Chapter 4 - The Price of Refusing a Mafia BossDominic arrived at our apartment twenty-three minutes after I called the number on his card.
I hadn't intended to call him.
I had intended to pack our belongings, take Rosie to my coworker's home, and pretend that none of this had happened.
Then I saw the threat on our wall.
I was done pretending.
Dominic entered with four armed bodyguards. His gaze swept across the apartment, the damaged box, the scattered photographs, and the handwritten threat.
His expression grew colder with every step.
“Has anyone touched anything?”
“No.”
“Good. Bruno, photograph everything. Have the building entrances checked.”
Then he turned toward me.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Rosie?”
“She was frightened. She's sleeping now.”
Dominic nodded toward the small bedroom.
“May I see her?”
I stepped between him and the doorway.
“No.”
He stopped immediately.
The bodyguards exchanged glances.
I didn't care.
“You don't get to walk into our home, give orders, and decide what happens to my daughter.”
Dominic studied me for a moment.
“You're right.”
His answer caught me off guard.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I said you're right. This is your home. I should have asked.”
The man who commanded armed men and frightened politicians had just apologized to me in an apartment with peeling wallpaper.
I didn't know what to do with that.
Dominic examined the threat again.
“Someone wants you frightened enough to stop asking questions.”
“Why? I don't know anything about your business.”
“Someone believes you might.”
“I told you my husband left for Chicago.”
“And I told you the evidence doesn't support that story.”
My anger rose.
“Then perhaps you should have looked harder four years ago!”
The words escaped before I could stop them.
Dominic didn't retaliate.
Instead, he lowered his eyes.
“Yes,” he said. “Perhaps I should have.”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then I asked the question that had haunted me since the department store.
“What was my husband really doing for you?”
“Michael discovered irregularities in our shipping accounts. Money was being moved through companies that had no legitimate purpose. When he started investigating, someone attempted to kill me.”
I stared at him.
“Did he betray you?”
“I believed he had stolen evidence and run away.”
“And now?”
“Now I believe I was wrong.”
The words settled between us.
My husband, the man I had accused of cowardice in the darkest moments of my life, might have been running from something far worse than poverty.
I wanted to believe it.
I also wanted to hate Dominic for making me question four years of pain.
“Why didn't you find us?”
“Because the people who handled the investigation reported that Michael had no surviving family worth searching for.”
I felt sick.
“He had a wife and a daughter.”
“I know.”
“Then someone lied to you.”
Dominic's jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
A small voice came from the bedroom.
“Mommy?”
Rosie appeared in the doorway, rubbing her eyes. She saw the armed men and immediately reached for my hand.
Dominic crouched several feet away.
“Hello, Rosie.”
She studied him suspiciously.
“Are you a policeman?”
“No.”
“Are you a bad man?”
Every bodyguard in the room froze.
Dominic took a slow breath.
“Sometimes I've done bad things.”
“Did you hurt Daddy?”
“No,” he answered.
Then, after a moment, he added, “But I might have failed to protect him.”
Rosie considered that.
“Mommy says when you make a mistake, you have to try to fix it.”
Dominic looked at her for a long time.
“I think your mommy is right.”
He stood and turned to Bruno.
“Find us somewhere safe.”
I immediately shook my head.
“We aren't going anywhere with you.”
Dominic didn't argue.
“Then choose the location yourself. My people will secure it, and you can leave whenever you decide.”
He was reaching for his coat when his phone rang.
He answered.
A man's voice came through the speaker, loud enough for me to hear.
“Dominic, I understand you've been asking about Michael Bennett.”
Dominic's face became stone.
“Carlo.”
His uncle's laughter filled the room.
“Leave that woman alone, nephew. Some ghosts are better left buried.”
Dominic's eyes met mine.
Then Carlo delivered the threat that changed everything.
“Especially when the ghost has a daughter.”
The call ended.
Dominic slowly lowered his phone.
“Bruno,” he said, “we're moving them tonight.”
This time, I didn't refuse.
May you like
Because the man who had frightened me in the department store was no longer the most terrifying person in the room.
It was the man who had just called to remind us that he knew my daughter's name.
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