Chapter 3 - The Safe House
We survived the harrowing night, but the grand Rossi estate did not.
By dawn, the mansion was nothing but smoldering ash, and we were miles away, hidden deep inside an underground bunker beneath a nondescript shipping warehouse in the industrial district.
Lorenzo's loyal men—the ones who hadn't been bought off—had rallied quickly. Marcus and his hired thugs had managed to escape the fire, slipping back into the city's underbelly, but Lorenzo's vast empire was already hunting them down.
I sat on the edge of a simple, uncomfortable cot, exhausted beyond measure. The concrete walls of the bunker were cold, lit only by flickering fluorescent lights.
Leo was fast asleep in my arms, wrapped in a soft gray sweatshirt one of the guards had given me.
He had woken up to eat twice more during the night. The terrifying pallor of his skin was already fading, and a faint, healthy pink color was slowly returning to his chubby cheeks.
The heavy steel door creaked open, and Lorenzo walked into the small room.
He had stripped off his ruined suit jacket. His white dress shirt was torn, stained heavily with dark soot and dried blood. He looked exhausted, yet still radiated an undeniable, terrifying authority.
He held two steaming foam cups and handed one to me.
"Hot tea. Drink it," he said softly.
"Thank you," I whispered, shifting Leo's weight slightly so I could take the cup with a trembling hand. The warmth of the liquid seeped into my freezing fingers.
Lorenzo pulled up a screeching metal folding chair and sat across from me. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and simply watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his son's chest.
"The best pediatricians in the state told me his organs were shutting down," Lorenzo said quietly, the raw vulnerability in his voice startling me. "They told me he was rejecting food because of trauma. Because his mother died bringing him into the world, and he could feel her absence."
I looked down at my tea. "The nurse was sedating him so heavily he couldn't wake up to eat. He wasn't rejecting food, Mr. Rossi. He was fighting to live, but he was just too drugged to swallow."
Lorenzo's jaw clenched so hard I thought his teeth might shatter.
"She confessed to my men before the fire took her," Lorenzo said coldly. "Marcus's bosses, the Moretti family, paid her a fortune to ensure my bloodline ended quietly."
Silence stretched between us, thick and heavy.
The most dangerous, ruthless man in the city was sitting mere inches from me, stripped of his sprawling fortress, his guards, and his power. Yet, he looked entirely focused on the tiny, fragile life resting against my heart.
"You lost a child," Lorenzo said abruptly, breaking the silence.
I flinched visibly. The words felt like physical blows to my chest. I pulled the blanket tighter around Leo.
"I had my men pull your employee file on the drive here," he continued, his sharp gaze softening slightly as he looked at my face. "Lily. Three weeks ago. You should still be on bed rest."
Fresh tears spilled over my eyelashes, splashing into my tea. "He pushed me. Marcus. He was blindingly angry that I wouldn't give him my savings to pay off his bookies. I fell down a flight of concrete stairs. My water broke... but there was no heartbeat."
Lorenzo reached out slowly. I expected him to touch his son, to comfort the baby. Instead, his rough, warm fingers gently brushed against my face, wiping a tear from my cheek.
"I cannot bring your daughter back to you, Clara," Lorenzo said, his dark eyes intense and unblinking. "I cannot fix the tragedy that broke you."
He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a deadly, solemn vow.
"But I swear to you, on my son's life, the man who took her from you will never draw another breath in this city. I will make him beg for a death I will not give him."
My breath hitched in my throat.
I had spent the last three weeks drowning in a suffocating ocean of grief, feeling utterly powerless, invisible, and alone. Now, the devil himself was sitting in front of me, offering me the bloody vengeance I didn't know I craved.
"What do you want from me in return?" I asked nervously, my voice shaking. "I'm just a maid."
Lorenzo looked down at Leo, a ghost of a smile touching his lips.
"My son needs a mother," he said. "He needs you. And right now, after what happened tonight, you are the only breathing person in this world I trust to hold him."
He wasn't asking me to clean his floors anymore. He was asking me to be their lifeline.
"I'll stay," I whispered, the decision cementing in my soul the moment the words left my mouth.
May you like
Leo stirred, his tiny hand reaching up in his sleep to grab a fistful of my shirt.
My milk had come in for a baby who was violently stolen from me. But perhaps, by some cruel, beautiful, twisted intervention of fate, it was always meant to save this one.
