Chapter 2 - THE NURSE WHO LOST EVERYTHING
“I was fired.”
Emma said the words quietly.
Adrian Moretti studied her across the sleeping baby.
“Why?”
She glanced at the restaurant manager, who had moved close enough to hear every word.
“That's personal.”
Adrian's eyebrows lifted.
Nobody told Adrian Moretti that something was none of his business.
At least, nobody who wanted to keep their job.
But Emma had already turned toward the baby again.
“He needs to be somewhere quiet,” she said. “And he needs a medical assessment if he's been crying this intensely for six hours. Especially if his color changed or he had trouble breathing.”
Adrian looked down at his son.
“The doctor said colic.”
“Maybe. But prolonged crying can have other causes. Please don't assume it's harmless.”
The nanny shifted nervously.
“Dr. Whitmore already examined him.”
Emma looked at her.
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“Before the crying started?”
The nanny hesitated.
“Yes.”
Emma nodded.
“Then he needs to be assessed again.”
Adrian rose.
The baby stirred.
Emma lowered her voice.
“Move slowly.”
Adrian stopped immediately.
He looked almost startled by his own obedience.
Then he adjusted his hold.
His son settled again.
“Come with us,” Adrian said.
Emma blinked.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“I'm working.”
Adrian looked toward the manager.
“Her shift is over.”
The manager nodded so quickly his chin nearly struck his chest.
Emma straightened.
“You don't get to decide that.”
The room went still.
Adrian stared at her.
Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.
Not warmly.
Not yet.
But with genuine surprise.
“What would it take?”
Emma looked at the baby.
Then at the exhausted father holding him.
“An ambulance if his breathing becomes abnormal. Otherwise, call his pediatrician now and arrange urgent evaluation. And stop treating everyone around you like furniture.”
One guard coughed.
Adrian glanced at him.
The guard became fascinated by the carpet.
Adrian took out his phone.
“Call the children's hospital,” he told his security chief. “Tell them we're coming.”
Emma watched him.
“Good.”
She started to walk away.
“Miss Carter.”
She stopped.
Adrian's voice softened.
“Thank you.”
She looked back.
“Thank your son. He was trying to tell you something.”
Emma thought that would be the end of it.
She was wrong.
The next morning, a black SUV waited outside her apartment building.
A man in a dark suit stood beside it.
“Miss Carter?”
She stopped on the sidewalk.
“Who wants to know?”
“My name is Daniel Ross. I work for Mr. Moretti.”
Emma sighed.
“Of course you do.”
Daniel held out an envelope.
“Mr. Moretti asked me to deliver this.”
Inside was a check.
Fifty thousand dollars.
Emma stared at it.
Then looked up.
“Absolutely not.”
Daniel blinked.
“I'm sorry?”
“Tell him I don't want his money.”
“It's a gesture of gratitude.”
“Then he can send a thank-you card.”
She handed the envelope back.
Daniel looked bewildered.
Emma walked away.
By noon, Adrian Moretti had learned three things about Emma Carter.
She was twenty-four.
She lived in a modest apartment above a bakery.
And two years earlier, she had lost her nursing job after reporting suspicious medication practices at St. Catherine's Children's Hospital.
The official record said she had violated hospital procedures.
The internal complaint had been dismissed.
Adrian read the summary twice.
Then he looked at Daniel.
“Who signed the dismissal?”
Daniel checked his notes.
“Dr. Samuel Whitmore.”
Adrian went very still.
“Say that again.”
“Samuel Whitmore.”
Adrian looked toward the nursery.
His son's physician.
The same doctor who had repeatedly assured him that the baby's distress was nothing serious.
May you like
For the first time in months, Adrian felt something colder than grief.
Suspicion.
