Chapter 2 - THE BOTTLE
Lorenzo looked at the nurse.
Her name was Celia Ward.
She had been hired twelve days earlier after another private nurse resigned unexpectedly.
Until that moment, Lorenzo had barely noticed her.
Now he noticed everything.
The shaking fingers.
The wine.
The bottle.
The way she kept glancing toward the door.
“Give it to Halloran.”
Celia shook her head.
“It’s just his prescribed formula.”
“Then you should have no problem giving it to the doctor.”
“I need to refrigerate it.”
Lorenzo took one step toward her.
“Give him the bottle.”
Celia obeyed.
Dr. Halloran placed it inside a sterile bag.
“I want this analyzed.”
Lorenzo nodded toward one of his men.
“Nico.”
A broad-shouldered man near the door answered immediately.
“Boss.”
“Take it yourself.”
Nico accepted the bag.
“No stops.”
“Understood.”
“And find the nurse who quit before her.”
Celia's face changed.
Lorenzo saw it.
“So you do know something.”
“I don’t.”
“You looked scared.”
“Because you’re pointing guns at people.”
Lorenzo stepped closer.
“I was pointing one gun.”
Celia said nothing.
Hunter would have laughed under different circumstances.
Instead, she focused on Leo.
His movements were slowing.
Panic shot through her.
“Doctor.”
Halloran leaned down.
“He’s falling asleep.”
“Is that bad?”
“No.”
He watched Leo carefully.
“It may be the first normal thing this child has done all week.”
Hunter exhaled shakily.
Leo released her and slept.
Halloran examined him while Hunter covered herself.
Lorenzo turned away.
The gesture surprised her.
He could command men to disappear.
Yet he gave a grieving maid privacy.
Hunter wrapped Leo in his blanket.
When she tried to return him to the crib, his face tightened.
His fingers caught her uniform.
A weak cry escaped him.
Hunter stopped.
Dr. Halloran looked at Lorenzo.
“Let her hold him.”
Lorenzo's eyes hardened.
Halloran continued anyway.
“Stress burns energy he cannot afford to lose.”
Hunter sank back into the chair.
Leo settled.
Lorenzo watched his son sleep in a stranger's arms.
The sight carved through him.
Sophia should have been sitting there.
Sophia should have known how Leo liked to be held.
Sophia should have been arguing with him about whether the nursery curtains were too dark.
Instead, a maid whose last name Lorenzo had not known an hour earlier was keeping his son calm.
“What is your name?”
Hunter blinked.
“Hunter Higgins.”
“How long have you worked here?”
“Three days.”
“And you decided three days was long enough to ignore my rules?”
“I heard him crying.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Hunter met his eyes.
“No.”
Lorenzo seemed surprised.
“No what?”
“No, three days wasn’t long enough.”
She looked down at Leo.
“Three minutes was.”
Nico lowered his head as if hiding a reaction.
Lorenzo stared at Hunter.
“Why are you producing milk?”
The room became painfully quiet.
Hunter's face lost color.
Dr. Halloran looked at Lorenzo.
“Perhaps that question can wait.”
“No.”
Hunter spoke softly.
“It’s fine.”
She kept her eyes on Leo.
“I had a baby.”
Lorenzo's expression shifted.
“Had?”
Hunter nodded.
“Three weeks ago.”
No one spoke.
“She was stillborn.”
The words still felt impossible.
“Her name was Lily.”
Lorenzo lowered his eyes.
For a second, they were not a mafia boss and a maid.
They were simply two parents standing in the wreckage left by children they could not protect.
“I’m sorry.”
Hunter looked at him.
She had not expected those words from Lorenzo Rossi.
“Thank you.”
Halloran cleared his throat gently.
“Mr. Rossi, there is a medical possibility here.”
Lorenzo returned to him.
“What?”
“Leo may be responding to direct feeding because of temperature, scent, maternal contact, or because Hunter's milk differs from what he has been receiving.”
“Then test it.”
“I will.”
Lorenzo pointed toward Celia.
“And test everything she touched.”
Celia suddenly stepped forward.
“I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Lorenzo looked at her.
“Then you have nothing to fear.”
A guard escorted her away.
Hunter watched.
Celia turned once before leaving.
Her eyes met Hunter’s.
There was no anger there.
Only terror.
By sunrise, Leo had taken a second feeding from Hunter.
He kept that one down too.
Dr. Halloran stood beside the crib staring at numbers he had stopped believing he would ever see.
Weight was still dangerously low.
Bloodwork remained alarming.
But Leo was stable.
Stable.
The word traveled through the Rossi estate before breakfast.
Men who had not smiled in weeks quietly shook hands in the kitchen.
The cook cried into a dish towel.
Nico lit a cigarette outside and then remembered Lorenzo had banned smoking anywhere near Leo.
He threw it away untouched.
Lorenzo remained in the nursery.
He sat in the chair opposite Hunter.
Neither spoke much.
At eight nineteen, Nico entered.
He held a sealed laboratory report.
Lorenzo stood.
“That was fast.”
“You paid for fast.”
Lorenzo took the report.
He read the first page.
Then the second.
His face became utterly still.
Hunter recognized that stillness.
It was the stillness of a man becoming dangerous.
“What is it?”
Lorenzo handed the report to Halloran.
The doctor read it.
His expression drained.
“This shouldn't be here.”
Hunter's stomach tightened.
“What shouldn't?”
Halloran looked at Lorenzo.
“There are traces of an unprescribed compound in Leo’s prepared milk.”
Hunter stared.
“What does it do?”
Halloran chose his words carefully.
“In an infant this fragile, repeated exposure could cause severe nausea, feeding intolerance, weakness, and dehydration.”
Lorenzo looked toward the crib.
His son was sleeping peacefully.
Then he turned toward Nico.
“Lock the gates.”
Nico nodded.
“No one leaves.”
May you like
Lorenzo’s voice became ice.
“Someone in my house has been trying to kill my son.”
