Chapter 2 - THE SECRET SHE CARRIED|
Dr. Karen Whitmore looked at me with the expression of a woman who had delivered terrible news often enough to recognize when a man was about to lose control.
“Mr. Marchetti, I need you to understand that your ex-wife is in a serious condition.”
I stepped closer.
“Tell me exactly what happened.”
“She suffered blunt-force trauma to the left side of her head, a concussion, and a small amount of bleeding that we're monitoring closely.”
“Was she in a car accident?”
The doctor hesitated.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Elena was found unconscious near the service entrance of a parking garage on West Randolph Street.”
Something cold moved through my chest.
“Found by whom?”
“A security guard discovered her shortly before nine tonight and called an ambulance.”
“Was she robbed?”
“Her purse was missing, but I can't determine whether the injury resulted from an accident or an assault.”
I knew Chicago better than most men knew their own homes.
I knew its alleys, its forgotten warehouses, its underground parking garages, and the places where people disappeared when they trusted the wrong person.
And I knew that a pregnant woman didn't usually end up unconscious beside a parking garage by coincidence.
“Can I see her?”
“She's still undergoing evaluation, but we'll move her to a private room as soon as it's medically appropriate.”
“Has she woken up?”
“Briefly.”
My entire body stiffened.
“What did she say?”
Dr. Whitmore glanced toward the emergency department.
“She seemed disoriented and repeatedly asked whether someone had found her phone.”
“That was all?”
The physician pressed her lips together.
“There was something else.”
I waited.
“She asked us not to call her husband.”
For several seconds, I couldn't breathe.
Then the doctor continued.
“But when the nurse asked whom she wanted contacted instead, she said your name.”
I closed my eyes.
Even unconscious, frightened, and hurt, Elena had remembered me.
The man who'd broken her heart.
The man who'd convinced her that six years of marriage had meant absolutely nothing.
Ava appeared beside me.
“Nico, let me talk to the doctor.”
I hadn't noticed her entering the hospital.
My sister was thirty-two, with the same dark hair and stubborn Marchetti eyes I'd inherited from our father.
Unlike me, she'd spent her adult life trying to build something good with our family's money.
She operated a nonprofit providing legal and medical assistance to women escaping abusive relationships.
Elena had helped her establish it.
They'd been close once.
Until the divorce.
“Karen,” Ava said, recognizing the physician, “I'm Elena's former sister-in-law.”
Dr. Whitmore nodded.
“Ava, I know this is difficult, but I need you both to remain calm.”
“Is the pregnancy in danger?”
“The fetal heartbeat is reassuring, but Elena needs monitoring because of her injuries and the circumstances surrounding them.”
I caught one word immediately.
“Circumstances?”
The doctor looked between us.
“There are bruises on her upper arm that may be several days old.”
My blood turned to ice.
“Someone has been hurting her?”
“I can't make that determination from the bruises alone.”
“But it's possible?”
“Yes.”
Ava gripped my sleeve.
“Nico.”
I barely heard her.
In my world, men paid fortunes to learn who had betrayed them.
I had paid nothing to learn that someone might have put their hands on my pregnant ex-wife.
And for the first time in years, I was terrified of what I might do if I found them.
My phone vibrated.
It was Dante Russo, my head of security.
“Boss, we've located the garage.”
“Tell me.”
“There are cameras covering both entrances, but the building's security company says the footage from eight to nine tonight is missing.”
My jaw tightened.
“Missing?”
“Someone accessed the recording system remotely and deleted forty-seven minutes.”
Forty-seven minutes.
Someone had known exactly when Elena would be there.
“Find out who touched that system.”
“Already working on it.”
“Dante.”
“Yes, boss?”
“Whatever you find, nobody makes a move without my permission.”
He went quiet.
That instruction surprised him.
A year ago, it would have surprised me too.
But Elena was lying in a hospital bed carrying my child, and the last thing she needed was another reminder of the monster she'd married.
I ended the call.
