Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN BEFORE HUNTER
Leo gained seven ounces in four days.
To anyone else, seven ounces was nothing.
Inside the Rossi estate, it became a holiday.
The cook made a cake.
Nico pretended the cake was ridiculous and ate two pieces.
Dr. Halloran smiled for the first time.
Even Lorenzo allowed himself one glass of whiskey.
Hunter slept in the room adjoining the nursery.
Not because Lorenzo ordered it.
Because Leo still woke hungry every few hours.
The arrangement remained medically supervised.
Halloran insisted on regular tests.
Hunter's milk was safe.
More importantly, Leo tolerated it.
Eventually they began supplementing with carefully screened milk and monitored formula.
He kept that down too.
The problem had never been feeding.
The problem had been what someone put into his feedings.
As Leo grew stronger, Hunter began to weaken emotionally.
Saving him did not erase Lily.
Sometimes it made losing her hurt more.
One night Hunter sat on the bathroom floor holding Lily's hospital bracelet.
She cried silently.
A knock came.
“Hunter.”
Lorenzo.
She wiped her face.
“I’m fine.”
“That is never true when someone says it through a locked bathroom door.”
She almost laughed.
“Go away.”
“No.”
“Very mature.”
“I run organized crime.”
“Was maturity listed in the job description?”
Silence.
Then Lorenzo said quietly.
“Open the door.”
Hunter did.
He saw the bracelet.
His expression softened.
“I feel guilty.”
“For what?”
“When Leo eats.”
“When he looks at me.”
“When he stops crying because I’m holding him.”
Her voice cracked.
“I love that he’s getting better.”
“And then part of me hates myself because Lily never got any of this.”
Lorenzo sat against the opposite wall.
“You think loving him betrays her.”
Hunter nodded.
Lorenzo looked down.
“For weeks after Sophia died, I avoided Leo.”
Hunter stared.
“I held him when people were watching.”
“I stood beside the incubator.”
“I signed paperwork.”
“But I didn't really look at him.”
“Why?”
“Because he survived.”
Hunter understood immediately.
“And Sophia didn't.”
“Yes.”
Lorenzo rubbed a hand across his face.
“I hated myself for thinking it.”
“I hated him for reminding me.”
“Then I hated myself for that too.”
Hunter sat quietly.
“What changed?”
“The night you fed him.”
He looked at her.
“I watched him choose life.”
“And I realized I had been punishing the only piece of Sophia that survived.”
Hunter's eyes filled.
“You didn’t replace Lily by saving Leo.”
He nodded toward the bracelet.
“She existed.”
“She mattered.”
“And nothing you give my son can take that from her.”
Hunter cried then.
Not dramatically.
Not beautifully.
She simply bent forward and let grief come.
Lorenzo stayed on the floor.
He did not touch her until she reached for his hand.
Afterward, neither mentioned it.
The next morning, Nico arrived with Margaret Flynn.
The former nurse looked exhausted.
She hugged Hunter the moment they met.
“You saved that baby.”
“So did you.”
Margaret shook her head.
“I ran.”
“You were threatened.”
“I still ran.”
Hunter knew that kind of guilt.
Margaret gave them one more piece of information.
Before leaving, she had seen someone inside the nursery at three in the morning.
Not Celia.
Not Dante.
A woman.
“Who?”
Margaret looked at Lorenzo.
“Mrs. Elena Rossi.”
Lorenzo froze.
Hunter frowned.
“Who is that?”
“My aunt.”
Dante's mother.
Elena Rossi had practically raised Lorenzo after his own mother died.
She had held him after his father’s funeral.
She had stood beside him at his wedding.
She had kissed Sophia's coffin.
And after the bombing, she had demanded the loudest revenge against the Morettis.
Lorenzo's face became unreadable.
Margaret continued.
“She had a bottle in her hand.”
Hunter felt cold.
“Was she helping Dante?”
Margaret shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Lorenzo stood.
“Where is she?”
Nico answered.
“She left the estate yesterday.”
“Destination?”
“Unknown.”
Lorenzo looked toward the nursery.
Dante had betrayed him.
Now the woman who raised them both had disappeared.
May you like
Hunter knew the investigation was not over.
It was only becoming more personal.
