Chapter 4: Ninety Days

The lock clicked behind the guards. I heard it over Noah's oxygen machine. One clean sound, and Dante had turned pediatrics into one of his private rooms. Bianca had followed us down before he sealed it; now she stood trapped near the window. "Open that door." I planted myself between him and Noah's bed. "No." "You don't get to cage us because a blood screen scared you." "It didn't scare me." His gaze slid to Noah, then back to me. "It told me someone kept my son from me." "Someone? You sent papers saying he had no right to your name before he was even born." Dr. Hall stepped closer to the bed. "Mr. Moretti, Ms. Vale—his numbers are stabilizing, but not for long. We need the vault release and a treatment plan tonight." "Ninety days," Dante said. "You and Noah stay in Moretti protection. You become my legal wife. The vault and specialist team are available immediately." "Release it," I said. "We do not negotiate beside his bed." "We do if someone can vanish with my son." I laughed once. It came out sharp enough to cut. "You want to negotiate beside his bed?" "I want to make sure no one disappears with him while I arrange the only treatment that can keep him alive." "You mean while you arrange to take him." Bianca's fingers tightened on her phone. "Dante, this is insane. You cannot let her use a sick child to force her way back into your life." I ignored her and reached for the red transfer-release tag clipped to Noah's chart. "Ms. Vale," Dr. Hall warned, "that tag lets you request an emergency transfer if you believe care is unsafe, but it triggers a review and delays the vault release." The code Dr. Hall gave me meant I could move Noah without Dante's consent—if I could get past his guards. Bianca saw the tag in my hand. Her gaze sharpened. If she could make me look reckless beside Noah's bed, Dante would have an excuse to keep the door locked. Before I could pull it free, she crossed the room and snatched the portable monitor cable from the wall. The screen went black. Noah's alarm began to scream. "What did you do?" I shoved her away from the bed. She stumbled into Dante. "I thought she was trying to take him." "You touched his equipment," I said. My hands shook as I forced the cable back into place. "You touched my child." A nurse rushed in, checked the connection, and glared at Bianca. "No one touches that without staff." Dante's face changed. Not soft. Not sorry. Deadly. "Get her out," he told his guards. "Dante—" "Out. And no De Luca employee comes within this floor." She let the guards escort her away, but she raised her phone before the door closed. Her thumb hit send. I saw the name on the screen. Vittoria Moretti. Dante saw it too. "You called your mother?" he asked. Bianca's smile came back thin as a blade. "She deserves to know what you brought into this family." The door shut behind her. Noah's monitor settled into a thin, steady beep. Bianca had touched his equipment to win an argument. I would remember that before I let this family call itself protection. I turned on Dante before he could turn that anger into another order. "You want terms? Fine. Say them where Dr. Hall can hear you." "And the price?" "We make decisions together. No transfer. No hiding him from me." "Custody." I said the word before he could dress it up. "Safety." "You sealed a hospital floor to prove you don't know the difference. My signature stays on every medical decision. I choose Noah's lawyer. And no one from your family comes near him without my written consent." I took the pen from the chart and wrote MOTHER VETO across the blank edge of the treatment consent. "This goes in your agreement first." "My mother won't touch him," Dante said. "You said that about your own lawyers five years ago." The hit landed. His face went hard, but he didn't deny it. "The vault releases treatment tonight," he said. "Your conditions go into the ninety-day agreement." Dr. Hall checked Noah's monitor. "Then decide now. He cannot wait while either of you wins a fight." "Take the treatment," he said quietly. "Fight me on every other line. But give me ninety days to keep him alive." Noah stirred, his lashes fluttering behind the mask. I pressed my mouth to his warm forehead, then kept one hand on the transfer tag. "I won't marry you, Dante. Not for ninety days. Not for a thousand," I said. "I will sign nothing that gives you my son. If you want ninety days, you can spend them facing what you did to us." The door opened before Dante could answer. A hospital courier in a black Moretti suit set a cream envelope on Noah's tray. "From Mrs. Moretti," he said. "Her car is waiting to bring the boy home." Ice slid under my ribs. Vittoria had never seen Noah, and she was already ordering him like property.