THE MAFIA BOSS WATCHED ME TRY TO BREAK THE LOCK ON HIS SEVENTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD FATHER'S BEDROOM DOOR DURING HIS ENGAGEMENT PARTY—THEN HIS FIANCÉE SAID, “HE LOCKED HIMSELF IN BECAUSE HE'S CONFUSED,” BEFORE HE EVEN ASKED WHY THE ONLY KEY WAS HANGING AROUND HER NECK.**

"Step back, Luca!" Vanessa screamed through the rain, pushing the cabin door open.

She jammed the barrel of the gun against his mother's temple. Luca froze, his hands slowly rising in the air.

"Vanessa, stop," Luca said, his voice desperate. "Carmine is tied up in my study. It's over. You don't have to do this."

Vanessa was sobbing, her wedding ring catching the dim dock lights. "You don't understand! Carmine isn't the one who has my daughter!"

Luca stopped. "What?"

"Carmine is a pawn!" Vanessa cried hysterically. "He thinks he's running things, but he's not! The person who took your mother fifteen years ago... the person who has my little girl... he told me to bring her here, or my daughter dies!"

I stood frozen on the pier. If Carmine wasn't the mastermind, then who was?

"Who, Vanessa?" Luca demanded. "Who is pulling the strings?"

Before she could answer, the roar of a car engine echoed down the dock.

A black sedan sped down the wooden pier, slamming its brakes just feet from where I stood. The doors flew open.

Two armed men stepped out.

And from the backseat emerged a man in a wheelchair.

It was Giuseppe Moretti.

But he wasn't trembling. He wasn't crying.

He looked at Luca, then at his wife on the boat, and his expression was as cold and hard as stone.

"Hello, my love," Giuseppe said smoothly, his voice devoid of any weakness or stutter.

Luca stared at his father in absolute horror.

"Dad?" Luca whispered. "What is this?"

Giuseppe sighed, adjusting his coat with his perfectly functioning right hand.

"I told you, Lu. She thinks I don't remember." Giuseppe smiled a chilling smile. "But the truth is, I never forgot."

I gasped, stumbling backward.

Giuseppe hadn't been locked in his room by Vanessa to be abused. He had been locked in there to maintain his alibi. The stroke, the weakness, the tears—it was all a brilliant, twisted act.

Giuseppe was the mastermind.

"Why?" Luca choked out, his world entirely shattering. "She's your wife."

"She was going to the FBI, Luca," Giuseppe said coldly. "She found out I ordered the hit on the federal prosecutor. She was going to tear down the empire I built."

Giuseppe looked at Vanessa. "Bring her to the car, Vanessa. And maybe I'll tell you where I buried your daughter."

Vanessa sobbed, pushing Luca's mother forward.

I couldn't let him win. I looked around the pier.

Next to the wooden pylon was a heavy rusted mooring chain.

I grabbed it.

"Hey!" I screamed.