Chapter 1 - The Shattered Silence
By the time Leo Rossi came through the front doors, the woman who had risked everything for his daughter was bleeding on his kitchen floor.
The six-year-old he loved more than his own life had stopped making any sound behind the iron cellar door.
For one terrible second, no one moved.
Not Victoria Kensington, standing in the hallway with a glass of red wine trembling in her perfect hand.
Not the guards outside, who had finally heard the crash and turned toward the mansion too late.
Not Beatrice Miller, the maid everyone treated like part of the furniture, her cheek split open, her fingers swollen purple. Her body was pressed against the cold metal door as if she could hold the child’s life inside by sheer force.
Only Leo moved.
He did not run. Men like Leo Rossi did not run unless the world was ending.
He walked.
Slowly at first, then faster, his black coat hanging open. His eyes were fixed on the kitchen like a father following the sound of his own heart being buried alive.
“Where is she?” he asked.
May you like
His voice was not loud. It was worse than loud.
It was calm enough to make the chandelier seem to stop ringing.
