Chapter 3 - The Nurse Who Knew Too Much
I was discharged after twelve days.
Dominic wanted me to recover at the estate.
I refused.
So he bought the building next to my apartment.
I stared at him when he told me.
“You can't buy buildings every time I disagree with you.”
“I can.”
“That isn't normal.”
“Neither is kidnapping.”
He had a point.
I moved into the new apartment temporarily.
Dominic did not move in.
He slept on the couch.
I noticed.
“You have a mansion.”
“I don't want to be there alone.”
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Because I don't know who I can trust.”
That frightened me.
Because I knew who I trusted.
Him.
Even after everything.
We began investigating together.
I returned to the estate.
Every room held evidence of the attack.
Bullet holes.
Broken windows.
Blood stains.
One room bothered me.
Dominic's father's study.
He kept a locked desk there.
The lock had been forced.
Inside was an old photograph.
Dominic at fourteen.
His father beside him.
And Carmine.
Young.
Barely twenty.
There was another boy.
I didn't recognize him.
Dominic did.
“That's Luca.”
“Who?”
“My brother.”
I stared at him.
“You have a brother?”
“I did.”
“Did?”
“He died.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
The photograph showed something strange.
Carmine stood behind Luca.
Dominic was smiling.
His father wasn't.
I turned the picture over.
A note had been written.
PROTECT THE YOUNGEST.
Dominic went still.
“Luca wasn't the youngest.”
“So who was?”
He looked at me.
“You.”
I laughed.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Your mother had another child.”
I stared.
“My mother?”
Dominic nodded.
“A boy.”
“Where is he?”
“We don't know.”
The mystery deepened.
My mother had always told me my father died before I was born.
She had never mentioned another child.
I called her sister.
She refused to speak.
Then hung up.
An hour later, she sent me a photograph.
My mother.
Pregnant.
Standing beside a young man.
Dominic recognized him.
“That’s my father.”
I stared.
The room seemed to tilt.
“My mother knew your father?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
We searched deeper.
The connection was older than either of us.
Our families had known each other before we were born.
My mother had been a nurse too.
She had worked briefly for Dominic's father.
She left after witnessing something.
A murder.
Not an enemy.
One of their own.
She had treated Luca the night he was injured.
He survived the attack.
Then disappeared.
Dominic's father announced that he died months later.
But the records were inconsistent.
The death certificate had been filed after the funeral.
There was no body.
Only a closed coffin.
Dominic stared at the documents.
“Luca may be alive.”
I whispered:
“Then why pretend?”
“Protection.”
“From who?”
He looked at me.
“The same person who is attacking us now.”
We kept searching.
At midnight, I found a hidden email account.
Messages between Carmine and someone named Raven.
The latest message said:
SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH.
The response:
THEN MAKE ROSSI BELIEVE SHE BETRAYED HIM.
I stared.
Dominic read over my shoulder.
His face turned cold.
I pointed at the screen.
“I told you.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
“You could have trusted me.”
“I know.”
“And yet you still don't.”
He looked hurt.
“I do.”
“No.”
He reached for my hand.
I pulled away.
“I need proof.”
He understood.
“You should.”
That night, he stayed awake outside my door.
Not because he was controlling.
Because he was afraid.
At 3:00 a.m., I opened the door.
He was sitting against the wall.
“You're ridiculous.”
He smiled.
“You're alive.”
“I am.”
“That's enough.”
I sat beside him.
“I don't want to lose you.”
He looked at me.
“Then don't.”
“I can't promise.”
“I know.”
He took my hand.
This time, I let him.
We sat there in silence.
Then my phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
A man's voice whispered:
“Your mother lied to you.”
I froze.
“Who are you?”
“Ask her why she helped hide Luca Rossi.”
The call ended.
I looked at Dominic.
He had heard every word.
“What if Luca is alive?”
“Then we're going to find him.”
“And if he isn't?”
“We find out who killed him.”
For the first time since the night he threw me out, I believed we were on the same side again.
May you like
But someone else was listening.
And before morning, my mother would disappear.
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