Chapter 4 - The Baby Who Changed Everything
Lorenzo ordered the estate sealed before noon.
No employee could leave without being questioned. Every vehicle was searched, every phone reviewed under legal authorization, and every outside visitor turned away.
His men called it a security lockdown.
Nora called it a nightmare.
She had never been inside a house where armed guards stood at every entrance. Now she found herself escorted between the kitchen, her small staff bedroom, and Giovanni's room as though she were carrying something more valuable than her own life.
Perhaps she was.
Lorenzo had discovered that the photograph had been taken from a locked cabinet in Giovanni's private study.
Only three people had keys.
Giovanni.
Lorenzo.
And Vincent.
The discovery raised a question nobody could answer.
If Vincent was alive, how had he entered the estate?
That afternoon, Lorenzo summoned Nora to the study.
She arrived with her hands clasped over her belly.
"Am I in trouble?"
He looked up immediately.
"No."
"You keep asking me questions. Your men follow me everywhere. Mrs. Gable said I'd be thrown out if I caused problems."
"Mrs. Gable is no longer in charge of anything."
Nora remained standing.
Lorenzo gestured toward a chair.
"Sit down."
She obeyed cautiously.
"I need to understand what happened during the past three months. Every unusual thing you noticed about my father. Every visitor. Every change in his behavior."
Nora described the cold room, the meals, the medication cups, and the occasions when Giovanni appeared frightened after certain employees entered.
She also told him about the nights when the old man seemed to struggle to breathe after receiving his medicine.
Lorenzo's expression darkened.
"Why didn't you report it?"
"To whom?"
The question silenced him.
Nora looked at the enormous desk, the polished furniture, and the armed guard outside.
"Everyone here was afraid of Mrs. Gable. I was afraid of losing my job. I had nowhere to go, and my baby needed somewhere warm to sleep."
Lorenzo looked away.
For years, he had assumed that money made the estate safe.
He was beginning to understand that money had merely made cruelty easier to conceal.
"I'm sorry," he said.
Nora stared at him.
"What?"
"I'm sorry my father was treated that way in my house."
It was the first apology she had received since arriving at the estate.
She looked down, struggling to keep her voice steady.
"Thank you."
Before Lorenzo could respond, his security chief rushed inside.
"Boss, we have a problem."
He placed a tablet on the desk.
The screen showed footage from an exterior camera. A black sedan was parked near the northern service gate at 2:17 that morning.
A man in a dark coat had approached the fence.
He hadn't entered.
He had simply stood there, facing the house.
Then he had raised his head toward the camera.
Lorenzo froze.
The face was older, thinner, and scarred near the temple.
But he recognized it.
"Vincent."
His uncle had been alive all along.
That evening, Nora experienced the first sharp cramp.
She was carrying a basket of folded towels when pain tightened across her abdomen. She stopped, gripped the railing, and tried to breathe through it.
A second pain followed.
Then a third.
She sank onto the nearest bench.
A maid found her and shouted for help.
Within minutes, Lorenzo was beside her, his face drained of color.
"Get the car!"
Nora grabbed his sleeve.
"Please. My baby."
"You're going to the hospital."
"What if something happens?"
Lorenzo crouched in front of her.
"Look at me."
She forced herself to meet his eyes.
"We're getting you help. You and your daughter are going to be taken care of. Do you understand?"
Nora nodded, tears slipping down her cheeks.
At the hospital, the doctors discovered that dehydration and physical exhaustion had triggered contractions. The baby was alive, but Nora needed monitoring and complete rest.
Lorenzo remained in the waiting room long after the doctor told him there was nothing more he could do.
He had ordered men killed for threatening his family.
He had destroyed businesses over a single betrayal.
Yet he couldn't protect a six-month-old child from the ordinary fragility of the human body.
When Nora finally woke, he was sitting beside the window.
"You stayed," she whispered.
He looked at her.
"Of course."
She hesitated.
"Why?"
Lorenzo had no easy answer.
Then he heard Giovanni's voice in his memory, weak but unmistakable.
Son.
He looked at Nora's belly.
"Because someone should have stayed with my father."
A nurse entered carrying an envelope.
"This was delivered for Mr. Moretti. The sender said it was urgent."
Lorenzo opened it.
Inside was a photograph of Nora sleeping in her hospital bed.
May you like
On the back, a message had been written in black ink.
YOUR FATHER'S WEAKNESS WAS MERCY. YOURS WILL BE THE SAME.
