Chapter 3
Chloe obeyed for exactly four days.
On the fifth, the diner’s dishwasher quit.
On the sixth, her night manager’s daughter got sick.
On the seventh, Chloe came downstairs because she heard two men talking in booth three after closing.
She recognized one of them.
Derek Morrow.
A Croft employee who had visited several times with Vivien’s cousin.
Chloe was behind the swinging kitchen door when she heard him laugh.
“Tomorrow night, old Romano drinks, smiles for the cameras, and drops before dessert.”
The other man lowered his voice.
Chloe moved closer.
“What’s in it?”
“Doesn’t matter. It’ll look medical by the time anybody knows.”
“And the girl?”
“What girl?”
“Vivien.”
“She knows enough.”
Silence.
Then Derek laughed again.
“After Romano goes, Croft gets the docks, the warehouses, everything.”
Chloe stopped breathing.
Her first emotion should have been anger.
Arthur had abandoned her.
He had chosen someone else.
He had left her to face pregnancy alone.
Instead, terror hit first.
Because love did not disappear simply because someone hurt you.
Sometimes it stayed behind like scar tissue.
Useless.
Painful.
Alive.
Chloe called Leo Barnes.
The number had once been saved in her phone for emergencies.
It rang once before disconnecting.
She tried again.
Blocked.
Then she remembered Bobby Davis.
A Romano driver who still came into the diner occasionally and always overpaid for pie.
He answered on the fourth ring.
“Chloe?”
“Where is the wedding?”
A pause.
“What?”
“Arthur’s wedding. Where?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Bobby, listen to me.”
She told him.
Twenty minutes later, he gave her the address.
By then the storm had started.
Chloe’s brother tried to stop her.
“You’re nearly seven months pregnant.”
“He’s going to die.”
“He left you.”
“I know.”
“He humiliated you.”
“I know.”
“You could lose this baby.”
That silenced her.
Chloe looked down.
Her palm moved across the place where her son had kicked moments earlier.
Then she whispered, “And one day he might ask what kind of man his father was.”
Her brother’s jaw tightened.
“And what are you going to tell him?”
“The truth.”
She looked toward the rain.
“That his father hurt me terribly.”
Then she reached for her coat.
“And that I refused to become the kind of person who let him die because of it.”
Arthur did not know any of that while he sat outside the operating room four hours after the ruined wedding.
All he knew was that Chloe was behind a pair of steel doors.
And their son might be dying with her.
Dr. Melissa Grant had arrived after Leo tracked her down.
She walked directly toward Arthur.
“You’re the father?”
Arthur stood.
“Yes.”
Her expression made it clear she knew exactly who he was and did not care.
“Then I need you to listen instead of threatening anyone.”
Leo looked away to hide the smallest smile.
Arthur ignored him.
“How bad?”
“She had a severe hypertensive crisis and a seizure on the way here.”
Arthur’s face emptied.
Dr. Grant continued.
“The placenta may be separating. The baby’s heart rate has become unstable. We’re delivering now.”
“Thirty weeks.”
“Closer to thirty-one.”
“He’s too early.”
“Yes.”
Arthur looked through the glass.
“Will they live?”
Dr. Grant held his gaze.
“We are going to do everything possible.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It is the only honest one.”
Then she disappeared behind the doors.
Arthur remained standing for almost a minute.
Finally, he sat.
Leo lowered himself into the chair across from him.
“The cup tested positive for a toxin.”
Arthur said nothing.
“Malcolm Croft’s security chief tried to destroy the remaining bottle.”
Nothing.
“We have him.”
Arthur stared at the floor.
Leo leaned forward.
“Arthur.”
“What?”
“What do you want me to do?”
Three hours earlier, Arthur would have answered instantly.
Destroy them.
Every warehouse.
Every account.
Every man who had known.
But Chloe’s voice came back to him.
And one day he might ask what kind of man his father was.
Arthur had not heard her say those words.
Yet the question already existed inside him.
What kind of father would his son inherit?
What kind of man had Chloe run through a storm to save?
Arthur rubbed his hands across his face.
“Lock everything down.”
Leo waited.
“No retaliation?”
“No.”
“Malcolm tried to poison you at your own wedding.”
“And Chloe almost died preventing it.”
Arthur lifted his head.
“I will not turn what she did into an excuse for a war.”
Leo studied him.
That answer frightened him more than rage would have.
Because something fundamental had changed.
“Then what?”
“Collect evidence.”
“Arthur—”
“Everything. The wine. Security footage. Messages. Financial records. Statements from the staff. Nobody disappears.”
Leo understood.
“You’re going legal.”
Arthur gave a humorless smile.
“I own enough legitimate companies to hire every attorney between here and Springfield.”
“What about the rest?”
Arthur’s gaze moved to the operating-room doors.
“The rest is finished.”
Leo frowned.
Arthur continued.
“Begin separating the legitimate businesses from everything else.”
“That could take months.”
“Then start tonight.”
“Your father spent thirty years building—”
“My father is dead.”
The words landed hard.
Arthur leaned forward.
“If my son survives tonight, he will not spend his life inheriting enemies from men buried before he was born.”
Leo said nothing.
A cry came from behind the doors.
Thin.
Weak.
But unmistakably human.
Arthur stood so fast his chair struck the wall.
A nurse appeared several minutes later.
She was smiling behind her mask.
“You have a son.”
Arthur’s knees nearly failed.
“And Chloe?”
“Still in surgery.”
His joy disappeared.
The nurse touched his sleeve.
“The baby is small, but he’s breathing with assistance. The neonatal team has him.”
“Can I see him?”
“Soon.”
Arthur looked again toward the doors.
“I’m not leaving her.”
The nurse nodded.
So Arthur waited.
One hour.
Then two.
At 3:17 in the morning, Dr. Grant finally emerged.
Arthur saw exhaustion in her face.
But not grief.
He closed his eyes.
“She’s stable,” the doctor said.
The breath left him in a broken sound.
“She lost a significant amount of blood. We controlled it. Her pressure is improving. The next twenty-four hours matter.”
Arthur put one hand against the wall.
Dr. Grant watched him.
“There’s something else.”
He stiffened.
“She asked for you before we put her under.”
Arthur looked up.
“She did?”
“She said, ‘Tell Arthur I didn’t come for him.’”
His chest tightened.
Dr. Grant continued.
“She said, ‘I came because our son deserves a father who had the chance to choose what kind of man he becomes.’”
May you like
Arthur looked down.
For the first time since he was twelve years old, Arthur Romano cried where someone could see him.
