Chapter 2 - The Heir Nobody Was Supposed to Know About
The hospital room was too quiet.
Dominic hated quiet.
Quiet was where bad news lived.
He stood beside the window at 2:17 in the morning while Norah slept beneath a thin blanket. Machines hummed beside her bed. Beyond the glass, Chicago glittered as though nothing important had happened.
A doctor had used phrases Dominic despised.
Uterine irritability.
Dehydration.
Stress.
Observation.
But the sentence he had needed came eventually.
The baby was alive.
Healthy.
Norah was safe.
For now.
Dominic turned toward the bed.
Without the sweaters, the secret seemed impossible to miss.
Her stomach curved unmistakably beneath the blanket.
His child.
He had a child growing ten feet away from him.
The realization was terrifying.
Dominic already had Lily.
But Lily had come from a marriage arranged between families that had mistaken loyalty for affection. Lily’s mother, Sofia, had died when Lily was eighteen months old.
Dominic had loved Sofia in the careful way two lonely people could love one another.
Norah had been different.
That night in the safe room had been different.
He had spent months pretending otherwise.
The door opened.
Dr. Bennett entered.
“She needs less stress.”
Dominic almost laughed.
“Then she picked the wrong house.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
The doctor studied him.
“Pregnancy is not an enemy you can intimidate.”
Dominic looked at Norah.
“What does she need?”
“Rest. Regular meals. Prenatal care. And autonomy.”
His eyes shifted back.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning she is my patient. Decisions about her medical care belong to her.”
Dominic understood the warning.
He disliked it.
But he nodded.
When Norah woke, sunlight was touching the windows.
Dominic sat in the corner.
“You’re still here?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He stared at her.
“I discovered nine hours ago that I’m going to have another child.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“It does to me.”
Norah looked toward the window.
“The baby?”
“Fine.”
Her shoulders relaxed.
Dominic saw the relief move through her entire body.
“Doctor says you need rest.”
“I heard.”
“You’re moving upstairs.”
Her eyes immediately sharpened.
“No.”
“There’s a bedroom beside Lily’s.”
“No.”
“It’s closer to—”
“Dominic.”
He stopped.
Norah pushed herself upright.
“You don’t get to turn my pregnancy into another security operation.”
“I’m trying to help.”
“You’re issuing orders.”
“That is how I help.”
“Then learn another way.”
Nobody spoke to Dominic Russo like that.
Nobody except Norah.
He rubbed his jaw.
“What do you want?”
The question surprised both of them.
Norah hesitated.
“I want my room.”
“Fine.”
“I want to choose my doctor.”
“Fine.”
“No guards following me into appointments.”
His expression darkened.
“Outside the building.”
“Across the street.”
“Entrance.”
“Parking lot.”
They stared at each other.
“Across the street,” Dominic conceded.
Norah almost smiled.
Almost.
“And nobody knows the baby is yours.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“That may be impossible.”
“Why?”
He didn't answer immediately.
His phone had vibrated six times since dawn.
Something was wrong.
Before he could speak, the door opened.
Marco Bellini, Dominic’s security chief, entered.
His face told Dominic everything.
“What?”
Marco glanced at Norah.
“Say it.”
“A photograph circulated overnight.”
Dominic stood.
“What photograph?”
Marco held out his phone.
Dominic looked.
The ultrasound.
The same ultrasound from the foyer.
A message accompanied it.
Dominic Russo’s second heir arrives this summer.
Norah saw his face.
“What happened?”
Dominic handed her the phone.
She read it.
Her skin lost its color.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said your house was secure.”
“It is.”
“Then somebody inside your secure house did this.”
Dominic turned to Marco.
“Who had access?”
“Family. Senior staff. Security.”
“Lock the compound down.”
Norah threw back the blanket.
“No.”
Dominic turned.
“I’m leaving.”
“You’re not.”
“Watch me.”
“Norah, somebody just announced my unborn child to people who would use that information against me.”
“And your solution is to imprison me?”
“My solution is keeping you alive.”
“That’s what you call everything.”
She stood.
The monitor wire pulled loose.
A nurse hurried inside.
Norah ignored her.
“Security. Protection. Protocol. But it always means the same thing. You decide, everyone obeys.”
Dominic lowered his voice.
“You have no idea what this means.”
“Then explain it.”
He looked at her.
“Ten years ago, my father was murdered because somebody learned where my younger brother slept.”
Norah went still.
Dominic rarely spoke about his family.
“The people who fight men like me don’t always attack us,” he continued. “They attack whatever proves we’re human.”
His eyes dropped toward her stomach.
“You just became proof.”
Norah’s anger weakened.
Not disappeared.
But changed.
“Who would do this?”
“I intend to find out.”
His phone rang.
Unknown number.
Dominic answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then a distorted voice said, “Congratulations.”
Dominic’s expression froze.
“Who is this?”
“Twenty-one weeks. That gives us time.”
The line disconnected.
Dominic stared at the phone.
Norah whispered, “Time for what?”
Before he could answer, Marco’s phone buzzed.
He read the security alert.
Then looked up.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“Someone left something outside the estate gate.”
“What?”
Marco swallowed.
“A baby carriage.”
Dominic’s eyes became cold.
“Anything inside?”
Marco hesitated.
“A note.”
He showed them the photograph.
The carriage was empty.
Across its white blanket lay a black envelope.
Three words were written across it.
HEIRS CAN DISAPPEAR.
Dominic looked at Norah.
May you like
For once, she did not argue when he said:
“We’re going home.”
