E HER WEDDING RING OFF THE TABLE. SHE DOESN'T BELONG HERE ANYMORE!” THE MAFIA BOSS'S MISTRESS ORDERED HIS 25-YEAR-OLD MAID TO REMOVE HIS WIFE'S PLACE

Sabrina stared at the train ticket resting on the polished mahogany table. The arrogant smirk melted off her face, replaced by a twitch of genuine panic.

“You’re bluffing,” Sabrina snapped. “I’ve had men watching that nursery around the clock.”

Catherine didn’t flinch. “You had men watching the front door. You forgot that the clinic is owned by the Archdiocese. The nuns there have known me since I was a child. They took my grandson out through the laundry tunnels three nights ago.”

Luca stood frozen, his eyes darting between his wife and the mistress who had systematically destroyed his life. The sheer scale of Catherine’s secret war over the past four months was finally dawning on him.

While he had been booking hotel rooms in Milwaukee, his wife had been fighting a shadow war to save their only grandchild.

“Where is he, Cath?” Luca asked, his voice thick with shame and desperation. “Where is Matteo’s son?”

Catherine looked at her husband. Twenty years of loyalty, twenty years of quiet endurance, and he had thrown it away.

“He is safe,” Catherine said simply. “That’s all you need to know.”

Sabrina let out a shrill, furious laugh. “You stupid, arrogant woman. You think moving the brat changes anything? You think I’m playing a game?”

She pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. She put it on speaker and slammed it onto the dining table.

“Answer one,” Sabrina hissed at Catherine. “Open two. You think you’re the only one who can hide things in this house?”

The phone rang twice before a deep male voice answered.

“Yeah, boss.”

Luca’s head snapped up.

I recognized that voice. It was Marco, Luca’s head of security. The man who had sworn his life to protect the Moretti family.

“Marco,” Sabrina said coldly. “Mrs. Moretti decided to move the package. Secure the perimeter.”

“Done,” Marco replied, and the line went dead.

Suddenly, the heavy oak doors of the dining room swung open.

Three of Luca’s own bodyguards stepped into the room. But their hands weren't resting by their sides. Their weapons were drawn, and they were pointing directly at Luca and Catherine.

My knees buckled. I backed into the corner of the dining room, clutching the empty silver serving tray to my chest like a shield.

“Marco?” Luca shouted, his face twisting in betrayal as his most trusted man stepped through the doorway, leveling a Glock at his chest. “What the hell is this?”

“Business, Mr. Moretti,” Marco said flatly. “Sabrina’s employers pay better. And they offer better retirement plans.”

Luca stepped instinctively in front of Catherine, shielding her with his body. Even after his betrayal, his first instinct was to protect his wife.

“Who are your employers, Sabrina?” Luca demanded, his fists clenched. “You aren’t working alone. You don't have the money to buy my men.”

Sabrina walked to the table and picked up Catherine’s diamond bracelet, casually clasping it back around her own wrist.

“My employers want the Moretti territory,” Sabrina smiled. “And they figured the easiest way to take down the king was to let him destroy his own castle. You made it incredibly easy, Luca. A few compliments, a few hotel rooms, and you handed me the keys to your life.”

She turned her dark eyes to Catherine.

“Tell me where the baby is, Catherine. Or Marco puts a bullet in your husband's knee.”

Catherine’s face paled, but her spine remained perfectly straight.

“If you hurt him, you’ll never find the boy,” Catherine said.

“I’ll take my chances,” Sabrina shrugged. “Marco. The left knee.”

Marco raised his weapon.

“Wait!” I screamed.

The entire room turned to look at me. I was trembling so violently the silver tray rattled against my uniform. I didn't know what I was doing, but I couldn't watch them shoot the woman who had sat beside my mother's hospital bed.

Sabrina looked at me with immense irritation. “Shut up, maid.”

“I know where the baby is!” I lied, my voice cracking.

Catherine whipped her head toward me. “Emily, no!”

“Oh?” Sabrina’s eyes lit up with malicious delight. She walked slowly toward my corner. “And how would a little housemaid know that?”

I swallowed hard, desperately trying to construct a lie that made sense.

“Because… because Mrs. Moretti gave him to me.”

Sabrina stopped. She looked me up and down.

“She gave the heir to the Moretti empire to a twenty-five-year-old girl who cleans toilets?”

“She trusted me!” I cried. I reached into my apron pocket and pulled out a thin, plastic strip.

It was my mother’s hospital visitor bracelet. I had forgotten to throw it away after my shift at the dialysis clinic that morning.

I held it up, praying they couldn't read the fine print in the dim light.

“She had me hide him at the Saint Jude Medical Center,” I said, my heart hammering against my ribs. “Under my mother's name. They think he's my nephew.”

Sabrina stared at the plastic bracelet. Then she smiled.

“Well,” Sabrina purred, grabbing my arm with bruising force. “It looks like Emily is coming with us.”

Before Luca could move, Marco grabbed him from behind, slamming the butt of his gun into the back of Luca’s head.

Luca collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud.

Catherine screamed, dropping to her knees beside her bleeding husband.

Sabrina yanked me toward the door.

“Keep them here,” Sabrina ordered Marco. “If they try to leave, kill them both. I’m going to the hospital to pick up my son.”

She dragged me out into the cold Chicago night, shoving me into the back of a black SUV.

As the car sped away from the mansion, Sabrina leaned close to me, smelling of expensive perfume and gunpowder.

“If you’re lying to me, Emily,” Sabrina whispered, “I won’t just kill you. I’ll walk into that dialysis ward and unplug your mother’s machines myself.”

I stared out the window into the darkness, terrified.

Because I wasn't just lying.