Chapter 1 - The Husband Who Never Came|
For nine months, Claire Bennett Moretti had learned how to be abandoned without making a sound.
Her husband, Adrian Moretti, was the most feared Mafia boss in Chicago. At thirty-five, he controlled luxury hotels, shipping companies, private casinos, and an organization whose members could make entire neighborhoods fall silent simply by arriving in black cars.
People feared Adrian's anger.
Claire had once believed she was the only person who could soften it.
When she told him she was pregnant, he had kissed her forehead and placed a hand over her stomach.
“I'll take care of both of you,” he promised.
For the first few weeks, Claire believed him.
Then came the excuses.
“Can you come to my appointment tomorrow?” she asked during her third month.
“I have a meeting.”
“What about Thursday?”
“Something came up.”
At first, he sounded apologetic. Eventually, he stopped pretending.
“You're pregnant, Claire. You're not helpless.”
So she attended every appointment alone.
She sat in waiting rooms surrounded by expectant couples while husbands held their wives' hands and studied ultrasound pictures. Claire learned to smile when strangers asked where her husband was.
“He's working,” she would answer.
But the truth was waiting for her on a gossip website.
Adrian had been photographed leaving a luxury hotel with Sophia Reynolds, a twenty-seven-year-old socialite who wore designer dresses and smiled as though the world belonged to her.
When Claire was seven months pregnant, her doctor ordered an additional examination because the baby might be positioned incorrectly.
Frightened, Claire called Adrian.
“Please come. I don't want to do this alone.”
He sighed.
“I'm negotiating a deal worth millions. Stop making everything about yourself.”
Two hours later, Claire saw photographs of him leaving another hotel with Sophia wrapped around his arm.
That night, she confronted him in their penthouse.
“You weren't in a meeting.”
He barely glanced at the pictures.
“So?”
“You left me alone at the hospital for her?”
“Sophia needed me.”
Claire pressed his hand against her swollen stomach.
“And I didn't?”
He pulled away.
“I provide everything you could possibly want.”
She stared at him, feeling something inside her finally break.
“Except a husband.”
He loosened his tie.
“You're being dramatic.”
That was the last time Claire asked Adrian Moretti for anything.
At her final prenatal appointment, her doctor warned that labor could begin at any time. Instead of returning to the penthouse, Claire went directly to her attorney.
She brought nine months of medical records, photographs of Adrian and Sophia, bank statements showing the purchase of a penthouse for his mistress, and messages proving he had repeatedly refused to accompany her to the hospital.
Then she signed the divorce papers.
She also authorized her mother, Eleanor Bennett, to make medical decisions if necessary.
One instruction was unmistakable.
Adrian Moretti was not permitted to enter her delivery room.
Four days later, Claire's water broke.
She was alone.
She grabbed her hospital bag, called a taxi, and rode through Chicago with one hand pressed against her stomach.
Three hours after she was admitted, shouting erupted outside the maternity ward.
“WHERE IS MY WIFE?”
Adrian had arrived in a black suit with six bodyguards.
A nurse blocked his path.
“Your wife has specifically requested that you not enter.”
“I'm her husband!”
“She has authorized her mother as her medical representative.”
Something struck the wall.
“I could buy this entire hospital tomorrow!”
Security hurried toward him.
Then Eleanor stepped into the corridor and held out an envelope.
“Where were you when Claire needed you?”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“That's not important right now.”
“Then perhaps this is.”
He opened the envelope.
The divorce papers.
His face went white.
Behind the closed delivery-room door, Claire heard him speak again, his voice suddenly stripped of its usual arrogance.
“Claire, please. Just let me see you.”
For nine months, she had waited to hear him beg to be there.
Now it was too late.
She turned toward the nurse.
“Please tell him to leave.”
Hours later, her daughter was born healthy and beautiful.
Claire held the baby against her chest and kissed her tiny forehead.
“You will never have to beg anyone to love you.”
Outside, Adrian asked one last question.
“Can I see them?”
The nurse shook her head.
“Mrs. Moretti is not receiving visitors.”
For nine months, Claire had been the one waiting outside rooms for someone who never came.
May you like
Now Adrian stood outside a closed door.
And this time, she wasn't opening it.
