Chapter 2 - THE WEDDING RING HE DIDN'T DESERVE
“Is Elena safe?”
Dominic Romano stopped beside his wife's hospital bed.
Of all the questions Laura could have asked him, that was the one he hadn't expected.
His face tightened.
“Yes,” he answered. “She's safe.”
Laura nodded slowly.
“Good.”
“Laura—”
“Did she get hurt?”
“Nothing serious.”
“And the black leather case?”
Dominic went completely still.
Laura watched the change in his expression.
For seven years, she had studied her husband's face. She knew when he was angry, when he was frightened, and when he was hiding something.
Right now, he was hiding something.
“How do you know about the case?” he asked.
“I saw her holding it.”
“Laura, you need to rest.”
She gave a small, exhausted laugh.
“That's what you always say when you don't want to answer me.”
Dominic pulled a chair closer.
He had survived gunfights, betrayals, and attempts on his life. He had negotiated with dangerous men who would have gladly put a bullet through his heart.
But looking at his pregnant wife lying beneath a white sheet, with a bandage above her eyebrow and bruises appearing along her arm, he seemed suddenly uncertain.
“The doctor said the baby is all right.”
“For now,” Laura replied. “He wants me monitored at the hospital.”
“I've already arranged the best specialists.”
“Of course you have.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“It means you can arrange anything, Dominic. Doctors. Guards. Armored cars. Diamond necklaces.”
Her voice trembled.
“But when I needed my husband, you arranged for someone else to save me.”
Dominic looked away.
“Elena had information that could have prevented a massacre.”
“And I had your son inside me.”
Silence filled the medical suite.
Dominic leaned forward.
“I knew Marco was close enough to reach you.”
Laura stared at him.
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me something.”
She struggled to sit upright.
“Before you ran toward Elena, did you actually see Marco coming?”
Dominic opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Laura felt the answer settle between them.
“No,” she whispered. “You didn't.”
“Laura, the situation happened in seconds.”
“Exactly.”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
“You had seconds to decide who mattered most.”
Dominic reached for her hand.
She pulled it away.
“Don't.”
His expression changed.
“Don't do this while you're hurt.”
“I'm not doing anything. I'm finally seeing something clearly.”
He stood abruptly.
“You think I wanted you in danger?”
“No. I think you believed someone else would always be there to catch me.”
That hurt him.
She could see it.
But not enough.
Not yet.
At 2:41 a.m., a nurse arrived with instructions for Laura's hospital transfer.
Dominic immediately began issuing orders.
Two security vehicles.
Six armed escorts.
A private medical team.
A secure hospital entrance.
Laura listened until he finished.
Then she spoke.
“I don't want your men near my room.”
Dominic turned.
“That's not possible.”
“I'm not asking permission.”
“Salazar's people attacked our home tonight. You're not going anywhere without protection.”
“Then arrange protection that doesn't report every movement I make to you.”
Marco appeared in the doorway.
He had heard the conversation.
“Dominic,” he said quietly, “she needs some space.”
Dominic's eyes narrowed.
“This is between my wife and me.”
Marco didn't move.
“Your wife nearly lost her baby tonight.”
Laura watched Dominic's jaw tighten.
“Get the car ready,” Dominic ordered.
Marco glanced at Laura.
She gave him the smallest nod.
After he left, Dominic approached the bed again.
“I'll come to the hospital.”
“No.”
“Laura.”
“You need to understand something.”
She removed the diamond necklace he had fastened around her neck only hours earlier.
The clasp caught painfully in her hair.
Dominic instinctively reached to help.
She turned away.
Finally, the necklace slipped free.
She placed it on the bedside table.
“I spent six months asking you to choose our marriage.”
His eyes dropped to the diamonds.
“I never stopped choosing our marriage.”
“You stopped showing me.”
“That's not the same thing.”
“When you're the person waiting alone, it feels exactly the same.”
For a moment, Dominic looked less like Miami's most powerful crime boss and more like a husband who had lost the words necessary to save his home.
Then his phone vibrated.
Laura looked at it.
Dominic did too.
Neither moved.
The screen lit up again.
Elena.
Laura smiled sadly.
“There she is.”
Dominic silenced the phone.
“I can explain.”
“Then explain why she gets the truth and I get excuses.”
He drew a slow breath.
“Elena's father worked for Salazar. Before he disappeared, he collected evidence connecting Salazar to several people inside our organization.”
“What kind of evidence?”
“Financial records. Names. Payments.”
“And that was worth risking your pregnant wife?”
“If Salazar recovered those records, people would die.”
Laura looked at him for a long time.
“Then perhaps you should have told me that before inviting a war into our home.”
Dominic didn't answer.
And that silence frightened her more than his anger.
Because for the first time, Laura wondered whether her husband's secrets were merely dangerous.
Or whether they were criminal in ways even she had never imagined.
At 3:07 a.m., Marco helped Laura into a wheelchair.
Dominic stood near the doorway.
He looked as though he wanted to carry her himself.
But he didn't ask.
Laura paused beside him.
For one second, she remembered their wedding.
The little church in Coral Gables.
Her mother's tears.
Dominic's nervous hands as he slipped the ring onto her finger.
He had whispered, Whatever happens, you will never stand alone.
She wondered whether he remembered saying it.
“Laura,” he murmured, “come home when the doctors release you.”
She looked up.
“Home?”
“Our home.”
“That house stopped feeling like home a long time ago.”
He flinched.
Then she added something he would remember for years.
“I hope Elena was worth what you lost tonight.”
Marco wheeled her away.
At the hospital, doctors placed Laura under observation.
The baby's heartbeat remained reassuring.
But Laura developed painful contractions shortly before dawn.
They were not established labor, the obstetrician explained, but her fall required continued monitoring.
Marco sat outside her room.
When Laura finally asked him to enter, he found her holding a small velvet jewelry pouch.
“Marco, can I trust you?”
He looked at her.
“With your life.”
“Not mine.”
Her hand rested on her stomach.
“With his.”
Marco's expression softened.
“Yes.”
Laura slipped off her wedding ring.
For a moment, her fingers resisted letting it go.
Then she placed it inside the pouch.
“I need you to take this to Dominic.”
Marco hesitated.
“Laura—”
“Please.”
Inside the pouch, she placed a folded note.
Four words.
You made your choice.
But when Marco turned to leave, Laura caught his sleeve.
“One more thing.”
She handed him her phone.
On the screen was a photograph she'd taken accidentally during the charity reception.
Elena stood near Dominic's study.
Beside her was a man wearing a gray security uniform.
Marco leaned closer.
His face drained of color.
“Where did you get this?”
“I took it before the shooting. Why?”
Marco enlarged the image.
The man's wrist was visible.
Around it was a silver watch with a distinctive black face.
Marco whispered something under his breath.
“Tell me,” Laura demanded.
He looked toward the hospital corridor.
Then back at her.
“That watch belonged to my father.”
Laura blinked.
“Your father died twelve years ago.”
Marco's voice became almost inaudible.
“That's what Dominic told everyone.”
He enlarged the photograph one final time.
May you like
And pointed toward the man's face.
“Laura, the man standing beside Elena is my father.”
