Chapter 2 - The Disobedient Choice
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The elevator dropped quickly toward the underground garage. Enzo held Elena close against his chest, feeling the weak, erratic rhythm of her heart. In eleven years of absolute loyalty to the Moretti empire, he had never defied an order. He knew the rules. You take family members to the Lexington clinic, where the doctors were paid to keep quiet, sign falsified reports, and ask no questions.
He carried her past the black sedan and hesitated at the curb. Night air hit his face, sharp and cold.
"If I take you to Lexington," Enzo murmured looking down at Elena's pale face, "you and that baby won't survive the night."
Elena didn't answer. Her head rolled uselessly against his shoulder.
Enzo made the first disobedient choice of his life. He bypassed the family clinic, tore out of the garage, and threw his foot down on the accelerator. He blew through two red lights along Ninth Avenue, tires screeching against the wet pavement.
Ten minutes later, the sedan slammed to a stop outside the emergency trauma center at Bellevue Hospital. Enzo burst through the automatic sliding doors, carrying Elena’s limp body in his arms.
"I need help!" Enzo roared, his voice echoing across the tiled waiting room. "She’s pregnant! She’s bleeding!"
A team of nurses and trauma doctors swarmed forward with a gurney. Within seconds, Elena was laid flat, surrounded by flashing monitors and barking orders.
A senior triage nurse grabbed Enzo’s arm, her eyes scanning his blood-stained shirt. "What happened to her?"
"She... she fell," Enzo stumbled over his words, the ingrained fear of the Morettis clawing at his throat.
The nurse looked from Enzo’s panicked face to the defensive bruises purpled along Elena’s forearms and the sharp fracture behind her right ear.
"Falls don't leave defense marks like that," the nurse said sternly, writing rapidly on her chart. "Who is her husband? Did he call 911?"
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"No," Enzo admitted, dropping his head. "He went to dinner."
The nurse's eyes hardened. She immediately checked the box for law enforcement notification.
