Page 121 of Enzo
I turned to look at him. “So was I. What were you thinking about?”
“You first.”
A half-empty bottle of sparkling water sat between us and I reached for it, squeezing gently. “The contacts you’ve retrieved, access you gained after ending Atticus… Do you think we could use it somehow?”
He nodded once, barely. “That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking. You said we should turn it into something good, and if I build a software—a worldwide network—that can connect surgeons, donors, and patients, we could save a lot of people.”
I swallowed. “What about… killings?”
“No, no killings.” He rubbed his hands together, then pressed them to his face. “It would all be based on voluntary donation. Anyone who signs up to be a donor would be registered inthis database, but not on a region-by-region basis. It would be worldwide, cutting out anyone who’s trying to deal on the black market.”
“It would put whoever is left out of business.” My voice cracked. “Enzo… We could fix this.”
“I know.” His voice was raw. “We have to eliminate those who have been hunting children of criminals for organ harvesting. Those vendettas have to come to an end. Furthermore, organ trafficking in general is too tempting for criminals. It gives them too much power over a human life, and a thirst for life makes people desperate to do whatever is needed to save those we love. But with this software…”
I looked at him and saw the hope behind his eyes.
I blinked hard against the sting of tears. “With this software, everyone in the world will have a fair chance," I murmured. “The system will be centralized and face scan upon login will run it against all agencies’ databases.”
He nodded. “Access, just like any doctor would. No parent, husband, or child would ever be taken advantage of again.”
“Enzo?”
“Yes?”
“Do you know who got her heart?” The question had been burning in my brain for days, and although I was terrified to know, I had to find out.
A long silence stretched between us. The album had looped again—“God Knows I Tried” this time. I almost laughed at the double dose of irony. Almost…
“I don’t, but I can find out. Do you want me to?”
I nodded.
“Promise me something,” I whispered.
“Anything.”
“If we do this… we do it on our terms. Not the Omertà’s. Not the Kingpins’. And definitely not this organization’s terms. We shut down Atticus’s legacy.”
He looked at me like I’d just handed him a match and a fuse.
“Deal.”
He pulled me onto his lap and we stared into the nothingness of our empty house, already knowing we were about to fill it with something far more important than furniture. Our love and loyalty to each other.
ENZO
I wasn’t able to look away from her, admiring the way her hair fell over her shoulder. The soft lines of her face and the devastating strength that’d captivated me all those years ago, on a stage in Paris, a cello in her hands. But it was her loyalty that I loved most of all.
She could’ve run by now. But she hadn’t.
So I said the only thing that came to mind. “Thank you.”
Her eyes flicked open and she tilted her head to gaze up at me. “For what?”
“For still being here.” She looked at me for a long moment. “I wouldn’t blame you if you left,” I admitted.
She shifted closer, so close now that I could feel the heat radiating off her. “For better or worse, Enzo. I might not have meant the words that day in the church, but I mean them now. With all my heart, for better or worse. Richer or poorer. In sickness and in health… We stick together.”
