Page 222 of The Black Trilogy

“But what if I decided to go out and buy a house with your charge card?”

He took me by the shoulders. “Diamond, when my parents died, their estate was worth just over nine billion dollars, and it all came to me. I’ve probably doubled it since then. So you’d have to buy a really big house for me to notice, and even if I did notice, I wouldn’t care. Spend what you want.”

Wow. I knew he had a lot of money, but I didn’t realise it was that much.

CHAPTER 27

I MET DAN six months after I got married. I’d started making decent money by that point, and I wanted to donate some of it to people who hadn’t been given the chances Black offered me. One dreary Saturday, I took a trip into Richmond to visit a homeless shelter. I’d met with the people who ran it the previous month, and their ability to do so much with so little funding impressed me. What could they do with a bit more cash?

Two cheques crinkled in my pocket. I’d written the first, and back then, those ten thousand dollars were a lot to me. Although we charged a bomb for my work, my income was sporadic as we ploughed all our profits back into Blackwood’s expansion rather than paying ourselves inflated salaries.

The second cheque came from Black. When he heard my plans, he’d offered to help.

“It’s a good cause, Diamond,” he said, as he ripped it out of his chequebook. “I’ll always match whatever you want to give.”

The staff had been wiping their eyes when I left the shelter. That was the first time I’d ever made someone cry in a good way, and it gave me a warm glow inside. Rainbows and sunshine, but sadly the weather outside didn’t agree. I paused in the foyer and groaned at the sheets of rain. Did I bring an umbrella? I rummaged through my bag, but all I found was an extra knife and two kinds of pepper spray.

“Oof. What the—”

I stumbled backwards as someone ran into me, then remembered Black’s training. Manners, Emmy.

“I’m sorry…” I started, looking up to find a dark-haired girl in front of me. Tears soaked her cheeks as she held her hands up to ward me off. Her swollen belly protruded from a coat too thin for the time of year and blood trickled from her nose.

“Hey, what happened?”

She shook her head then doubled up in pain, clutching her stomach.

“You need to get to a hospital.”

“I can’t.” She shook her head again. “I don’t have any insurance.”

“It’s an emergency. They have to treat you.”

“He’ll find me there.”

“I’ll sort it out. Just get in the car.” Whoever “he” was, I hoped he did turn up because I wanted a word with him for leaving her in that state. The girl doubled over in pain again, but she let me guide her into the passenger seat of the Ford pickup I drove back then, and I put my foot down as soon as I leapt behind the wheel. Her pale face scared me, and she gripped the seatbelt as her breath came in short pants. Was she about to have a baby? Even the cop who pulled me over for speeding took one look at her and waved us on our way. If only it were that easy every time I got stopped.

In the ER, I paced up and down as the doctors worked. I didn’t even know the girl’s name, and nobody would tell me anything because I wasn’t a relative. But I couldn’t leave her there on her own. Finally, I overheard one nurse whispering to another that Daniela di Grassi’s son had been stillborn, and my heart sank. That had to be her, right? And she’d lost the baby?

I paced the waiting room until shift change then told the new receptionist I was Daniela’s sister. I’d got my American accent down to a tee by then, and even though the woman gave me a dubious look because I was blonde and Dan had dark hair, dark eyes, and olive skin, they still let me through to see her.

“Hey.”

She dragged her gaze in my direction, blinking tears away. Now what? I didn’t deal well with emotions.

“He’s gone,” she whispered. “I named him Caleb after my grandfather, and he’s gone.”

Turned out I did know what to do. I gripped Dan’s hand as she wept into her pillow and stayed by her side until the doctors kicked me out.

But I came back the next day, when the doctor told Dan she’d never have children, and the next, and the next. Even though Dan barely spoke, just stared at the wall, I wanted to be there for her. Black didn’t protest, even when I skipped workouts and meetings. He may have been cold on the outside, but he had a vein of compassion lurking deep under the surface that others rarely saw.

Finally, the doctor said Dan could leave, and she slid off the bed with the reluctant demeanour of a condemned woman.

“I can drive you wherever you want,” I told her. “Do you have family nearby?” She’d refused to talk about it so far.

“The shelter. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“But you need to rest, for six weeks at least.” I’d been listening to the doctors, even if she hadn’t.

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