WHERE WERE YOU TAKING OUR LITTLE GIRL?

“She has the ledger.”

Luca dropped the phone, his chest heaving as the horrifying reality set in.

“If Vanessa delivers that ledger to her father,” Luca said, his voice entirely devoid of hope, “the Bellini family will own the governor, the judges, and the police. They will wipe out my family by morning. And they won’t stop hunting you and Mia until there’s no trace of your father left.”

I looked down at my sleeping daughter.

My father had died trying to protect me. Luca had married me to protect me. I had spent seven years playing the comfortable, obedient wife, letting the men in my life shield me from the monsters.

But the monsters were here now. And they had taken the only leverage we had.

I gently laid Mia down in the backseat, covering her with Paulie’s coat.

I looked up at Luca. The tears were gone.

“Where would Vanessa go?” I asked.

Luca frowned. “To her father’s estate in Oak Brook. It’s a fortress.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Vanessa is arrogant. She sat at my dinner table to humiliate me before she killed us. She wants the glory of bringing you down personally.”

I remembered the way Vanessa had looked at me. The venom. The superiority.

“Marco said she took the watch,” I continued, my mind racing. “But she wouldn't just hand it over to her father immediately. She’d want to unlock it. She’d want to see the power for herself.”

Luca’s eyes narrowed. “The Bellini family owns a private bank downtown. She has a secure vault there.”

“Then we go to the bank,” I said.

“Emma, no. It’s suicide. You stay here with Mia.”

“I am done staying behind!” I snapped, my voice echoing in the car. “She humiliated me in front of my family. She tried to kidnap my daughter. She stole my father’s legacy. I am coming with you, and we are taking that watch back.”

Luca stared at me. For the first time in our seven-year marriage, he didn’t see a fragile civilian. He saw a mafia wife.

He nodded slowly. “There’s a safe house three blocks from here. I’ll leave Mia with my most trusted men. Then, we hunt.”

Thirty minutes later, the armored Mercedes was parked in the dark alley behind the Bellini private bank.

Luca had armed himself with a tactical rifle and a handgun. He handed me a small, heavy Glock.

“Safety off,” he instructed quietly. “Only point it at what you intend to kill.”

I gripped the cold metal. My hands weren't shaking anymore.

We forced the alley door open, slipping into the silent, marble-floored lobby. The bank was closed, illuminated only by emergency lights.

We moved silently toward the underground vault elevators.

Suddenly, a voice echoed through the marble hall.

“I told you they’d come here.”

The lights flipped on, blinding us.

Standing on the mezzanine balcony was Vanessa Bellini. She was still wearing the red silk dress, but now she was holding my father’s silver pocket watch in one hand, and a glass of champagne in the other.

Below her, standing in front of the vault doors, were six heavily armed Bellini enforcers.

We were trapped.

“Drop the weapons, Luca,” Vanessa smiled, swirling her champagne. “Or my men will paint the walls with your brains.”

Luca didn't lower his rifle. “You don't have the codes to open that watch, Vanessa.”

“I don't need the codes,” she laughed. “I have a drill in the vault.”

She looked down at me, her smile turning venomous.

“Look at you, Emma. Holding a gun. Trying to play the mob wife. You're pathetic. You were nothing but a charity case Luca took in because your daddy cried to him.”

“Give me the watch, Vanessa,” I said, my voice eerily calm.

“Why?” Vanessa mocked. “Because it’s a family heirloom? Because it means so much to you?”

She walked slowly down the sweeping marble staircase, her guards raising their weapons at us.

“You’re so naive, Emma,” Vanessa sneered. “You think your father was a hero? You think he stole this ledger to protect the innocent?”

I tightened my grip on the gun. “He did it to stop your family.”

Vanessa laughed, a sharp, cruel sound. “He did it to sell it to the Russians! Your father was bleeding the Morettis dry, and when my family caught him, he tried to blackmail us. He wasn't protecting you. He was cashing out.”

“You’re lying,” I whispered.

“Am I?” Vanessa reached into her purse and pulled out a heavy, diamond-encrusted bracelet. She tossed it onto the marble floor at my feet.

It clattered loudly against the stone.

“Recognize that, Emma?” she asked.

I stared at the bracelet. My breath hitched.

It was my mother’s bracelet. The one she supposedly lost years ago.

“Your father gave that to my mother as a bribe to keep her quiet about his embezzlement,” Vanessa smiled. “Your entire life is a lie, Emma.”

I stood paralyzed. The foundation of everything I believed was crumbling.

But as I stared at the diamond bracelet on the floor, something caught my eye.

The engraving on the inside clasp.

I looked up at Vanessa.

“My mother’s bracelet was inscribed with my birthdate,” I said softly.