Chapter 2 - THE MAFIA BOSS LEARNED SOMEONE KNEW ABOUT HIS UNBORN CHILD BEFORE HE DID—THEN HIS WIFE DISCOVERED THE TRAITOR WAS HIDING INSIDE THEIR OWN HOMEDaniel Russo did not sleep that night.
Caris knew because she did not sleep either.
At 2:14 a.m., she opened her eyes and found him sitting in the chair beside their bedroom window.
The city glittered below.
Daniel held the ultrasound photograph.
He had been staring at it for almost an hour.
“You're going to wear a hole through it.”
He looked up.
“You're awake.”
“You're sitting six feet away planning murders very loudly.”
“I’m not planning murders.”
“That is exactly what someone planning murders would say.”
Something almost like a smile touched his mouth.
Almost.
Then it disappeared.
Caris sat up.
Her throat hurt.
Doctors had found bruising but no serious damage.
The baby was fine.
Those words had made Daniel sit down in the emergency room because his legs apparently stopped functioning.
Caris would remember that forever.
She touched her stomach.
“Come here.”
Daniel hesitated.
“Daniel.”
He moved to the bed.
Caris took his hand and placed it against her abdomen.
“There is nothing to feel yet.”
“I know.”
“But that's where your child is.”
His eyes closed.
“Our child.”
“Yes.”
He opened them.
“I'm sorry.”
“For what?”
“Matteo should never have let you leave alone.”
Caris's expression changed.
“No.”
“He broke protocol.”
“I asked him to.”
“He should have refused.”
“Daniel.”
“I put procedures in place—”
“For danger connected to you.”
“Yes.”
“Liam was connected to me.”
“He was used by someone connected to me.”
“That's different.”
“Not to me.”
Caris studied her husband.
There it was.
The thing she had always feared about loving a powerful man.
Not violence.
Control disguised as protection.
“Don't do this.”
Daniel frowned.
“Do what?”
“Turn what happened into proof that I should never make another decision alone.”
“I didn't say that.”
“You're thinking it.”
He became silent.
Caris touched the bruises on her neck.
“Liam spent five years teaching me that love meant surrendering choices.”
Daniel flinched.
“I am not Liam.”
“I know.”
“Then don't compare us.”
“I’m not comparing what you've done.”
She held his gaze.
“I’m warning you about what fear could make you do.”
That landed.
Daniel looked away.
After several seconds he nodded.
“You're right.”
Caris exhaled.
“Thank you.”
“But we're changing security.”
“Together.”
“Yes.”
“Together, Daniel.”
He looked back.
“Together.”
By morning, Russo Tower resembled a fortress.
Daniel brought Caris into the investigation for one reason.
She demanded it.
The photograph had been taken outside Lennox Hill Hospital.
The appointment had been made under Caris Russo.
Only five people had access to the schedule.
Caris.
Her doctor.
A nurse.
Daniel's household manager.
And—
Caris stared at the screen.
“Evelyn.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Who?”
“Evelyn Hart.”
Their household manager.
Sixty-two.
Soft-spoken.
Gray hair.
Had worked for the Russo family for seventeen years.
Evelyn ordered groceries, managed staff schedules, and knew when Caris had medical appointments because she arranged transportation whenever Caris requested it.
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
“You said yourself we investigate everyone.”
“Evelyn raised my sister after my mother died.”
“That doesn't make her guilty.”
“No.”
“It doesn't make her innocent either.”
Daniel stared at his wife.
Then slowly nodded.
“Check her access.”
Tomas did.
The result surprised everyone.
Evelyn's account had accessed Caris's private schedule at 11:43 p.m. the night before the appointment.
But Evelyn had supposedly been asleep.
“Where is she?” Caris asked.
Nobody answered.
They found Evelyn in the penthouse kitchen.
Making tea.
She looked genuinely confused when Daniel entered with Tomas.
Then she saw Caris.
The older woman's face changed.
Not guilt.
Fear.
“Mrs. Russo.”
Caris sat opposite her.
“Who has your password?”
“Nobody.”
“Think.”
“I don't write it down.”
“Have you logged into the household system anywhere besides your office?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“The staff tablet.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“Who used it after you?”
Her face drained.
“Anthony.”
Daniel looked at Tomas.
Anthony Bell.
Thirty-eight.
Assistant director of household security.
Former detective.
Employed by Daniel for six years.
Trusted.
Married.
Two daughters.
And currently missing.
Daniel's phone rang.
Tomas answered.
His expression changed.
“Anthony's apartment is empty.”
Daniel went still.
“Family?”
“Gone.”
“Airport?”
“No travel records.”
Caris asked the important question.
“When did he disappear?”
Tomas looked at her.
“Yesterday morning.”
Before Liam entered the café.
Anthony’s office produced nothing.
Too clean.
Caris noticed that first.
“Where are his photographs?”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
“Everyone has something.”
She pointed around.
“No family pictures. No coffee cup. No jacket. No old paperwork. He cleared this room before he left.”
Tomas looked impressed.
Daniel did not.
He looked worried.
Caris opened a drawer.
Empty.
Another.
Empty.
Then she looked beneath the desk.
A small strip of adhesive remained.
Something had been taped there.
Removed recently.
“What was here?”
