She Burned the Ultrasound When She Saw His Engagement—But the Chicago Mafia Boss Found the Ashes and Whispered, “That Baby Is Mine”
Part 2
Dominic didn’t speak for a long time.
The only sound in the room was the low electrical hum of the city outside his penthouse windows—and the faint crack of plastic as the iPad bent under his grip.
Silas stood perfectly still.
Waiting.
Because everyone who worked for Dominic Valente knew the same rule:
You did not interrupt him when silence turned dangerous.
Finally, Dominic exhaled.
Slow.
Controlled.
Too controlled.
“Run it again,” he said.
Silas blinked. “Boss… I’ve already verified it three times. It’s—”
“I said run it again.”
The words were quiet.
But they hit like a gunshot.
Silas nodded once and left the room faster than he entered it.
Dominic remained alone.
His eyes dropped back to the ultrasound on the screen.
A heartbeat frozen in time.
A child he had never known existed.
A child Meline had carried while looking him in the eye and smiling like nothing was wrong.
His jaw tightened.
“No,” he whispered to the empty room. “No, Meline… what did you do?”
Then something inside him shifted.
Not anger.
Not yet.
Something worse.
Realization.
—
Three floors below, the Valente building security grid flickered as Silas pulled up live cross-database scans.
He froze.
“Boss…” he muttered into the comms.
No response.
He tried again, louder.
“Boss, you need to see this.”
This time, Dominic answered instantly. “Speak.”
Silas swallowed. “The hospital record wasn’t the only hit.”
A pause.
Then:
“There was a second scan… twenty minutes after she left Northwestern.”
Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “Who ran it?”
Silas hesitated.
“That’s the problem.”
A beat.
“It came from inside our system.”
Silence.
Then Dominic’s voice dropped dangerously low.
“Show me.”
On the screen, new data appeared.
A flagged access log.
Valente internal clearance.
Level 9.
Dominic’s personal override tier.
His expression changed.
Just slightly.
But for those who knew him, it was enough.
Because that meant only one thing:
Someone had accessed Meline’s pregnancy record using his authority.
Silas spoke carefully.
“Boss… whoever did this didn’t just know about her.”
He paused.
“They wanted you to see it the way you’re seeing it now.”
Dominic’s hand slowly loosened.
The iPad straightened in his grip.
Too calm now.
Too still.
Like a storm had just stopped pretending to breathe.
“Find them,” he said quietly.
Silas nodded. “Already tracing.”
Then—
A new alert flashed.
Incoming encrypted message.
Unknown sender.
Origin: Boston.
Dominic didn’t move.
He didn’t need to.
He already knew.
Silas looked up, alarm rising in his voice.
“Boss… it’s from her.”
For the first time in months—
Dominic’s control cracked.
“Open it.”
The screen flickered.
A video loaded.
And there she was.
Meline.
Paler. Thinner. Hair pulled back loosely, eyes tired in a way that didn’t belong on her face.
But she was alive.
That alone hit harder than anything else.
Dominic stepped closer to the screen without realizing it.
“Meline…” he breathed.
She didn’t look at the camera immediately.
She looked down.
Like she was gathering every ounce of strength she had left just to speak.
Then she said it.
Calm.
Clear.
Final.
“If you’re watching this… then you already know.”
Dominic’s throat tightened.
Silas looked away instinctively.
Meline continued.
“I didn’t leave because I stopped loving you.”
A pause.
“I left because I saw what you would become… if you found out.”
Dominic’s eyes sharpened.
“What I would become?” he said under his breath.
On screen, Meline finally looked up.
Straight into the camera.
Straight into him.
And for the first time, her voice broke slightly.
“I’m pregnant, Dominic.”
The room went dead silent.
Even the city outside seemed to fade.
Silas froze completely.
Dominic didn’t move at all.
Not a blink.
Not a breath.
Just stillness.
Like the world had stopped obeying time.
Meline continued, softer now.
“And I know what your world does to things it claims.”
Her hand moved slightly, instinctively touching her stomach.
“So I chose for both of us.”
Her eyes glistened—but she didn’t cry.
Not yet.
“I’m not asking you to find me.”
A pause.
“I’m asking you to let us live.”
Then—
The video cut.
Silence slammed into the room like a physical force.
Silas whispered, almost afraid to exist:
“Boss…”
But Dominic wasn’t listening.
He was staring at the frozen frame.
Meline’s face.
Her words still echoing in his head.
“I chose for both of us.”
Then slowly—
Something inside Dominic Valente snapped into place.
Not rage.
Not grief.
Decision.
He turned sharply toward the window.
“Prepare the jet,” he said.
Silas blinked. “Boston?”
Dominic’s reflection in the glass looked like something colder than steel.
“Not Boston,” he replied.
A pause.
“Her.”
And far away, across state lines, Meline Hayes sat in a small apartment holding her stomach—
May you like
unaware that the man she ran from had just learned the truth…
and was no longer trying to find her gently.
