Chapter 2 - THE REASON I WAS REALLY THERE
I opened the folder because refusing felt childish.
The first page was not a debt contract.
It was a medical record.
SOFIA VITALI. AGE: 7.
I looked at Nico.
“Who is Sofia?”
“My daughter.”
That answer surprised me enough to make me forget I was angry for half a second.
I kept reading.
Severe asthma.
Recurring panic episodes.
Night terrors.
History of respiratory distress triggered by emotional stress.
The second page contained records from Lurie Children’s Hospital.
The third listed medications.
The fourth was an employment agreement.
My name was printed at the top.
CLARA HART.
Live-in family medical aide.
Private quarters.
Salary so high I read it twice.
Health insurance.
Tuition reimbursement.
A clause guaranteeing that I could resign at any time.
I looked up slowly.
“What is this?”
“A job.”
I laughed.
“Your men brought me here because my father owes you money.”
“My men brought you here because your father told them you were his payment.”
My stomach turned.
Nico’s voice became colder.
“There is a difference.”
“Not from where I’m standing.”
“I know.”
That stopped me.
He opened another folder.
Daniel Hart’s debt.
$186,000.
Sports betting.
Private card games.
Predatory loans.
Interest stacked on interest until the number became impossible.
Then I saw a red stamp across the final page.
CLOSED.
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“The debt is gone.”
“You forgave him?”
“No.”
Nico’s eyes hardened.
“The moment Daniel offered me his daughter, he stopped being a man I was willing to do business with.”
My anger stumbled.
“Then why am I here?”
“Because your father also mentioned you left nursing school three semesters before graduation.”
My jaw tightened.
“He gambled away my tuition.”
“I know.”
Of course he knew.
Men like Nico did not invite strangers into their homes without learning where every scar came from.
He tapped Sofia’s medical file.
“My daughter has had four private nurses in seven months.”
“What happened?”
“They left.”
“Why?”
“Because she hates them.”
“Children don’t usually hate four nurses without a reason.”
One eyebrow moved.
“That is exactly what her doctors said.”
“Then maybe listen to them.”
“I am.”
He pushed the contract closer.
I stared at him.
“You want me to care for your daughter?”
“I want you to meet her.”
“And if I say no?”
“You leave.”
“My father’s debt?”
“Still gone.”
“No retaliation?”
“Not from me.”
I almost believed him.
That frightened me more.
The study doors opened.
Daniel entered.
My father looked nervous.
Not ashamed.
Nervous.
There was a difference.
“So?” he asked. “We’re settled?”
Nico turned toward him.
“Yes.”
Relief flooded Daniel’s face.
“Thank God.”
“Your daughter is not the settlement.”
Dad’s smile vanished.
Nico continued.
“The debt is closed because I will never loan you another dollar.”
Daniel blinked.
“What?”
“You are barred from every business I control.”
“Nico—”
“You use my name to borrow anywhere in Chicago, I provide the lender with your full gambling history.”
My father turned white.
“You can’t do that.”
“I can.”
Dad looked at me.
“What did you say to him?”
There it was.
My fault already.
I stood.
“I said nothing you didn’t earn.”
“You ungrateful—”
Nico rose.
He did not move quickly.
He did not have to.
My father stopped.
Nico’s voice remained low.
“Finish that sentence and you leave through a different door than the one you entered.”
Dad stared.
Then looked away.
Nico pressed a button beneath his desk.
Two guards entered.
“Take Mr. Hart home.”
Daniel looked at me.
“You’re coming.”
“No.”
His face hardened.
“Clara.”
“I said no.”
For the first time in my life, my father’s anger met something stronger than my fear.
Not Nico.
Me.
Maybe I borrowed the strength from the room.
Maybe I finally got tired.
Either way, I stayed where I was.
Dad left.
The doors closed.
I looked at Nico.
“If I leave now, where do I go?”
“Anywhere you choose.”
“He lost our house.”
“I know.”
“I have eighty-three dollars.”
