Chapter 9 - The Offer
Nia blinked, caught completely off guard. "Sir?"
Matteo leaned back against his pillows, holding up a finger.
"First," Matteo said, "your mother’s medical debt—Enzo told me you’ve been drowning in eighty thousand dollars of hospital bills from her treatment last year. It’s paid. I had my accountants wire the funds to the hospital twenty minutes ago. The debt is zero."
Nia’s breath caught in her throat. She pressed her hand against her mouth, a sudden wave of emotion hitting her so hard her knees wobbled. "Mr. Costa... you didn't have to—"
"Quiet," Matteo said gently, holding up his hand. "Second, you are done cleaning toilets and dusting baseboards. A mind like yours is wasted on a microfiber cloth."
He looked at Dr. Keller, then back at Nia.
"Dr. Keller tells me you have an extraordinary grasp of pharmacology and botanical science," Matteo continued. "You wanted to go to medical school, didn't you? Before your mother got sick?"
Nia swallowed hard, tears overflowing down her cheeks. "Yes, sir. I had two years of pre-med finished at Columbia before I had to drop out to work full-time."
Matteo smiled—a genuine, warm smile.
"Tomorrow morning," Matteo said, "a full trust fund will be established under your name. It will cover your complete tuition, housing, and living expenses at Columbia Medical School. You will finish your degree. You will become a doctor."
Nia stood frozen in the center of the grand room, completely overwhelmed. For two years, she had lived in the gray, suffocating darkness of poverty, debt, and exhaustion, washing floors for wealthy people while her own dreams burned to ash.
In a single moment, this terrifying, powerful mob boss had swept away all her chains.
"Why are you doing this for me?" Nia whispered, wiping tears from her cheeks. "I'm just a maid."
"You were a maid," Matteo corrected firmly. "Now, you are family. In my world, when someone tries to kill you, you destroy them. But when someone saves your life... you elevate them."
Matteo leaned back, taking a deep breath of clean air.
"There is one condition," Matteo added, his dark eyes twinkling with subtle humor.
Nia raised her eyebrows. "A condition?"
"When you graduate, Dr. Lewis," Matteo said, pointing a finger at her, "you become my personal family physician. Because I am never letting another Harvard doctor near my teacup again as long as I live."
Enzo laughed aloud, and even Dr. Keller let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
May you like
Nia looked at the powerful man sitting on the bed, then at Enzo, and finally at her own reflection in the window—no longer a ghost in a gray dress, but a woman with a future.
"I accept those terms, Mr. Costa," Nia said, a bright, beautiful smile breaking across her face.
