Chapter 9 - LILY
The helicopter arrived twenty-eight minutes later.
Lorenzo traveled with Nora.
He refused to release her hand.
At the hospital, doctors rushed her into surgery.
Lily’s heartbeat was dropping.
Nora was only twenty-seven weeks pregnant.
Lorenzo stood outside the operating room wearing Nora’s blood on his shirt.
Giovanni arrived two hours later in a medical transport.
The old man rolled beside his son.
Lorenzo looked at him.
“I can't lose them.”
Giovanni took his hand.
For once, there was no empire.
No Mafia.
No money.
Just a father holding his terrified son.
At 4:17 a.m., a doctor appeared.
“Mr. Moretti?”
Lorenzo stood.
“Nora is stable.”
“And Lily?”
The doctor smiled.
“Two pounds, six ounces. She’s extremely premature, but she’s breathing.”
Lorenzo covered his face.
Giovanni cried openly.
Lily spent six weeks in neonatal intensive care.
Lorenzo visited every day.
He learned how to slide his hand through the incubator opening.
How to change impossibly tiny diapers.
How to recognize oxygen saturation numbers.
How to hold Lily against his chest during kangaroo care.
The nurses initially feared him.
Within two weeks, they were ordering him around.
“Mr. Moretti, wash your hands.”
“I did.”
“Again.”
He obeyed.
Nora laughed from her hospital chair.
The ruthless Lorenzo Moretti had finally met people he couldn't intimidate.
NICU nurses.
One evening, Nora found him asleep beside Lily’s incubator.
His finger rested inside.
Lily’s tiny hand wrapped around it.
Nora’s heart broke in the gentlest way.
She had spent months believing Lily would grow up without a father.
Yet here was a man who owed her child nothing and had somehow begun loving her anyway.
When Lorenzo woke, Nora was watching.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s never true when a woman says it.”
She smiled.
“You love her.”
His expression became serious.
“Yes.”
The answer frightened Nora.
“Lorenzo…”
“I know she isn't mine.”
“I wasn't going to say that.”
“I need you to hear something anyway.”
He moved closer.
“I will never pretend Brody doesn't exist. One day Lily deserves to know where she came from.”
Nora listened.
“But biology is not the only way a man becomes a father.”
Her eyes filled.
Lorenzo touched Lily’s tiny hand.
“I don't know what happens between you and me.”
Nora’s heart sank.
Then he continued.
“But whatever happens, if you'll let me, I want to be part of her life.”
Nora cried.
“You really need to stop making pregnant women cry.”
“You’re technically not pregnant anymore.”
She laughed through tears.
“That was terrible.”
“I panicked.”
She kissed him.
This time there was no hesitation.
Weeks later, Brody requested to see Nora.
He was recovering under federal protection after agreeing to testify against Elias.
Nora went alone.
He looked older.
“I heard Lily survived.”
“She did.”
“Can I see a picture?”
Nora hesitated.
Then showed him.
Brody cried.
“She looks like you.”
“She has your ears.”
He laughed weakly.
“Poor kid.”
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then Brody said, “I’m giving up parental rights.”
Nora looked at him.
“You don't have to.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because for once, I want to do something that isn't about what I want.”
He swallowed.
“I’m not ready to be her father.”
Nora appreciated the truth.
“But someday, if she wants to know me…”
“I won't lie to her.”
“Thank you.”
Nora stood.
Brody looked at her one final time.
“Is he good to you?”
She knew who he meant.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
He smiled sadly.
“Then make him work for it.”
Nora laughed.
“I intend to.”
Three months later, Lily came home.
Not to Nora’s tiny rented apartment.
To the Moretti estate.
But the mansion had changed.
Mrs. Gable and every staff member involved in Giovanni’s abuse had been dismissed and prosecuted where evidence supported criminal charges.
Giovanni’s room moved downstairs beside the garden.
The curtains stayed open.
Children from a local rehabilitation center visited every Friday through a foundation he established for stroke patients and neglected seniors.
Nora ran it.
Not as a maid.
As director.
On Lily’s first night home, Lorenzo stood beside her crib.
Nora approached behind him.
“You’re staring.”
“I’m checking whether she’s breathing.”
“You checked thirty seconds ago.”
“A lot can happen.”
Nora smiled.
“You’re going to be unbearable.”
“Yes.”
He turned toward her.
Then his expression became strangely nervous.
Nora narrowed her eyes.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“Lorenzo.”
He reached into his pocket.
Nora immediately stepped backward.
“No.”
His face fell.
“I haven't even—”
“You are not proposing to me.”
“Why?”
“Because four months ago I was scrubbing your floors.”
“So?”
“Because Lily just came home.”
“So?”
“Because I love you.”
Both froze.
Nora had not meant to say it like that.
Lorenzo stared.
“What?”
She covered her face.
“Oh, God.”
He pulled her hands away.
“Say it again.”
“No.”
“Nora.”
“No.”
He kissed her.
When he finally pulled back, he whispered:
“I love you too.”
Neither noticed Giovanni in the doorway.
Until his communication tablet spoke in its mechanical voice.
“ABOUT TIME.”
Nora burst out laughing.
But Giovanni had one final secret.
The next morning, he summoned Lorenzo and Nora to his study.
On the desk sat a sealed legal document.
Across the front were the words:
THE MORETTI SUCCESSION TRUST.
May you like
And beneath them:
Beneficiary: Lily Margaret Hale.
