Chapter 6 - Leaving the White Walls
The discharge paperwork was finalized by Friday afternoon, but the reality of leaving St. Catherine Medical Center felt less like a liberation and more like a transfer from one type of cell to another.
My shoulder still throbbed with a deep, bruised ache every time I moved, and the heavy gold band on my finger felt like an anchor weighing down my left hand. When I stepped out of the hospital’s private exit, a sleek, bulletproof black SUV was idling curbside, its tinted windows reflecting the grey Manhattan sky.
Enzo stood holding the rear door open, nodding respectfully as I approached.
“Welcome home, Mrs. Rossi,” Enzo said smoothly.
I stopped dead in my tracks, my jaw tightening. “I’m not your boss’s wife in any real sense, Enzo. Stop calling me that.”
Enzo’s expression remained an absolute mask of professional indifference. “In the eyes of the law, the church, and the New York underworld, you wear his ring, ma’am. That makes you royalty whether you like it or not.”
Before I could retort, Dominic stepped out from the passenger side, closing the distance between us in a few long strides. Without asking permission, he slid a heavy cashmere coat over my shoulders, shielding my bandaged frame from the sharp autumn wind.
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“Get in, Elena,” Dominic instructed quietly, his hand resting firmly and possessively at the small of my back.
I didn't fight him. Standing on a public sidewalk in Manhattan while Victor Costa’s bounty hung over my head was suicide. I climbed into the leather interior of the SUV, staring straight ahead as Dominic slid in beside me and the vehicle pulled silently into the afternoon traffic.
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