**THE MAFIA BOSS WATCHED HIS FIANCÉE PUSH MY NINE-YEAR-OLD SON'S WALKER AWAY FROM HIM DURING HIS ENGAGEMENT DINNER—THEN SHE SAID, “HE NEEDS TO SHOW OUR GUESTS WHAT HE CAN DO.” BUT WHEN MY LITTLE BOY WHISPERED, “MOMMY, I'M SCARED TO FALL AGAIN,” LUCA STOOD UP AND ASKED, “WHO TOLD YOU HE HAD TO WALK TONIGHT?”**

My hands shook violently as I traced the familiar strip of bright green tape.

I had cut that piece of tape myself three months ago. I knew the exact frayed edge where the scissors had slipped.

Why is it stuck to this ledger?

I scrambled to my feet, holding the heavy leather book. I walked over to the bedside lamp and clicked it on to the lowest setting, desperate not to wake Benjamin.

I opened the ledger.

The pages were filled with handwritten entries dating back over a decade. Names, dates, bank account numbers, and massive sums of money. But they weren’t charitable donations or legitimate shipping invoices.

They were payoffs.

May 14th: Judge Thomas Vance. $50,000. Favorable ruling on waterfront zoning.October 2nd: Officer David Miller. $25,000. Misplaced evidence in the Matteo Moretti investigation.November 18th: Alderman Richard Hayes. $100,000. Permit approval.

My stomach plummeted.

This was Arthur Bellini’s shadow ledger. The exact book Michael had warned Luca about. The book that contained the proof of every dirty politician and corrupt cop the Bellini family had bought over the last ten years.

But how did it get into our guest suite?

I looked over at Ben, sleeping soundly in the massive bed.

The green tape.

My mind raced backward through the evening. After the terrible scene in the dining room, when I took Ben to the private sitting room to calm him down, I had left his walker in the hallway for just a minute while I unlocked the door.

Someone had slipped this book into the small black pouch attached to the front of his walker.

And the tape must have caught on the leather binding when Ben pulled his favorite toy out of the pouch earlier tonight.

Someone in this house had hidden the most dangerous book in Chicago inside a crippled child’s walker to smuggle it out of the mansion.

But who?

A soft, frantic scratching sound at my door made my heart stop.

I froze, clutching the ledger to my chest.

“Sarah,” a frail, terrified voice whispered from the hallway. “Sarah, please open the door. It’s Teresa.”

Luca’s mother.

I hurried to the door, slid the chain off, and pulled it open just enough to let her in.

Teresa Moretti stumbled into the room. The elegant matriarch looked completely broken. Her hair was disheveled, and she was clutching her pearl necklace so tightly her knuckles were white.

I quickly locked the door behind her.

“They arrested him,” Teresa sobbed, burying her face in her hands. “They took my Luca in handcuffs. They dragged him out like a criminal.”

“I know, Mrs. Moretti, I heard them,” I whispered, guiding her to the armchair. “He’s taking the fall for Michael.”

Teresa looked up at me, her eyes wide with shock. “You know about Michael?”

“I overheard them in the study,” I confessed softly. “I know Michael gave Arthur the route the night Matteo died.”

Teresa let out a heartbroken wail and covered her mouth. “My boys. Arthur Bellini has destroyed both of my boys.”

She looked at the leather book in my hands.

Her breath hitched.

“Where did you find that?” she asked, her voice dropping to a terrified whisper.

“It was in Ben’s walker pouch,” I said. “Mrs. Moretti, what is this? Who put it there?”

Teresa stood up, trembling as she reached out to touch the leather binding.

“I did,” she confessed.

I stared at her in shock. “You? Why?”

“Because Vanessa was looking for it,” Teresa cried. “She knew Arthur kept it hidden in his safe at their estate. But Arthur didn’t know Michael stole it three days ago. Michael brought it here to give to Luca, to prove Arthur’s corruption, but he lost his nerve.”

Teresa wiped her eyes frantically.

“When Vanessa realized Luca was going to cancel the wedding, she panicked. She started tearing Michael’s room apart during the dinner. I saw her. I knew what she was looking for. So I went in, found it under his mattress, and I hid it the only place I knew Vanessa would never look.”

“With the disabled boy she despises,” I realized, my blood running cold.

“I’m so sorry, Sarah,” Teresa wept, grabbing my hands. “I was going to take it out after dinner. But then the argument happened, and you took Benjamin away so quickly… I couldn’t stop you.”

“Mrs. Moretti, the police are downstairs right now!” I whispered fiercely. “If we give this to them, they can arrest Arthur! They can clear Luca!”

Teresa grabbed my wrists with surprising strength.

“No! Sarah, you cannot give that to the police!”

“Why not? It proves Arthur bought the officer who investigated Matteo’s death!”

“Because half the police force in this city is in that book!” Teresa hissed. “If you hand that ledger to a corrupt cop downstairs, it will disappear into an evidence locker forever, and Luca will be murdered in his holding cell before morning!”

I felt the air leave my lungs. She was right. The ledger wasn’t just evidence; it was a hit list of powerful men who would do anything to keep it buried.

“Then what do we do?” I asked, panic finally setting in.

Teresa looked toward the window.

“We have to get it to the FBI,” she said. “The federal task force. They’ve been trying to build a RICO case against the Bellinis for five years. This book is the missing piece. If we give it to them directly, they’ll offer Luca immunity.”

“How do we get to them? The mansion is surrounded by local police.”

Before Teresa could answer, the handle of my bedroom door rattled violently.

I gasped, jumping back.

“Sarah! Open this door!” a deep, aggressive voice shouted from the hallway.

It was Officer Miller. The corrupt cop listed in the ledger. The man Arthur had bought to cover up Matteo’s murder.

He was here. And he was looking for the book.

“Open the door, Sarah, or I’ll break it down!” Miller yelled, pounding his fist against the heavy wood.

Ben jolted awake in the bed, crying out in terror. “Mommy!”

I rushed to the bed, pulling him into my arms, shielding his body with mine.

Teresa looked around the room frantically. She spotted the heavy brass fireplace poker resting near the hearth. She grabbed it, her hands shaking, and stood between us and the door.

“Don’t you dare touch them!” Teresa screamed toward the hallway.

CRASH.

The door splintered as Officer Miller kicked the lock. The brass chain held for a second, then snapped.

The door flew open.

Officer Miller stood in the doorway, his gun drawn, a sinister smile on his face.

“Well, well,” Miller sneered, stepping into the room. “Look what we have here. The old woman, the maid, and the cripple.”