Chapter 2 - The Contract of Blood and MilkBy four in the morning, the nursery had become a private emergency ward.
Dr. Julian Halloran checked Leo’s vitals again.
Then again.
And once more.
Finally, he stared at the monitor with an expression I had never seen on his face.
Disbelief.
“His blood sugar has stabilized,” he said.
I stared at him.
“How?”
“The formula intolerance was causing severe systemic inflammation. But the human milk appears to be helping his digestive system recover.”
He glanced toward Hannah.
“She may have given him the one thing his body could actually tolerate.”
I looked at Hannah.
She was asleep in the rocking chair.
Leo slept in her arms.
Two broken people had somehow found one another in the middle of a nightmare.
“She can't leave,” I said.
Halloran sighed.
“She isn't a prisoner, Lorenzo.”
“I know.”
“Then don't treat her like one.”
I turned toward him.
“I don't intend to.”
Ten minutes later, Hannah woke as she tried to place Leo in his crib.
“Leave him,” I said quietly.
She startled.
“He sleeps better when he hears your heartbeat.”
She looked at me cautiously.
“I know I broke the house rules. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come upstairs.”
“You're not fired.”
She blinked.
“What?”
“Your housekeeping duties are over.”
Dominic entered carrying a leather folder.
I placed it on the table.
“This is a personal services agreement.”
Hannah opened it.
Her eyes widened.
“You'll have a private suite, transportation, security, medical coverage, clothing, and a salary of fifty thousand dollars a month.”
She stared at me as though I had lost my mind.
“I can't accept this.”
“You can.”
“Mr. Rossi—”
“You saved my son's life.”
She looked toward Leo.
“That's not worth fifty thousand dollars.”
“It isn't payment.”
My voice became quieter.
“It's protection.”
I explained what she didn't yet know.
My wife had been killed two months earlier.
The attack hadn't been random.
Rival syndicates believed killing Sophia and Leo would destroy me and fracture my empire.
They were waiting for my son to die.
If Leo survived, they would come again.
And now Hannah was connected to him.
That made her valuable.
It also made her a target.
“You don't have to stay,” I told her.
“But if you stay, no one touches you.”
Hannah closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she looked at Leo.
Then she signed.
“I'll stay.”
She paused.
“But not because of the money.”
“Why, then?”
She touched Leo's tiny hand.
“Because I already lost Lily.”
Her voice trembled.
“I don't think I could survive watching another baby die.”
Something in my chest tightened.
May you like
“Then stay,” I whispered.
“And let us keep him alive.”
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