Chapter 2 - Someone Wanted Leo to Die
The nurse was sitting in my downstairs office when I entered.
Her name was Elaine Porter.
Forty-six years old.
Fifteen years of neonatal nursing experience.
Excellent references.
She had been personally recommended by one of Manhattan’s most expensive private medical agencies.
Now she sat between two of my security men with her hands trembling.
Marco placed the vial on my desk.
“What is it?”
Elaine shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
I sat opposite her.
“Wrong answer.”
“I swear.”
“You injected it into my son’s feeding bag.”
“No.”
Marco turned a laptop toward her.
The footage played.
Elaine watched herself remove the vial.
She closed her eyes.
I leaned forward.
“Try again.”
“They threatened my family.”
“Who?”
“I never saw him.”
“Name.”
“I don’t know!”
Her voice broke.
“They contacted me through encrypted messages. They knew where my daughter went to college. They had photographs of my husband leaving work.”
“What were your instructions?”
“Add the liquid to Leo’s feeds.”
“What was it?”
“They said it would make his condition worse gradually.”
Hannah’s voice came from the doorway.
“So everyone would think he was dying naturally.”
I turned.
She stood there holding Leo, with Dr. Warren beside her.
“You should be upstairs.”
“So should your son.”
Warren spoke before I could respond.
“I didn’t want Leo out of observation, but Hannah refused to leave him with anyone.”
Hannah looked at Elaine.
“I wanted to see her face.”
Elaine began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
Hannah’s expression became cold.
“Don’t say that to me.”
“I had no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
“You don’t understand.”
Hannah took one step closer.
“My daughter is dead because a man decided his anger mattered more than her life. Don’t tell me people have no choices.”
Elaine lowered her head.
I looked at Marco.
“Trace every message.”
“We’re working on it.”
“Find whoever hired her.”
Elaine suddenly looked up.
“They’ll kill my family.”
I stood.
“If you tell me everything, your family gets protection.”
“And me?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether my son survives.”
Dr. Warren interrupted.
“Adrian.”
I turned.
He rarely used my first name.
“What?”
“We have another problem.”
We returned upstairs.
Leo had tolerated the feeding better than anything he’d received since birth.
Warren ordered bloodwork for Hannah and emergency laboratory testing.
Three hours later, the initial results came back clear.
At sunrise, I found Hannah sitting beside Leo’s crib.
She looked exhausted.
“You should sleep.”
She gave a humorless laugh.
“I haven't slept properly in three weeks.”
“Why?”
She looked at me as though the answer should have been obvious.
Then I remembered Lily.
I leaned against the wall.
“Tell me about her.”
Hannah stared at me.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
She considered that.
Finally, she said, “She had dark hair.”
“You saw her?”
“For a few minutes.”
Her voice softened.
“They let me hold her.”
I looked away.
I had never held Sophia after the bombing.
I couldn’t.
The last memory I wanted was her body.
Maybe that had been cowardice.
“What happened to the man who hurt you?”
Hannah’s jaw tightened.
“Eric Dalton.”
“He has a name.”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“Free.”
I looked at her.
“He killed your daughter.”
“He claims I fell.”
“And the police believed him?”
“His father owns Dalton Construction. His family knows judges, lawyers, donors…”
She stopped.
“You know how this works.”
Yes.
I knew exactly how it worked.
Power protected people.
I had used that truth myself.
“What do you want done to him?”
Hannah’s eyes narrowed.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“I want him convicted.”
“That can be arranged.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“I don’t want evidence manufactured. I don’t want him disappearing. I don’t want you solving this like a gangster.”
Most people avoided that word around me.
Hannah used it without blinking.
I almost smiled.
“Then how?”
“The truth.”
“You still believe truth wins?”
“No.”
She looked at Leo.
“But I need to believe it can.”
A small cry interrupted us.
Hannah immediately stood.
Leo was hungry again.
She looked at me.
“May I?”
The question felt strange.
Hours earlier, I had nearly shot her for doing exactly that.
Now I nodded.
She sat and fed him while I turned toward the window to give her privacy.
After a moment, Hannah said, “You don’t have to leave.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“I meant turn around.”
I glanced back.
She was smiling faintly.
It was the first smile I had seen in my house since Sophia died.
“Boss.”
Marco stood at the doorway.
His expression told me the moment was over.
“What?”
“We traced the nurse’s payments.”
“To whom?”
“That’s the problem.”
He entered and closed the door.
“The money came through three shell companies.”
“So?”
“The final company is connected to Rossi Maritime.”
My company.
Hannah stared at me.
I said, “Who authorized the transfer?”
Marco hesitated.
“Dean Caruso.”
I felt something inside me go cold.
Dean was my cousin.
My oldest friend.
Leo’s godfather.
The man who had stood beside me at Sophia’s funeral.
Hannah saw my face.
“Who is Dean?”
May you like
I looked at my sleeping son.
“Someone Leo was supposed to call Uncle.”
