Chapter 3 - The Mafia Boss Wanted Revenge for His Wife—But the Nanny Forced Him to Choose Between Vengeance and Becoming the Father His Son DeservedFederal investigators entered the Russo estate forty-eight hours later.
Dominic hated every second.
I enjoyed at least twelve percent of it.
Watching men who normally waited for Dominic to speak tell him to sit down was unexpectedly entertaining.
“You're smiling,” he muttered.
“No.”
“You are.”
“Personal growth.”
“I regret teaching you that phrase.”
“You didn't.”
Dr. Lewis continued working with Luca.
His speech returned slowly.
Some days he talked.
Some days he didn't.
Nobody pushed.
Dominic began having breakfast with him every morning.
No phones.
No business.
No shouting.
One morning, I arrived and found them building a model airplane.
Dominic had glue on his sleeve.
Luca had paint on his nose.
“Help,” Dominic said.
I folded my arms.
“You control Chicago.”
“I cannot control this wing.”
“Humbling.”
“Emma.”
Luca giggled.
The sound stopped both of us.
Dominic looked at his son.
I looked at Dominic.
His eyes filled.
He turned away quickly.
That was the moment I understood something uncomfortable.
I was falling in love with him.
Not the man people feared.
Not the billionaire.
Not the criminal boss.
The father sitting at a kitchen table trying to glue a plastic wing onto an airplane because his son had asked him to.
That terrified me.
So I created distance.
Dominic noticed.
He didn't confront me.
That made it worse.
Meanwhile, investigators reconstructed Sofia's death.
Michael had confronted her at the estate.
He wanted documents.
Sofia refused.
Luca witnessed part of the argument.
Michael followed her when she drove away with Luca.
Her car was struck deliberately by another vehicle.
Luca survived with minor injuries.
Sofia survived too.
At the hospital, she told Nathan who caused the crash.
Nathan called Michael.
Then sedated Sofia.
The fatal dose came thirty minutes later.
Michael paid him through Lake Meridian.
But another question remained.
Why had Michael been desperate enough to kill?
The answer was on Sofia’s storage card.
A ledger.
Millions of dollars.
Not drug money.
Not gambling.
Construction.
Schools.
Hospitals.
Affordable housing projects.
Michael and Nathan had been siphoning money from legitimate Russo companies using inflated material costs.
One project caught my attention.
St. Catherine Pediatric Medical Center.
My mother's hospital.
I stared.
Dominic noticed.
“What?”
I showed him.
His face changed.
The Russos had renovated two wings.
Michael's shell company supplied structural materials.
Tests showed those materials failed safety specifications.
The pediatric wing where immunocompromised children received treatment had been built with fraudulent materials.
Dominic looked sick.
“How many buildings?”
Carlo answered.
“Thirty-two.”
“Close them.”
“We can't close hospitals overnight.”
“Inspect everything.”
“Already started.”
Dominic turned to federal investigators.
“You get everything.”
Carlo looked surprised.
“Boss?”
“Every contract.”
“That exposes us.”
“Yes.”
“Dominic.”
He looked at Carlo.
“My son was terrified to tell me the truth because he thought truth would make me violent.”
His voice remained calm.
“I am finished creating rooms where people are afraid to speak.”
That decision cost him.
Within weeks, prosecutors uncovered not only Michael's fraud but crimes committed by Dominic's organization.
Illegal gambling.
Bribery.
Extortion.
Dominic could have hidden records.
He didn't.
His attorneys were furious.
Carlo called it suicide.
Dominic called it accounting.
“You could go to prison,” I told him.
We were alone in the kitchen.
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Depends.”
“And Luca?”
His face tightened.
“That is what scares me.”
“Then why cooperate?”
“Because someday he's going to ask what I changed.”
He looked at me.
“I don't want the answer to be only my behavior inside this house.”
I swallowed.
“What happens to the organization?”
“Legitimate businesses stay.”
“And everything else?”
“Ends.”
“Can you do that?”
“Not without enemies.”
“Michael?”
“He'll come.”
“You sound certain.”
“He thinks cooperation makes me weak.”
“Does it?”
Dominic smiled faintly.
“No.”
Then his expression softened.
“Emma.”
I knew.
“Don't.”
“I wasn't going to—”
“Yes, you were.”
He sighed.
“You are infuriating.”
“Frequently.”
“I care about you.”
My heart hurt.
“I know.”
“I think you care about me.”
I looked away.
He continued.
“But you work in my house.”
“I have my own apartment.”
“You care for my son.”
“Yes.”
“I have money, influence, and men who still follow my orders.”
“Yes.”
“And the first time I met you, I told you silence was the first rule.”
I looked at him.
He swallowed.
“I don't want the first romantic decision between us to happen while any part of you could wonder whether saying no is dangerous.”
My eyes filled.
“Dominic.”
“So I'm not asking.”
I almost laughed.
“That is the most romantic thing you've ever said.”