Nobody knew.
Caris crouched.
On the carpet beneath the desk lay a tiny piece of glossy paper.
She picked it up.
A torn photograph.
Only a corner remained.
But enough to show a man's hand wearing a signet ring.
Daniel recognized it.
His face changed.
“My father's ring.”
Caris stood.
“Your father?”
“Vittorio Russo.”
“Who has it now?”
Daniel stared at the fragment.
“My brother.”
Caris froze.
“I thought your brother was dead.”
“He is.”
“How?”
Daniel's voice became quiet.
“Michael died twelve years ago.”
Tomas looked toward the door.
“Boss.”
Caris saw it.
A secret.
“What aren't you telling me?”
Daniel said nothing.
“Daniel.”
“My brother didn't die in an accident.”
Her stomach tightened.
“What happened?”
“He tried to take control of the family.”
“And?”
“My father stopped him.”
“How?”
Silence.
Caris understood.
“Oh my God.”
Daniel looked at her.
“My father ordered Michael killed.”
The room changed.
Caris stared at the man she married.
“You never told me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because it happened before us.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“Because I was ashamed.”
“Of your father?”
“Of myself.”
She waited.
Daniel swallowed.
“I knew Michael was planning a coup. I told my father.”
Caris stopped breathing.
“You knew what your father would do?”
“No.”
“Did you suspect?”
Daniel did not answer quickly enough.
“Daniel.”
“Yes.”
The word barely came.
“I suspected.”
Caris stepped back.
“Who else knew?”
“Tomas.”
“And Anthony?”
Daniel's eyes sharpened.
“No.”
Tomas went pale.
“Maybe he did.”
They turned.
Tomas sat slowly.
“Anthony Bell isn't his real name.”
“What?”
“I've seen that face before.”
“Where?”
Tomas looked at Daniel.
“At Michael’s funeral.”
The truth took four hours to uncover.
Anthony Bell had been born Anthony Russo.
Michael Russo's illegitimate son.
Daniel's nephew.
Vittorio had paid Anthony's mother to disappear.
After Michael’s death, Anthony grew up believing Daniel had betrayed his father.
Years later, he entered Daniel's organization under another identity.
Patiently.
Carefully.
Six years of loyalty.
Six years waiting.
Caris touched her stomach.
“And now Daniel has a child coming.”
Tomas nodded.
“A direct heir.”
Daniel looked sick.
“This isn't about succession.”
“No,” Caris said.
“It's about revenge.”
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Daniel reached for it.
Caris stopped him.
“My phone.”
“Speaker.”
She answered.
“Hello?”
A man's voice.
Calm.
Educated.
“Congratulations, Aunt Caris.”
Daniel went completely still.
Anthony.
Caris forced her voice steady.
“You attacked the tower.”
“I exposed its weakness.”
“You sent Liam after me.”
“I told an angry man where to find the woman he blamed for his failures.”
“You knew he was violent.”
“Yes.”
“You knew I was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Silence.
Then Anthony laughed softly.
“You should ask your husband what else his family knows about blood.”
The call ended.
Daniel immediately called security.
Too late.
An alarm sounded inside the penthouse.
Not intrusion.
Fire.
Smoke poured from the hallway.
Daniel grabbed Caris.
They moved toward the private stairs.
Then Caris stopped.
“Evelyn.”
Daniel turned.
The older woman was still in the staff wing.
“Caris, no.”
“She can't move fast.”
“Security will get her.”
“What if Anthony disabled that too?”
Daniel saw the determination in her face.
“Stay behind me.”
“No.”
“Caris—”
“We go together.”
They ran.
Smoke thickened.
They found Evelyn collapsed near the pantry.
Caris dropped beside her.
“Evelyn!”
Alive.
Barely conscious.
Daniel lifted her.
Then a gunshot shattered the hallway light.
Caris screamed.
Daniel pulled both women behind a wall.
A shadow moved through the smoke.
Anthony.
He had never left the building.
The phone call had come from inside their home.
“Daniel!”
Anthony's voice echoed.
“You stole my father's life!”
Daniel handed Evelyn to Caris.
“Take her.”
“What about you?”
“Go.”
Caris looked at her husband.
Then Anthony's shadow.
And realized the fire was not meant to kill them.
It was meant to force Daniel into the open.
“Daniel, don't chase him.”
“He's in our home.”
“That's what he wants.”
Another shot.
Daniel froze.
Caris whispered:
“He has spent six years learning how you react.”
Daniel looked at her.
“He expects the mafia boss.”
Smoke rolled around them.
“Don't give him one.”
For three seconds Daniel fought every instinct he had.
Then he nodded.
They retreated.
Firefighters arrived.
Police surrounded the building.
Anthony escaped through a maintenance route.
But because Daniel had listened to Caris instead of pursuing him, everyone survived.
Hours later investigators found something inside the burned staff corridor.
A package.
Inside was Vittorio Russo's old signet ring.
And a photograph of Daniel and Michael as children.
Across Michael’s face someone had written:
A FATHER FOR A FATHER.
Across Daniel’s:
A CHILD FOR A CHILD.
Caris looked at the words.
Then down at her stomach.
May you like
Anthony did not merely want Daniel dead.
He wanted Daniel alive long enough to lose what he loved first.
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