Chapter 7 - The Secret Nora Never Knew
Nora woke in an abandoned lakeside lodge with her wrists tied.
Brody sat opposite her.
She stared at him.
“You kidnapped a pregnant woman.”
“I saved you.”
“From what?”
“Dante.”
Nora almost laughed.
“You really are your father's son.”
Brody flinched.
That told her something.
“You're afraid of him.”
Brody stood.
“My father owns everyone.”
“No. He scares everyone. There's a difference.”
The door opened.
Victor Hale entered.
He was sixty, elegant, silver-haired and composed.
Nora understood immediately why people had trusted him.
He looked like someone's respected banker.
Not a murderer.
“Nora.”
“Don't say my name.”
Victor smiled.
“You sound like your mother.”
Nora froze.
“My mother?”
Victor sat.
“Did you really believe your employment at the Moretti estate was coincidence?”
Nora's stomach tightened.
Victor explained.
Nora's mother, Rebecca Bennett, had worked for Alessandro Moretti twenty-four years earlier.
Not as a maid.
As an accountant.
She had discovered irregular transfers connected to Victor.
Rebecca disappeared from New York soon afterward and raised Nora in Pennsylvania.
She died when Nora was seventeen without explaining why she had left.
Victor had kept track of her daughter.
Years later, Brody had been encouraged to meet Nora.
The relationship had never been accidental.
Brody looked sick.
“You told me she was just supposed to trust me.”
Nora stared at him.
“You knew?”
“Not at first.”
“How long?”
He couldn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Victor had used Brody to access documents Rebecca might have left behind.
The fraudulent debt had been intended to force Nora into desperation.
Mrs. Gable's job offer had been arranged.
Victor wanted Nora inside the Moretti estate because he believed John might react to Rebecca's daughter.
And he had.
What Victor had not predicted was kindness.
He expected Nora to observe John.
Instead, she cared for him.
And John began recovering.
“You destroyed your own plan,” Nora whispered.
Victor's smile disappeared.
“Where is Rebecca's ledger?”
“I don't know.”
“Your mother kept evidence.”
“She left me recipes and an overdue electric bill.”
Victor leaned forward.
“Think harder.”
Outside, Dante and Marco were already moving.
The photograph left behind contained a clue Victor hadn't noticed.
The glass reflected a distinctive lakeside clock tower.
There was only one abandoned Hale property near it.
Dante reached the lodge shortly before dawn.
Inside, Brody's courage finally broke.
Victor ordered him to take Nora upstairs.
Instead, Brody whispered, “Run when I open the door.”
Nora stared at him.
“Why?”
His eyes dropped to her stomach.
“Because whatever else I've done, that's my daughter.”
It was the first decent thing he had done in months.
It almost came too late.
Victor realized the betrayal.
He struck Brody and grabbed Nora.
Then headlights flooded the windows.
Dante.
Everything happened quickly.
Doors crashed open.
Marco's men entered.
Victor dragged Nora toward the rear exit.
Nora fought.
A gunshot cracked through the lodge.
She screamed.
Brody fell.
Victor ran.
Dante reached Nora first.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
Her knees buckled.
He caught her.
“The baby—”
A sharp pain crossed her abdomen.
Then another.
Dante's face drained.
“Nora?”
“Something's wrong.”
Twenty minutes later, she was being rushed toward a hospital.
Dante sat beside her in the ambulance holding her hand.
“Stay with me.”
“I'm not dying.”
“Then stop looking like you're trying.”
Despite the pain, she laughed.
At the hospital, doctors managed to stop the premature contractions.
Lily was safe.
Nora was safe.
Brody survived the gunshot.
Victor escaped.
Dante sat beside Nora's bed until sunrise.
When she woke, his hand was still around hers.
“You stayed.”
He looked almost offended.
“Where else would I go?”
Nora's eyes filled.
Nobody had stayed in a very long time.
Dante leaned closer.
“I need you to understand something.”
“What?”
“You were never leverage to me.”
She watched him.
“When I thought I'd lost you tonight, I didn't care about Victor. I didn't care about the ledger. I didn't care about the Moretti name.”
His thumb brushed her knuckles.
“I cared about you.”
Nora whispered, “Dante...”
He stopped.
Not because he changed his mind.
Because John Moretti was being wheeled into the room.
May you like
The old man held an envelope.
And written across the front was Rebecca Bennett's name.
