Chapter 3 - A Debt Dominic Castile Couldn’t Ignore
Dominic did not take Sadie to his penthouse.
He took her to Rosa.
The private hospital floor was quiet when they arrived.
Sadie stopped outside the room.
“I thought we were going somewhere safe.”
“We are.”
“This is a hospital.”
“It’s secured.”
She looked at the men positioned near both ends of the corridor.
“That part I noticed.”
Dominic opened the door.
Rosa was awake.
The elderly woman looked smaller beneath white hospital blankets than she had in Sadie’s arms.
For several seconds, Rosa simply stared.
Then her eyes filled with tears.
“You.”
Sadie smiled.
“Hi.”
Rosa reached toward her.
Sadie crossed the room.
The moment their hands touched, Rosa began crying.
Dominic looked away.
Sadie sat beside her.
“You’re okay.”
“Because of you.”
“The firefighters were coming.”
“They would have been too late.”
Sadie said nothing.
Rosa studied the bandages around her hands.
“You were hurt.”
“I’ve had worse shifts at the diner.”
Rosa laughed weakly.
Dominic stared at Sadie.
She could make his mother laugh less than forty-eight hours after someone tried to destroy her home.
Rosa turned toward her son.
“Did you thank her?”
“I attempted to.”
Sadie smiled.
“He’s not very good at it.”
Rosa gave Dominic a look only a mother could give a grown man everyone else feared.
“Dominic.”
“I offered medical care.”
“She refused,” Rosa guessed.
“Yes.”
“Money?”
“Yes.”
“She refused that too?”
“Yes.”
Rosa smiled.
“I like her.”
Sadie laughed.
Dominic sighed.
A doctor entered shortly afterward and, with Rosa’s encouragement rather than Dominic’s authority, convinced Sadie to let someone examine her injuries.
Her hands would heal.
Her lungs needed rest.
No permanent damage.
Dominic stood outside when the doctor finished.
“What did they say?”
“I’ll survive.”
“I asked what they said.”
Sadie studied him.
“Do you always need control?”
“Yes.”
“At least you’re self-aware.”
He handed her a key card.
“What’s this?”
“A room.”
“I thought I was staying here.”
“Not in the hospital. There’s a secure apartment upstairs used for family.”
“Your family?”
“Yes.”
Sadie looked at the card.
“I’m not accepting anything permanent.”
“It’s a bed, Sadie, not a marriage proposal.”
She stared at him.
Carmine, several feet away, suddenly became very interested in his phone.
Sadie took the key.
“Fine.”
That night, she slept for eleven hours.
When she woke, breakfast waited outside.
So did a fresh coat.
Sadie frowned at it.
There was no designer label visible.
No jewelry.
No envelope of cash.
Just a warm coat in her size.
She put it on.
Dominic was learning.
Over the next several days, something unexpected happened.
Rosa and Sadie became friends.
Sadie visited every afternoon.
They talked about ordinary things.
Rosa told stories about raising a stubborn son.
Sadie talked about nursing school.
“You should go back,” Rosa said.
“I can’t afford it.”
“Dominic can.”
Sadie nearly dropped her coffee.
“No.”
Rosa laughed.
“You two are exhausting.”
“It’s my life.”
“And what do you want from it?”
Sadie looked toward the window.
Nobody had asked her that in a long time.
“I wanted to be a nurse.”
“Wanted?”
“Want.”
“Then don’t speak about it in the past tense.”
Sadie carried those words with her.
Dominic carried something else.
Guilt.
He learned that Sadie had missed almost a week of work.
He learned her manager had replaced several of her shifts.
He learned her landlord had taped a late notice to her door.
Every consequence traced back to the same night.
To his mother.
To him.
He wanted to fix everything.
Sadie would not let him.
So Dominic did something much harder.
He asked.
They were sitting in the hospital cafeteria when he placed his coffee down.
“What would you allow me to do?”
Sadie blinked.
“Did Dominic Castile just ask permission?”
“Don’t make me regret it.”
She smiled.
“You don’t owe me a new life.”
“I owe you my mother’s.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Dominic.”
“You went into a burning building.”
“I know. I was there.”
His voice softened.
“I wasn’t.”
That silenced her.
He looked away.
“If you hadn’t been walking down that street…”
Sadie understood.
Behind the suits, security and cold authority was simply a son who had almost lost his mother.
“You can pay the medical bill,” she said.
Dominic looked back.
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“Your coat was destroyed.”
“You already replaced it.”
“Your wages—”
“No.”
“Rent?”
“No.”
“Nursing school?”
“Absolutely not.”
Dominic leaned back.
“You negotiate terribly.”
“I’m not negotiating.”
He almost smiled.
Then Carmine entered the cafeteria.
One look at his face erased the moment.
Dominic stood.
“What?”
Carmine glanced at Sadie.
She noticed.
“Say it.”
Carmine handed Dominic a photograph.
It showed Sadie entering the hospital.
Taken from across the street.
Dominic’s expression became stone.
“Where did you get this?”
“It was delivered downstairs.”
Sadie stared at the photograph.
Something was written on the back.
Dominic turned it over.
Three words.
SHE SAW TOO MUCH.
Sadie’s mouth went dry.
“I didn’t see anything.”
Dominic’s eyes stayed on the message.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“What happens now?”
Dominic looked at her.
The answer frightened her more than the photograph.
Because for the first time since meeting him, Dominic Castile looked uncertain.
And Sadie realized the people hunting her were no longer trying to discover who she was.
May you like
They already knew.
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