Chapter 7 - Liam’s Guardian Angel
|
Healing was a brutal, agonizingly slow process.
For the first week in the golden cage, Ellie barely left the massive, silk-sheeted bed. The pain meds made her drowsy, blurring the edges of her reality. She was a maid from the South Side, sleeping in a bed that cost more than her life insurance policy, surrounded by men carrying concealed weapons.
On the eighth day, her bedroom door creaked open.
Ellie turned her head. Liam stood in the doorway, clutching a worn-out stuffed bear. He hadn’t spoken a single word since the night of the gala. The trauma of the gunfire had locked the little boy entirely inside his own head.
“Hi, Liam,” Ellie said softly, pushing herself up against the pillows, wincing as her ribs protested.
He didn’t answer. He just padded slowly across the thick carpet, his dark eyes—so much like his father’s—staring at her bandages. He stopped at the edge of the bed, reaching out a tiny, trembling hand to touch the edge of the white gauze.
“It’s okay,” Ellie whispered. “It’s healing. I’m going to be perfectly fine.”
Liam looked up at her, tears welling in his eyes. He suddenly climbed up onto the mattress, curling his small body carefully against her uninjured side. He buried his face in her arm and let out a broken, silent sob.
Ellie wrapped her arm around him, resting her chin on the top of his dark hair. She hummed a quiet lullaby, the same one she used to sing to Leo when their parents fought.
The door opened wider. Jack stood in the threshold, completely frozen.
May you like
He had hired the best child psychologists in the state. None of them could get Liam to cry, to react, to do anything but stare blankly at a wall. Yet here he was, seeking comfort from a woman he barely knew.
Jack looked at Ellie holding his son, his expression unreadable. But for the first time since she met him, the terrifying king of Chicago didn't look like a mob boss. He just looked like a desperate father who realized he owed her a debt he could never repay.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/savannah-guthrie-family-2-1-0bac18c6e63544b4865f10ec5d2e16c1.jpg)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(753x298:755x300)/nancy-guthrie-savannah4-2626-92e92a233e444318b692e03163e84f8a.jpg)
