Chapter 13 - THE MAN WHO MISSED EVERYTHING
Nora stared at the screen.
You still at that rich people’s house?
I need to talk to you.
Below it came another message.
I heard you had the baby.
No question about her.
No question about Lily.
Just the familiar opening to a conversation that would eventually become a request.
Lorenzo saw her expression.
“Who is it?”
“Her father.”
“Do you want me to handle it?”
Nora looked up sharply.
“No.”
He stepped back.
She read the messages again, then called Brody herself.
He answered on the second ring.
“Nora.
Finally.”
She looked at Lily sleeping against her chest.
“You disappeared.”
“I had things going on.”
“You left me with your debts.”
“I was under pressure.”
“So was I.”
He exhaled.
“Look, I’m trying to make things right.
We’re a family now.”
“No.
I had a baby.
Those aren’t the same thing.”
Silence.
Then his voice softened.
“You got a good setup there, right?
They’re helping you?”
There it was.
Nora closed her eyes.
“What do you need, Brody?”
“I just need somewhere to land.”
She opened her eyes again.
For months, she had imagined this call.
She had imagined begging him to explain.
Screaming.
Crying.
Making him understand what he had done.
Instead, she felt tired.
And clear.
“You don’t get to use Lily to find a place to sleep.”
“That’s my kid.”
“She’s a person.
If you want to talk about being her father, we can do that through the proper channels.
But you’re not moving in with me.”
“You’ve changed.”
Nora looked at her daughter.
“I had to.”
She ended the call.
Her hands shook afterward.
Lorenzo said nothing.
She appreciated that more than reassurance.
That afternoon, a sheriff’s investigator came to the hospital.
Nora agreed to speak while Lily slept beside her.
She described the cold room, the food, the bruises, the false signatures, and the watch.
The investigator took photographs of her wrist with her permission.
Then he closed his notebook.
“Mrs. Gable says Mr. Moretti knew how his father was being treated.”
Nora looked toward Lorenzo.
He had been standing outside the half-open door.
He stepped into view.
The investigator turned.
“Did you?”
Lorenzo could have blamed the reports.
The doctors.
The staff.
Instead, he looked at Nora.
May you like
“I knew I wasn’t visiting,” he said.
“That part is mine.”
