THE NEW NURSE RIPPED THE MAFIA BOSS’S WATCH OFF IN FRONT OF HIS FAMILY—THEN SAW WHAT SOMEONE HAD TAPED UNDERNEATH IT “Take your hands off my brother.”

“Don’t bring Mother home.”

The voice through the phone speaker was identical to Elena’s. The same cadence. The same polished, upper-class Chicago accent.

But it was shaking.

Luca stared at the phone in his hand. “Who is this?”

“You know who it is, Luca. You just saw my face on that pharmacy camera.”

Teresa gripped the edge of the hospital bed. Her knuckles were stark white. “Sofia?” she whispered.

The line went silent for a fraction of a second. “Hello, Mama. It’s been a long time.”

Luca’s expression hardened. “If you’ve hurt my sister—”

“I didn’t hurt Elena,” Sofia interrupted, her voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “I locked her in the storage room so she wouldn’t get killed. The men who came for you tonight weren’t planning to stop with your watch. They’re already inside the estate.”

Frank reached for his sidearm. “Who is inside?”

“Vitiello’s crew. They paid off the gate guards.” Sofia’s breath hitched. “They thought you’d be dead at the dinner table, Luca. When the ambulance came instead, they panicked. They’re tearing the house apart looking for the ledgers.”

I stood frozen near the IV stand. The Vitiello family. Even a civilian nurse knew that name. They were the only organization in the city that hated the Romanos enough to risk an open war.

“Where are you?” Luca demanded.

“I’m out. But they have the perimeter.”

“And Elena?”

“Still in the hidden room. They don’t know about the cellar doors.” Sofia paused. “Luca, you need to listen to me. The patch wasn’t meant to kill you. It was meant to make you look weak. So your own captains would vote you out. I was trying to figure out who planted them.”

I stepped forward. “Wait. If you didn’t buy those patches, why are you on the pharmacy camera?”

A heavy silence fell over the line.

“Because I wasn’t buying them,” Sofia said quietly. “I was returning one.”

My medical brain spun. Returning a used transdermal patch?

“I found one in the trash in the east wing last week,” Sofia continued. “I took it to the pharmacist to identify the chemical compound.”

Luca’s eyes darted to his mother. “Who threw it away?”

Sofia didn’t answer.

“Sofia. Who threw it away?”

“I have to go,” she whispered. “Don’t go back to the estate. And don’t trust Frank.”

The line went dead.

Every head in the room slowly turned toward the head of security.

Frank didn’t blink. He didn’t raise his hands. He just stared at Luca.

“Sir, you know I would never—”

“Empty your pockets,” Luca said.

“Luca, this is insane. A woman you haven’t seen in twenty years—”

“I said empty them.”

Frank hesitated. Then, slowly, he reached into his jacket. He pulled out his wallet, his keys, and a crumpled piece of paper. He set them on the hospital tray.

“Take off the coat,” Luca ordered.

Frank slid his dark wool coat off his shoulders.

I was standing closest to him. As the heavy fabric shifted, something slipped from the inner lining and hit the linoleum floor with a sharp clink.

A heavy, silver rosary.

Teresa gasped.

I looked down at the beads. They were uniquely carved, with small blue stones separating the decades.

Elena had been wearing that exact rosary when I arrived at the estate for my shift.