THE MAFIA BOSS WATCHED ME SLIDE A PLATE OF WARM FOOD BENEATH THE GRAND PIANO AT HIS CHARITY GALA—THEN HIS OLDER BROTHER SAID

The warmth that had just filled the hospital room suddenly vanished, replaced by a chilling draft of unresolved history.

Luca stared at the small, tarnished key in Anna's palm.

"What did you steal, Anna?" he asked quietly.

Anna swallowed hard. "The night I heard Marcus on the phone, I panicked. I knew I had to run. But I also knew I needed leverage. If he ever found me, I needed something to trade for my life."

She closed her eyes, exhausted. "I snuck into his private study. He had a hidden floor safe beneath the rug. It was open. He had been looking through it while he was on the phone. Inside, there was a metal lockbox."

Anna handed the key to Luca.

"I couldn't carry the heavy box, so I just took the key and a single ledger I found sitting on his desk. The ledger listed an address. A storage unit on the South Side."

Luca took the key. It felt heavy, colder than it should be. "Where is the ledger now?"

"I burned it," Anna admitted. "The day Lucy was born. I realized keeping evidence was too dangerous. But I memorized the address. And I hid this key."

"What was the address?" I asked, unable to stop myself.

Anna looked at me, then at Luca. "It wasn't a storage unit, Luca. It was a train station locker. Union Station. Locker 402."

Luca’s jaw tightened. "Marcus is dead, Anna. Whatever leverage you needed, you don't need it anymore. You're safe."

"You don't understand," Anna urged, grabbing his hand. "Marcus wasn't acting entirely alone when he killed your father. The ledger had names. Judges. Politicians. People your father trusted who turned a blind eye because Marcus paid them."

My blood ran cold.

The Moretti family wasn't just fighting a single corrupt uncle. They were sitting on a powder keg that could blow up half of Chicago's political elite.

"If Marcus is dead," Anna warned softly, "those people are going to panic. They are going to wonder who has the key to the locker. Who has the proof of their bribes."

Luca looked at the key. His thumb traced the rough brass edges.

"They won't come near you," Luca swore. "I will burn this city to the ground before I let anyone touch my family."

He stood up.

"Elena," he said.

"Yes, sir?"

"Go to the estate. Pack your things and your mother’s things. Move into the cottage today. You’ll be safe behind the gates."

I nodded. "What are you going to do?"

Luca’s eyes darkened, the lethal mafia boss returning to the surface for one final mission.

"I'm going to Union Station," he said. "I'm going to find out exactly who betrayed my father. And then I'm going to handle them."

He leaned down and kissed Anna’s forehead. "Rest. I will be back before dinner."

He kissed Lucy's cheek. "Be good for your mother, sweetheart."

"I will, Daddy," she promised.

Luca walked out of the room.

I left shortly after, my mind spinning.

The next few hours were a whirlwind. I went to the West Addison apartment, packed my mother’s few belongings, and we took a private car sent by Luca to the Moretti estate.

The guest cottage was breathtaking. It was a massive stone house with a fireplace and a beautiful kitchen. My mother wept when she walked in. For the first time in fifteen years, she didn't lock the door behind her.

As the sun began to set, my phone rang.

It was Luca.

"Elena," he said. His voice sounded strange. Hollow.

"Mr. Moretti? Did you find the locker?"

"I found it," he said.

"Was the evidence there?"

There was a long pause on the line.

"Yes," Luca said quietly. "But there was something else in the locker, Elena. Something Marcus had been hiding for fifteen years. Something not even Anna knew about."

My heart hammered. "What is it?"

"I need you to come to my private study at the main house," Luca said. "Right now. And Elena?"

"Yes?"