived.
Matteo left the envelope unopened on the table.
Nora stared at it.
“You open it.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because it's your decision.”
She looked at him.
“And yours.”
“Your body. Your child.”
Nora swallowed.
“Our truth.”
Matteo's eyes met hers.
She opened the envelope.
Probability of biological paternity:
99.9987%.
Nora sat down.
Matteo did not move.
John closed his eyes.
Nora looked at Matteo.
“You're Lily's father.”
“Yes.”
Neither knew what to say.
Finally Matteo asked:
“Are you afraid?”
“Yes.”
“Of me?”
Nora considered it.
“No.”
That answer affected him more than she expected.
“I'm afraid of what happens now.”
“We don't have to decide everything today.”
“You're a Moretti.”
“So are you.”
She stared.
He smiled faintly.
“Technically.”
“That's not helping.”
“Sorry.”
Nora looked at the paper again.
“I spent months thinking Lily had been abandoned.”
Matteo's voice softened.
“She wasn't.”
“You didn't know she existed.”
“I know now.”
Nora looked up.
“What do you want?”
His answer came immediately.
“To be her father.”
Nora's throat tightened.
“And me?”
Matteo paused.
“I don't know what I'm allowed to want from you.”
The honesty surprised her.
“Good answer.”
“Was there a wrong one?”
“Several.”
He smiled.
Then John's phone rang.
They turned.
It was a new phone.
Secure.
Only three people had the number.
Matteo answered.
His expression changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then stood.
“When?”
Nora felt fear return.
“What happened?”
Matteo ended the call.
“Brody escaped transport.”
Nora's blood ran cold.
“How?”
“Vehicle collision.”
“Was it Victor?”
“Victor is still in custody.”
“Then who helped him?”
John suddenly looked alarmed.
He rolled toward his desk.
“Dad?”
John pulled open a drawer.
Empty.
His face went white.
“What?”
John struggled to speak.
“Book.”
“What book?”
“Black.”
Matteo frowned.
John pointed at the empty drawer.
“Ledger.”
Nora remembered the photographs.
The files.
“What was in it?”
John looked at her.
“Names.”
“Whose names?”
“Everyone.”
Matteo understood.
“A physical backup.”
John nodded.
“And it's gone.”
Another nod.
Matteo checked the security feed.
One camera had been disabled.
Only one.
The camera outside Nora's apartment.
Matteo ran.
Nora followed despite his order to stay.
Her door was open.
Inside, nothing appeared disturbed.
Then Nora saw something on the bed.
A black ledger.
Matteo approached slowly.
“Don't touch it.”
A folded note rested on top.
Nora read it.
I'M SORRY.
I FOUND OUT WHY VICTOR REALLY CHOSE YOU.
ASK JOHN ABOUT THE SECOND BABY.
Nora looked at her grandfather.
John had followed them.
His face had gone completely pale.
“What second baby?”
John stared at the note.
Then at Nora.
And for the first time since his voice returned, he refused to say a single word.
Someone knocked on the apartment door.
Three slow knocks.
May you like
A woman's voice came from the other side.
“Nora Bennett? My mother told me you were my sister.”
