Norah stared at Dominic.
“What do you mean, someone followed me?”
He closed the bedroom door behind him.
“Security found a vehicle that appeared near the clinic shortly after you arrived.”
“That doesn't mean anything.”
“The same vehicle appeared outside the compound yesterday.”
Norah felt the blood drain from her face.
“Who was driving?”
“We don't know yet.”
She folded her arms over her stomach.
“Was it one of your men?”
Dominic hesitated.
That hesitation was enough.
Norah stepped backward.
“You had someone follow me.”
“I had security check where you went after you disappeared without your phone.”
“That's not the same as asking permission.”
“No,” Dominic admitted. “It isn't.”
Norah stared at him.
“You tracked me to a medical appointment. You watched where I went. And now you're telling me that someone else might have been watching too?”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“I should have handled it differently.”
She shook her head.
“I can't live like this.”
“Norah—”
“I mean it.”
Her voice broke.
“I can't raise a child in a house where every door has a camera and every person has to ask permission to leave.”
Dominic looked at her.
For a moment, he seemed prepared to argue.
Instead, he pulled a chair away from the small writing desk.
“May I sit?”
Norah nodded reluctantly.
He sat.
She remained standing.
“I don't expect you to trust me because I say you should,” he began. “But I need to explain what happened.”
Norah waited.
“The vehicle near the clinic belongs to a company connected to a man named Victor Salazar.”
She recognized the name.
Everyone who worked inside the Russo estate had heard it whispered.
Victor Salazar controlled a rival criminal organization.
He had been responsible for the attack on the compound five months earlier.
“The man who attacked the house?” she asked.
Dominic nodded.
“Why would he follow me?”
“I don't know.”
Norah's hand moved to her stomach.
Dominic noticed.
His expression softened.
“Has anyone contacted you recently? Anyone asking about Lily? About the house?”
She thought carefully.
“No.”
“Any unfamiliar numbers?”
“I don't answer numbers I don't recognize.”
“Anyone from your past?”
Norah shook her head.
Then stopped.
There had been someone.
A man outside the clinic.
He had been standing beside a dark SUV when she left.
He had smiled at her.
She had assumed he was waiting for someone.
But now she remembered that he had been holding a phone.
And that he had looked directly at her stomach.
“There was a man,” she whispered.
Dominic leaned forward.
“Tell me.”
Norah described him.
Tall.
Gray jacket.
A narrow scar beside his mouth.
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Are you sure about the scar?”
“Yes.”
He stood.
“Stay here.”
Norah immediately stiffened.
“Don't order me around.”
Dominic stopped.
He looked at her.
Then he nodded.
“I'm going to speak with security. You can come with me if you want.”
Norah hesitated.
Then she followed him.
The security room occupied a section of the mansion's lower floor.
Norah had never been inside.
Six monitors displayed different parts of the estate.
The front gates.
The gardens.
The garage.
The exterior corridors.
Dominic's security chief, Rafael Vega, stood beside a desk.
He looked surprised to see Norah.
“Boss.”
“Show her the footage.”
Rafael hesitated.
Dominic's expression hardened.
“Now.”
A video appeared on the largest monitor.
Norah recognized the clinic entrance.
She saw herself leaving the building with her coat buttoned.
A dark SUV stood across the street.
Then a man stepped into view.
Gray jacket.
Dark hair.
A narrow scar beside his mouth.
Norah felt sick.
“That's him.”
Dominic leaned toward the monitor.
Rafael enlarged the image.
The man's face became clearer.
Dominic swore quietly.
“You know him?” Norah asked.
“His name is Adrian Vale.”
“Who is he?”
“He works for Salazar.”
Norah looked at the screen.
Adrian was holding his phone.
He appeared to be taking a photograph.
Of her.
She placed both hands over her stomach.
“Does he know?”
Dominic looked at her.
“I don't know.”
But his expression told her that he feared the answer.
By noon, the estate had entered a heightened security alert.
Norah watched guards moving across the lawn from Lily's playroom window.
The little girl sat on the carpet building a tower from wooden blocks.
“Why are there so many people outside?” Lily asked.
“Your daddy is making sure everyone is safe.”
Lily frowned.
“Are bad people coming?”
Norah knelt beside her.
“I don't think so, Bug.”
Lily studied her face.
“Are you scared?”
Norah wanted to lie.
Instead, she took the little girl's hand.
“A little.”
Lily leaned forward and hugged her.
“It's okay. Daddy always fixes things.”
Norah closed her eyes.
She wished she could believe that.
A moment later, Lily pulled back.
“Nora?”
“Yes?”
“Can babies hear us?”
Norah froze.
“What?”
Lily pointed toward her stomach.
“Maria said babies can hear when they're in their mommy's tummy.”
Norah looked toward the doorway.
Maria stood there holding a basket of clean towels.
The older woman stopped.
For one terrible second, Norah thought she had deliberately revealed the pregnancy.
Then Maria's expression changed.
She looked genuinely startled.