“I know.”
“That’s creepy.”
“Occupational habit.”
I almost smiled.
Then I hated myself for almost smiling.
“Why me?”
“Because Sofia’s doctor says she needs stability.”
“That doesn’t explain me.”
Nico walked toward the window.
“My wife died eighteen months ago.”
The words changed his posture.
Barely.
But enough.
“Sofia was in the car.”
I went still.
“Was she hurt?”
“Physically, no.”
“What happened?”
“An accident.”
He said the word too carefully.
“What kind?”
“My wife’s driver lost control on Lake Shore Drive.”
His jaw tightened.
“She died before the ambulance arrived.”
“And Sofia saw?”
“Yes.”
That explained the panic.
The night terrors.
Maybe the asthma worsening under stress.
Nico continued.
“Since then she refuses almost everyone.”
“Especially medical staff?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
I looked at his daughter’s chart.
Then something caught my eye.
Medication history.
Three emergency steroid courses in six months.
Too many.
“Has her pulmonologist reviewed this?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He says her asthma is difficult to control.”
“Maybe.”
Nico turned.
“You disagree?”
“I’m not qualified enough to disagree.”
“But?”
I hated that he noticed.
“But if she’s getting this many attacks, either the triggers aren’t being controlled or something about the treatment routine isn’t working.”
Nico stared at me.
Then pressed another button.
A minute later, a little girl appeared in the doorway.
Sofia Vitali was small for seven.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes like her father.
She carried a stuffed rabbit by one ear.
Behind her stood a woman in a black dress.
Sofia’s nanny.
The child saw me.
Then the folder.
Then Nico.
Her face changed.
“No doctors.”
Her voice was clear.
Terrified.
I immediately closed the medical file.
“I’m not a doctor.”
She backed away.
“No nurse.”
“I’m not one of those either.”
Technically true.
Nico began, “Sofia—”
She flinched.
I noticed.
Not at him.
At the raised volume.
I crouched.
Not close.
Just lower.
“My name is Clara.”
No answer.
“I’m apparently here for a job interview.”
She stared.
“With me?”
“That’s what your father says.”
Sofia looked at Nico.
Then back at me.
“He lies.”
Nico closed his eyes.
I almost laughed.
“Good to know.”
Something flickered in Sofia’s expression.
She stepped closer.
“Do you have needles?”
“No.”
“Medicine?”
“No.”
“Questions?”
“Probably.”
She frowned.
“Bad.”
“Fair.”
Then she noticed my suitcase.
“You live here?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t.”
Nico’s face tightened.
I asked gently, “Why?”
Sofia’s eyes moved toward the hallway.
Toward the staircase.
Then toward the woman behind her.
The nanny.
Sofia hugged the rabbit to her chest.
“People leave.”
The sentence hit harder than it should have.
I looked at her.
“What if I don’t promise?”
She frowned.
“What?”
“I don’t know if I’ll stay forever. So I won’t promise forever.”
She studied me carefully.
“But if I decide to leave, I’ll tell you first.”
The child stared.
Then nodded once.
Nico looked at me differently after that.
Not warmly.
More dangerously.
Like he had just discovered I might matter.
I accepted the job that night.
Not for Daniel.
Not for Nico.
For tuition.
For a room.
For the chance to finish what my father had destroyed.
And maybe a little for Sofia.
I would learn later that somebody else had wanted me inside the Vitali estate too.
Someone who had spent months studying my father’s gambling debts.
Someone who knew exactly how much nursing school I had completed.
Someone who needed an outsider with medical training close enough to Sofia that, when the child eventually died, there would be an easy person to blame.
At the time, I knew none of that.
I only knew that as Sofia walked me upstairs, she stopped outside one door.
“Not there.”
I looked at the brass handle.
“Why?”
Her fingers tightened around the rabbit.
“That’s where medicine goes bad.”
And behind us, somewhere in the hallway, a floorboard creaked.
May you like
Someone had been listening.
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