Chapter 3 - The Woman Who Knew Too Much
Lorenzo caught Mrs. Gable's wrist before her fingers touched the syringe.
“What is that?”
“His prescribed medication.”
“Then you won't mind telling me the prescribing physician.”
She hesitated. That was enough.
He ordered his security chief, Marco Bellini, to secure the tray, separate the household staff, and preserve every camera recording. Then he carried Nora downstairs while Marco called emergency services.
Nora kept apologizing. She apologized for staining his coat, for making a scene, for not finishing Giovanni's lunch. Lorenzo had faced gunfire without flinching. Hearing a frightened woman apologize for needing medical help left him speechless.
At the hospital, the obstetrician found Nora severely dehydrated and exhausted, with contractions that needed urgent monitoring. Her baby still had a heartbeat. The doctor explained that labor might be delayed with treatment, but no one could promise the pregnancy would continue safely.
“You are not going back to lifting furniture,” the doctor told her.
Nora stared at the blanket over her knees. “I can't afford to stop working.”
Lorenzo, standing in the doorway, heard her.
“You won't need to work while you recover,” he said.
She stiffened. “I don't want charity.”
“Then consider it overdue wages and compensation for unsafe conditions in my home.”
“That doesn't make it your fault.”
“It was my house.”
The distinction mattered to him. For years he had received polished reports describing his father's excellent care. He had signed invoices, funded specialists, and believed he was protecting Giovanni by keeping him away from his dangerous business. He had mistaken money for attention.
Nora looked up. “He waits for you.”
The words landed harder than an accusation.
Meanwhile, at the estate, Marco found the camera covering room 4B had been disconnected eighteen months earlier. Caregiver invoices showed visits by nurses no employee remembered seeing. Medication logs carried Giovanni's signature, though his hands had been immobile for years.
A young kitchen assistant named Emily approached Marco after midnight.
“I saw Mrs. Gable changing the labels on his medicine,” she whispered. “She said it was to protect Mr. Moretti from a dosage error.”
“Why didn't you report it?”
“She told me my mother would lose her nursing-home bed.”
Marco arranged immediate protection for Emily's mother. Then he photographed the medication cabinet and sent the evidence to Lorenzo.
One label belonged to a sedative that had never appeared in Giovanni's approved treatment plan.
Lorenzo called the neurologist named on the forged orders. The doctor had retired to Arizona two years earlier and denied authorizing any of them.
Before sunrise, Mrs. Gable vanished from her quarters. Her car remained in the garage. Her passport and phone were gone.
Marco found a burner phone hidden behind the linen closet. Its last outgoing message read: HE IS AWAKE. THE GIRL TOLD HIM.
The reply arrived while Marco was holding it.
THEN REMOVE THE SON BEFORE HE LEARNS WHAT HIS FATHER SIGNED.
At the hospital, Nora woke to the sound of a man arguing in the hallway.
“I have a right to see her,” he shouted.
May you like
She knew that voice.
Brody had found her.
