Chapter 3 - The Cage of Gold
The next forty-eight hours were a blur of federal investigators, hospital board meetings, and the terrifying reality of being the woman who saved the Moretti heir.
Claire was escorted from the hospital by two of Dominic’s men. Her apartment was cleared out, her landlord was paid, and her student loans disappeared as if they had never existed.
She was moved to a penthouse in the Gold Coast, an apartment so large it made her head spin. She had bodyguards at her door, a private doctor for the baby, and a life that was suddenly, violently disconnected from the struggle she had known.
She was the new head of the Moretti household medical staff.
It was a cage, but it was a cage made of silk and high-thread-count sheets.
She spent every moment with Leo. He was a miracle, a tiny, fragile spark that grew stronger every day. And every day, Dominic Moretti was there.
He didn't speak much. He would sit in the nursery, watching the boy, his presence looming large. He was a man who lived in the shadows of the city, whose hands were stained with things Claire didn't want to think about. Yet, he was the only person who treated the baby like a human being, not a political bargaining chip.
On the third day, she found him in the kitchen, drinking black coffee and staring at the rain.
“You did more than save him,” he said, not turning around. “You humiliated the most powerful doctors in the city. You exposed their incompetence.”
“I just did my job,” Claire replied, pouring herself a cup of coffee.
“In my world, there is no such thing as ‘just a job’,” he said, turning to look at her. “You are the only person who has ever looked me in the eye and told me I was wrong. And you are the only person who has ever brought my family back from the edge.”
He walked toward her. He was six-foot-four, a man of terrifying presence.
“Why did you do it, Claire? You knew the risks. You were a nurse who couldn't even pay her rent. You could have walked away.”
“I’m a nurse,” she said simply. “And that was a baby. I don't get to choose who lives and dies based on who they’re related to.”
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Dominic reached out, his hand hovering near her cheek, not touching, just feeling the air. “You are a dangerous woman, Claire Bennett. You have no idea what you’ve just invited into your life.”
“I’m already living in it,” she whispered.
