Page 60 of Secret Baby for the Mafia Don

Elio

“What are you doing here?” I manage to say to Grazia.

Did someone call Marco and tell him that he might get custody of Mateo because Kate got hurt? Did Luca and Enzo send her here to try and put pressure on me to sign the deal?

I can’t think of any positive reason that Grazia would be here and yet, my mother seems perfectly content with her presence.

Grazia glances at Kate’s still form in the hospital bed. “I called my brothers a few days ago to invite them to our house for a visit and they told me what happened to Kate.” Her lips turn down into a frown. “I had some pretty choice things to say to them about all of this.” She sighs.

I eye her cautiously. I’m reminded that poisonous creatures are almost always colorful and attractive. Grazia’s apparent kindness might only be a cover for something far more sinister.

“Grazia might have a solution that could help Kate get better,” my mother says, snapping me out of my moody contemplation of Grazia.

“I see,” I say cautiously. I wander closer to Kate’s bed, reaching out to touch her hand.

She doesn’t respond, but I didn’t expect that, not really. “Is there some reason that you think that she isn’t in good hands here?” I ask, my tone flat.

Grazia smiles gently at me. “This is a regular hospital,” she says to me. “They’ve done their best for her, but they don’t have the specialists that she needs if she’s going to get better.”

I eye Luca and Enzo’s sister for a moment. It went without question that I wouldn’t trust her brothers if they told me that this hospital wasn’t the right place for Kate to recover.

I would suspect them of trying to hide her from me. However, now that Grazia is married she is less tied to her family’s business. And she doesn’t earn any money from the deals that her brothers negotiate, so she can’t be here to try and collect money from me.

“I don’t gain anything by helping, Elio,” she says, reflecting my own thoughts back at me. “I don’t know Kate, but I feel terrible about the way that my brothers have treated her since the wedding. She was gracious to me even while they were kidnapping her and Mateo is a sweet little boy. It’s the least I can do to try to help.”

I sigh and glance at my mother. “I assume that you two have already discussed all of this while I was on my way back here.”

My mother smiles a little and nods. “We have.”

I nod. “And?”

“I think we should send her to the hospital that Grazia suggested,” she tells me.

I glance back at Grazia. “I assume that you’re a Baldini through and through, which means that you already have her transfer set up and a bed waiting for her at the hospital that you have come here to recommend.”

She grins at me, and I soften toward her in spite of myself. “You assume right,” she answers me. “You just have to agree and I will put things in motion.”

I look down at Kate. The beeping sounds of all the machines keeping her alive are the only things that tell me that she hasn’t slipped away.

It might be my imagination, but I think she looks even paler than she did yesterday. I draw in a breath and I say, “Do it.”

***

“We have a family property nearby,” Grazia says to me, “but I assume that you wouldn’t want to stay at one of our houses, so I got you and your mother hotel rooms nearby.” She passes me a couple of hotel room keys.

“What about Mateo?” I ask.

“I brought him with me,” she says with a grin. “He’s at the house right now, but I can bring him over to your hotel room whenever you are ready.”

I drive a hand through my hair. The trip to the new hospital wasn’t that long. It’s only an hour from my house, but the process of moving someone out of ICU to another care facility was not an easy one.

I feel like I’ve aged a year over the past day.

“I assume that you’ll want to sit with her,” Grazia is saying. She pulls out her phone and glances at it. “I’m having dinner brought over from the house. Our chef is excellent. I assume you like Italian?” She winks at me and I smile back. I can’t help it. Grazia is as charming as her brothers are brutish.

“Grazia, it’s good to see you,” a doctor says as she comes into the room. She walks over to Grazia and presses a kiss to each of her cheeks.

“Doctor Gregory,” Grazia says, squeezing the other woman’s hands. The doctor towers over Grazia’s petite form. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and a spare, slender frame.

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