Chapter 8 - Leo's PhotographI found the photograph accidentally.
It was inside an old box Dominic had brought from Sofia's belongings.
I opened it.
My breath stopped.
It was Leo.
My son.
Four years earlier.
Standing in a hospital nursery.
I couldn't breathe.
"Where did you get this?"
Dominic came into the room.
He looked at the photograph.
Then at me.
"I didn't know."
"What is this?"
He sat down.
"The hospital where Sofia died treated your son."
I stared.
"No."
He nodded.
"Leo's medical records were part of the same investigation."
I shook my head.
"That's impossible."
Then the nurse arrived.
She had been helping with the investigation.
She saw the photograph.
And began crying.
"I remember him."
My knees weakened.
"What?"
"Your son."
She told me the truth.
Leo's heart condition had been correctly diagnosed.
But someone had altered his medication order.
The mistake wasn't random.
It was part of a broader scheme involving the hospital.
Sofia had discovered it.
She had planned to expose them.
That's why she became a target.
I couldn't speak.
For four years, I had believed Leo's death was a tragedy.
Now I knew someone had caused it.
I broke down.
Dominic held me.
Not as a mafia boss.
Not as a husband.
Just as a man holding the woman he loved while she grieved.
"I'm sorry."
I cried against his chest.
"I thought it was my fault."
"It wasn't."
"I left nursing."
"You survived."
The next weeks were painful.
The investigation reopened.
Several doctors were arrested.
Records were recovered.
My son's name was cleared.
But there was something else.
Sofia had kept a letter for me.
She had never met me.
Yet she had written:
To the mother who will someday learn the truth about her son: don't let grief convince you that love ended with him.
I read it three times.
Then I finally understood why Dominic had entered my life.
Not because fate magically repaired everything.
Because two broken people had found each other at the exact moment they both needed someone.
One evening, I stood beside Adrian's crib.
Dominic came behind me.
"He has your eyes," I said.
"No."
He smiled.
"Yours."
I turned.
"What about Amelia?"
"She has your stubbornness."
I laughed.
"That's dangerous."
"Very."
He took my hand.
"Emma."
"Yes?"
"Marry me."
I stared.
"You don't have to."
"I know."
"You don't owe me."
"I know."
"Then why?"
He looked at the children.
"Because you walked toward danger when everyone else walked away."
He looked at me.
"You saved my son."
"You saved me too."
He shook his head.
"I didn't."
"Yes, you did."
He smiled.
"Then we'll save each other for the rest of our lives."
I said yes.
But our happiness wasn't complete yet.
Because someone from Dominic's past had escaped.
May you like
And he wasn't interested in money.
He wanted revenge.
