Chapter 7 - NURSING SCHOOL
The Rourke investigation ended my catering work.
Too much publicity.
My diner manager tried to keep me.
Then customers began recognizing me after court filings identified “Elizabeth Hart” as a paid Rourke observer.
Some called me spy.
Some called me mistress.
One woman asked whether I trapped Alessandro.
I quit after a man photographed my stomach without permission.
My savings were thin.
Pregnancy costs growing.
Alessandro offered to pay nursing tuition.
I refused.
He expected that.
“Then loan?”
“No.”
“Employment?”
“Doing what?”
“Something legitimate.”
“No invented job.”
“I know.”
That surprised me.
Then Liam found a solution.
My old nursing program allowed re-entry if I completed updated clinical requirements.
A whistleblower-support nonprofit connected to Emma’s attorneys had a scholarship for students who had interrupted education due financial abuse or coercive circumstances.
Julian? Wrong universe. Here no abusive ex. I had stopped school after my parents died and debt overwhelmed me, not coercion.
So I did not qualify.
Good.
No bending rules because the protagonist needs a reward.
Instead, I applied for hospital tuition assistance through a part-time patient-care technician job.
Lower pay.
Benefits.
Tuition support after probation.
I took it.
Alessandro hated my overnight shifts.
I told him to survive.
He did.
Mostly.
He arranged security only after two verified Rourke-related threats.
Contract in my name.
I could cancel.
That mattered.
The pregnancy progressed.
Girl.
Alessandro cried at the anatomy scan and denied it.
Liam took photographs as evidence.
We named her Lucia Daniel Hart-Vitali.
Lucia because we both liked it.
Daniel for my father.
Hart-Vitali because I refused to disappear into another name.
Alessandro agreed.
No argument.
May you like
Progress.
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