Lily continued.
“Is there a baby in your tummy?”
Norah swallowed.
She could lie.
She had become very good at lying.
But Lily was looking at her with the same hopeful eyes she had worn when she showed Norah the drawing.
And Norah could not bring herself to deceive her.
“Yes, sweetheart.”
Lily gasped.
“A real baby?”
“A real baby.”
The little girl stared at Norah's stomach.
Then she whispered, “Can I say hello?”
Norah smiled through sudden tears.
“Of course.”
Lily leaned forward.
“Hi, baby. I'm Lily.”
Norah laughed softly.
The baby moved.
She caught her breath.
Lily looked up.
“What happened?”
“I think the baby heard you.”
Lily's eyes widened.
“Really?”
Norah nodded.
Lily placed her small hand against Norah's stomach.
The baby moved again.
Lily squealed.
“Maria! It kicked!”
Maria pressed a hand over her heart.
Norah looked at the older woman.
For the first time in weeks, she felt something other than fear.
She felt joy.
Then Lily asked a question that made the room go silent.
“Does Daddy know?”
Norah looked toward the doorway.
Dominic stood there.
He had heard everything.
Lily turned.
“Daddy! Nora has a baby!”
Dominic looked at Norah.
Then he crouched beside his daughter.
“I know, princess.”
Lily beamed.
“Can we keep it?”
Norah's smile disappeared.
Dominic looked at her.
He seemed to understand immediately.
“This baby belongs to Norah,” he told Lily gently. “And Norah gets to decide where the baby lives.”
Lily considered that.
Then she turned toward Norah.
“Can the baby live with us?”
Norah's throat tightened.
She did not know what to say.
Dominic placed a hand on Lily's shoulder.
“We'll talk about that later.”
Lily nodded.
Then she returned to her blocks.
Dominic remained in the doorway.
His eyes met Norah's.
And for one brief moment, she saw the man from the safe room.
Not the mafia boss.
Not the man who controlled an empire.
Just a father looking at the possibility of another child.
That afternoon, Norah asked Dominic for a private conversation.
He met her in the garden.
The estate's rose bushes had begun to bloom.
Beyond the stone wall, guards patrolled the perimeter.
Norah sat on a bench beneath a flowering tree.
Dominic remained standing until she gestured toward the empty space beside her.
He sat.
“I need to know something,” she said.
“Ask.”
“If there wasn't a threat from Salazar, would you let me leave?”
Dominic looked at her.
“Yes.”
“Even with the baby?”
“Yes.”
“Even if I didn't want you involved?”
The question struck him visibly.
He looked away.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he answered.
“I would want to be involved.”
“That wasn't my question.”
“I know.”
He turned toward her.
“I would ask you to let me be the child's father. But I wouldn't use my money or my men to force you to stay.”
Norah studied him.
“Why should I believe you?”
Dominic looked toward the mansion.
“Because I know what it's like to lose someone and realize too late that you never gave them a choice.”
Norah frowned.
“Elena?”
He nodded.
“Lily's mother wanted us to leave Chicago.”
Norah remained silent.
“She wanted a normal house. A backyard. Somewhere Lily could grow up without guards.”
“What happened?”
“I kept telling her we would leave when things settled down.”
Dominic looked at his hands.
“Things never settled down.”
Norah watched him.
“She died before I gave her the life she wanted.”
A breeze moved through the roses.
Dominic continued quietly.
“I can't change what happened to Elena. But I can stop making the same mistake.”
Norah felt tears gathering in her eyes.
She looked away.
“I don't know if I can trust you.”
“I understand.”
“And I don't know what this means for us.”
Dominic nodded.
“Neither do I.”
For a moment, they sat in silence.
Then Norah felt the baby move.
She pressed her palm against her stomach.
Dominic noticed.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes.”
She hesitated.
“The baby is kicking.”
He looked at her hand.
Then at her face.
Norah could see the question he was afraid to ask.
After a moment, she reached for his wrist.
“You can feel it.”
Dominic went completely still.
She placed his hand against her stomach.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the baby kicked.
Dominic's eyes widened.
He looked at Norah.
“That was—”
“The baby.”
He stared at her stomach.
Another kick.
His expression changed.
The hardness disappeared.
In its place was something Norah had never seen before.
Wonder.
He swallowed.
“Hello, little one,” he whispered.
Norah's eyes filled.
For a few seconds, the guards, the cameras, and the danger beyond the walls ceased to exist.
There was only a man, a woman, and the tiny life they had created.
Then Dominic's phone rang.
He glanced at the screen.
His face hardened.
“What is it?” Norah asked.
He answered.
Rafael's voice came through the speaker.
“Boss, we found the leak.”
Dominic stood.
“Who?”
A pause.
Then Rafael spoke again.
“Someone inside the house has been sending Salazar information about the nanny.”
Norah felt the baby move beneath her hand.
Dominic looked toward the mansion.
And for the first time, Norah understood that the danger was not merely waiting outside the gates.
It was already inside.