Chapter 2 - THE HOSPITAL VISITOR
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The crystal glass shattered against the marble floor, sending fine droplets of vintage champagne splashing across the hem of Vanessa’s red gown.
Not a single person among the twenty guests seated at the long table moved to pick up the pieces.
The silence inside the grand dining hall was so absolute you could hear the rain tapping softly against the tall leaded windows.
Dominic Moretti did not take his eyes off his fiancée.
His tall, powerful frame remained motionless between the banquet table and the servants’ entrance, but the air around him grew ice-cold.
The little carved horse rested securely in the palm of his left hand.
Noah’s tiny fingers tightened against the cotton of my apron, his small cheek pressed hard against my thigh.
“Tell me who went with her, Claire,” Dominic commanded.
His voice was barely above a whisper, yet it carried an undeniable, lethal weight that echoed off the gilded ceiling.
Vanessa took a frantic step backward, her diamond bracelet catching on the embroidered silk runner of the side credenza.
“Dominic, this is an absurd accusation from a girl trying to blackmail your family!” she cried out, her voice shrill and trembling.
“She was fired from her previous two jobs! She’s desperate for money!”
I knelt down, resting my hands gently on Noah’s trembling shoulders so he wouldn't see the terror in my eyes.
Five years of agony, hunger, and loneliness rose in my throat like bile.
“She didn't come alone, Dominic,” I said, looking directly up at the man I had spent half a decade grieving.
“She came with Dr. Vincent Harris and your father’s head of security.”
Dominic’s breath hitched, the muscle along his sharp jawline locking into stone.
“Dr. Harris died two years ago,” Dominic muttered, his eyes narrowing into razor-sharp slits.
“Yes,” I answered, feeling the tears finally break over my eyelashes.
“And five years ago, he walked into the charity ward at St. Jude’s Hospital while I was in active labor.”
“I was twenty-one years old, alone, and bleeding.”
“I was begging the nurses to call your phone number.”
“And then the door opened, and Vanessa Bellini walked into my room wearing a designer coat and holding an envelope of cash.”
Several elderly matriarchs at the table covered their mouths in horror.
Vanessa’s chest heaved in rapid, shallow breaths as her face drained of every drop of color.
“She told me that you had signed an agreement to marry her that very morning,” I continued, my voice gaining strength with every syllable.
“She said that an illegitimate child from a destitute orphan would destroy your claim to the Moretti family seat.”
“And then Dr. Harris told me that if I didn't sign the legal waiver surrendering my parental claims, you would have my child declared stillborn and take him anyway.”
Noah looked up at my face, his small hand reaching up to wipe a stray tear from my cheek.
“Don't cry, Mommy,” the little boy whispered softly into the quiet room.
Dominic’s eyes moved down to the child, his chest rising and falling in violent, silent rage.
“And the horse?” Dominic asked, his voice shaking with a tremor nobody in the city of Chicago had ever heard before.
“Where did Noah get the horse?”
I swallowed the bitter lump in my throat.
“Before your father had me escorted to the train station, your housekeeper, Rosa, found me crying in the alley behind the hospital.”
“She pressed that wooden horse into my pocket.”
“She told me you had stayed awake three nights carving it in the carriage house before your father sent you to New York.”
“She told me you had left it on your desk with a note for me that was burned before I could ever read it.”
Dominic’s hand closed around the small wooden toy with enough force to turn his knuckles pure white.
He turned his dark, predatory gaze slowly toward Vanessa.
“Where is the note I left for Claire five years ago, Vanessa?”
Vanessa backed away until her shoulders struck the heavy mahogany frame of the double doors.
“Dominic, your father gave the orders!” she sobbed, breaking down into hysterical tears.
“I only did what Don Roberto told me to do!”
Dominic took one slow, deliberate step toward her.
May you like
“My father has been in his grave for three years, Vanessa.”
“And you have been sleeping in his house, planning a wedding, knowing my son was out on the streets.”
