**THE MAFIA BOSS WATCHED ME PULL A SECOND CHAIR BESIDE HIS FIANCÉE'S SIXTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD MOTHER DURING HIS ENGAGEMENT DINNER—THEN VANESSA SAID, “SHE'S ONLY THE SEAMSTRESS WHO FIXED MY DRESS,” BEFORE HE EVEN ASKED WHY THE WOMAN WAS HOLDING A PAIR OF WORN GOLDEN SCISSORS AND WHY THE BEAUTIFUL RED GOWN HIS FIANCÉE WAS WEARING HAD THE SAME HAND-STITCHED INITIALS AS THE COAT SHE HAD MADE FOR HER LATE HUSBAND.**

"What did you just say?"

Luca’s voice was a terrifying whisper. He didn't look at Vanessa. He kept his eyes locked on the six-year-old boy sitting on the floor beside Helen.

Leo shrank back slightly, intimidated by his uncle's tone, but Helen gently wrapped her arm around the boy's shoulders.

"It's okay, Leo," Helen murmured, her voice steady and warm. "You're safe. Nobody is going to hurt you."

Leo looked up at Luca. "She locks me in the closet when you go to work, Uncle Luca. The one in the hallway. It's dark. She says if I make noise, the monsters will get me."

I felt bile rise in my throat. My hands clenched into fists.

I knew Vanessa was cruel to the staff. I knew she was a narcissist. But locking an orphaned child in a dark closet?

Luca slowly stood to his full height. He turned to face Vanessa.

"Luca, he's a child! He has an active imagination!" Vanessa cried, backing away until her spine hit the dining room wall. "He hates me because I try to discipline him! He's spoiled!"

Luca didn't shout. He just raised his hand, and two of his men stepped forward, blocking the dining room doors. Vanessa was trapped.

"Mrs. Bellini," Luca said, his voice eerily calm. "Open the dog."

Helen didn't hesitate. With a few quick snips of her golden scissors, she opened the back seam of the stuffed animal. She reached into the cotton stuffing and pulled out a small, heavy object.

She held it up.

It was a solid gold locket. It was encrusted with diamonds, old and incredibly rare.

Luca’s jaw tightened. "My mother’s locket. It has been missing from the family vault for two months."

"I was cleaning it!" Vanessa shrieked. "I was getting it polished for the wedding!"

"By hiding it inside a child's toy?" Luca asked coldly. "You were stealing it, Vanessa. You were planning to pawn my family's heritage, just like you pawned your father's watch. You were looting this house."

Vanessa slid down the wall, bursting into hysterical tears. "I needed security! You wouldn't put my name on the bank accounts! I needed to know I was safe if you ever left me!"

"You abused my son," Luca said, his voice dropping an octave. "You locked my brother's child in a dark closet."

"I didn't!"

"Megan."

I jumped as Luca said my name. "Yes, Mr. Moretti?"

"You manage the upstairs cleaning," Luca said, his dark eyes meeting mine. "Have you ever seen Vanessa mistreat Leo?"

I looked at Vanessa. She was glaring at me, her eyes screaming a threat. I will fire you. I will ruin you. Your mother will die in that hospital.

I thought about my mom. I thought about how hard I worked. And then I looked at Helen, who was holding the little boy tight against her side.

"Yes, sir," I said loudly, my voice ringing through the room. "She fired the nanny two weeks ago and told you she quit. When you leave for the office, she forces Leo to stay in his room. If he comes out, she locks him in the linen closet. I unlocked it myself three days ago. She threatened to have me blacklisted from every job in Chicago if I told you."

Vanessa screamed and lunged at me. "You lying little bitch!"

Before she could take two steps, one of the suited men caught her by the arm and slammed her back against the wall, holding her there effortlessly.

"That's enough," Luca said. The finality in his voice was absolute.

He walked over to Vanessa. He reached down, grabbed her left hand, and violently pulled the three-carat diamond engagement ring off her finger.

Vanessa let out a wail of despair.

"You leave with the clothes on your back," Luca said. "Nothing else."

"The shop!" Vanessa screamed, spit flying from her lips. "I still have the deed to my mother's shop! It's in my name! If I go down, she goes down! I will sell that building to the highest bidder tomorrow morning!"

Helen closed her eyes, tears leaking through her lashes. "Let her take it. Please, Mr. Moretti. I don't want anything else from her."

Luca looked at Helen. Then he looked back at his ex-fiancée, and a dark, terrifying smile spread across his face.

"You think you hold the cards, Vanessa?" Luca asked softly.

He turned toward his head associate. "Marco. Bring me the ledger."

Vanessa stopped crying. "What... what ledger?"

"Did you really think," Luca said, pacing slowly in front of her, "that my family survived in this city for eighty years by being careless?"

He stopped and looked at her.

"The holding company that bought your mother's shop last month," Luca said. "The one you used my name to intimidate her with. Who did you sell it to?"

Vanessa swallowed hard. "A private developer. From... from New York."

"His name is Alexei Volkov," Luca corrected. "He is a front for the Russian syndicate. My family's oldest rivals."

Helen gasped, clutching Leo tighter.

"You didn't sell the shop to build a bridal store," Luca said, stepping impossibly close to Vanessa. "You sold it to the Russians because they promised you two million dollars. And do you know why they wanted a dusty old tailor shop on the South Side?"

Vanessa was trembling so hard her teeth were chattering. "I... I don't know..."

"Because thirty years ago, when your father hid my father in that shop, he didn't just save a life," Luca said. "My father was carrying the Moretti family ledger. The book containing every offshore account, every corrupted politician, every secret we own. When my father died, the ledger vanished."

The room was completely silent.

"Until three weeks ago," Luca continued. "When you hired a contractor to secretly tear down a fake wall in your mother's shop. And you found it."

My heart stopped.

I suddenly remembered a heavy, wooden box.

Vanessa looked terrified. "Luca... I didn't give it to them yet! I swear! I hid it!"

"I know you hid it," Luca said. "Because the Russians called me this morning to complain that you were delaying the drop-off."

Vanessa collapsed to her knees.

"Where is it?" Luca demanded, his voice shaking the crystal glasses on the table. "Where is the ledger?"

"I'll never tell you!" Vanessa screamed, a manic, desperate look in her eyes. "If you kick me out, the Russians will kill you! Let me stay, and I'll give it to you!"

I couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Mr. Moretti," I said, my voice cutting through the tension.