Ava studied my face.
“You think this was deliberate.”
“I think someone erased the cameras for a reason.”
“Then call the police.”
“I intend to.”
Her expression softened slightly.
“You're different.”
“No,” I answered.
“I'm finally beginning to understand what being the same has cost me.”
An hour passed before a nurse led us toward the private medical unit.
I entered Elena's room alone.
The first thing I noticed was how small she looked beneath the white hospital blankets.
The second was the bandage near her temple.
The third was her stomach.
Sixteen weeks.
A gentle curve beneath the hospital gown.
Our baby.
Elena had always been beautiful, but the woman lying before me looked exhausted in a way I had never seen during our marriage.
Her once-bright skin was pale.
Her dark eyelashes rested against bruised shadows.
There was an IV attached to her wrist.
And on the hand resting beside her pillow was a thin silver band.
I recognized it immediately.
It was her wedding ring.
Not the diamond engagement ring I'd given her in Paris.
Not the expensive anniversary jewelry she'd returned through our attorneys.
The plain silver ring we'd exchanged in a tiny courthouse six years earlier, before the lavish ceremony my family demanded.
I approached the bed slowly.
“Elena.”
Her eyelids didn't move.
I pulled a chair beside her and sat.
For a long moment, I could only stare at her.
Then I reached toward her hand.
I stopped before touching it.
I had no right.
That was the truth no amount of money could change.
Six years earlier, Elena Brooks had married me because she believed there was goodness beneath my reputation.
Three months earlier, I had deliberately convinced her that goodness had never existed.
And now she was carrying a child who had done nothing to deserve the consequences.
“I didn't know,” I whispered.
My voice sounded unfamiliar.
“I swear to God, Elena, I didn't know about the baby.”
A tear slid from the corner of her closed eye.
I leaned forward.
“Elena?”
Her lips moved.
At first, I couldn't hear her.
Then she whispered something that made my heart stop.
“Don't let him take her.”
I froze.
“Elena, who?”
Her breathing quickened.
“Please.”
I pressed the nurse call button.
“Elena, look at me.”
Her eyes opened suddenly.
For one impossible second, they focused directly on mine.
“Nico?”
“I'm here.”
Her face crumpled.
“You came?”
“Of course I came.”
She looked down toward her stomach.
Then back at me.
“The baby—”
“The doctor says the heartbeat is stable.”
She began crying.
Relief washed over her expression so intensely that I felt ashamed of every second she'd spent facing this alone.
I moved my hand closer.
“Can I touch you?”
She didn't answer.
But she didn't pull away when I gently covered her fingers with mine.
“Who hurt you, Elena?”
Her gaze darted toward the door.
“You shouldn't be here.”
“Why?”
“Because they said—”
Her voice broke.
“Who said?”
She gripped my wrist.
The strength in her fingers startled me.
“Nico, you have to listen.”
“I'm listening.”
“They know about the baby.”
My entire body went still.
“Who knows?”
She struggled to breathe evenly.
“I thought if I stayed away from you, they'd leave us alone.”
“Elena, who threatened you?”
Her eyes filled with terror.
Then she whispered five words I would never forget.
“The divorce didn't protect us.”
Before I could respond, the monitors began sounding.
Elena's eyes rolled shut.
A nurse rushed into the room, followed by Dr. Whitmore.
“Mr. Marchetti, please step outside.”
I stood frozen.
“What's happening?”
“Her heart rate has increased, and we need to reassess her.”
I backed toward the doorway.
The last thing I saw was Elena's hand falling away from mine.
Outside, Ava caught me before I could reach the wall.
“Nico?”
I looked at my sister.
And finally, I told her the truth I'd kept buried for three months.
“I didn't divorce Elena because I stopped loving her.”
Ava stared.
“Then why?”
I could barely force the words out.
May you like
“Because someone promised to kill her if I didn't.”
And the moment I said it, I understood that the person who had destroyed my marriage had never intended to keep that promise.