“Terrible timing.”
“Very.”
He stepped away.
No kiss.
No touch.
No demand.
That mattered more than he knew.
Then Michael made his move.
Not against me.
Against Luca.
It happened during a therapy appointment.
A fire alarm forced evacuation.
One security camera failed.
A man wearing paramedic clothing approached Luca.
Dr. Lewis recognized his face from photographs.
Michael.
She grabbed Luca and ran.
Security intercepted Michael in the parking structure.
Shots were fired.
Nobody was seriously injured.
Michael escaped.
Luca stopped speaking again.
Dominic nearly broke.
He stood outside Luca's room.
Red card.
Luca did not want him inside.
Dominic sat on the floor outside the door for three hours.
He didn't enter.
I joined him.
“He thinks I brought this.”
“You did.”
Dominic flinched.
I continued.
“So did Michael.”
“He's six.”
“Yes.”
“I should have protected him.”
“You can't promise a child nothing bad will happen.”
“Then what can I promise?”
“That when bad things happen, you won't become another thing he needs protection from.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“I hate how often you're right.”
“It's one of my better qualities.”
At midnight, the door opened.
Luca stood there holding the wolf.
He looked at his father.
Then handed him a yellow card.
Maybe.
Dominic looked at me.
I smiled.
“Maybe is not no.”
He entered.
The next morning, Luca whispered:
“Daddy stay.”
Dominic stayed.
Michael contacted us two days later.
He wanted the original ledger.
In exchange, he claimed he would leave the country.
Nobody believed him.
But investigators saw an opportunity.
A controlled exchange.
Dominic volunteered.
“No,” I said.
He looked almost amused.
“You're not in charge.”
“Neither are you.”
“Federal agents are.”
“Correct.”
The plan involved an abandoned Russo shipping terminal.
Dominic would carry a copy.
Agents would surround the area.
I would remain home with Luca.
That was the plan.
Then Luca drew a picture.
Three buildings.
A bridge.
A red boat.
I recognized it.
Not the shipping terminal.
An old Russo boathouse.
“Michael isn't going to the terminal,” I said.
Dominic looked at the drawing.
“How does Luca know?”
The answer came slowly.
Sofia had taken Luca there once.
The night before her death.
She had hidden something.
We found it beneath a loose floorboard.
Another recording.
Sofia's voice.
“If Michael finds the ledger, this is the part he cannot have.”
Names.
Judges.
Police officials.
Business executives.
Nathan wasn't simply covering for Michael.
A network had protected them.
Including one federal investigator assigned to our case.
Agent Marcus Dale.
Dominic stared at me.
“We told Dale about the exchange.”
“Yes.”
“He knows the plan.”
“Yes.”
“He'll warn Michael.”
“Yes.”
Dominic reached for his phone.
I stopped him.
“Wait.”
“Why?”
“Because for once, knowing there's a traitor before he knows you know is useful.”
Dominic smiled slowly.
It was the first time I understood why men feared him.
We told a second federal team.
Internal affairs became involved.
The exchange proceeded.
Dale warned Michael.
Agents recorded it.
Michael arrived at the wrong escape point expecting a clear path.
Instead, he found police.
Nathan was arrested at O'Hare attempting to leave the country.
Dale was arrested inside the federal building.
Michael ran.
Dominic found him first.
Inside the old boathouse.
I was not supposed to be there.
Neither was Luca.
We were at the estate.
But Dominic later told me every detail.
Michael aimed a gun at him.
“You destroyed everything.”
Dominic stood unarmed.
“No.”
“You gave them records.”
“Yes.”
“You betrayed your own blood.”
“No.”
Michael laughed.
“You think that nanny changed you?”
Dominic said nothing.
“She made you weak.”
“No.”
“She slapped you in front of your men.”
“Yes.”
“And you let her live.”
Dominic smiled.
“That was probably my first intelligent decision in years.”
Michael fired.
The bullet missed.
Dominic tackled him.
They fought.
Dominic gained control.
Michael's gun landed beside his hand.
For years, Dominic would have picked it up.
For years, everyone around him would have known exactly what happened next.
He reached for it.
Then remembered Luca.
Don't let Daddy hurt me again.
Dominic stopped.
Michael laughed.
“You don't have it anymore.”
Dominic looked at him.
“No.”
Sirens approached.
“I have something better.”
“What?”
“A son who might someday trust me.”
Dominic stood.
Federal agents entered.
Michael was arrested alive.
When Dominic returned home at four in the morning, his shirt was torn.
His lip was bleeding.
Luca came downstairs.
He stared at his father.
“Uncle Michael?”
“Police have him.”
“You kill him?”
Dominic froze.
“No.”
Luca watched.
“No?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Dominic crouched.
“Because being angry doesn't give me permission to hurt whoever I want.”
Luca stared at him for a long time.
Then walked forward.
Dominic didn't move.
Luca wrapped his arms around his neck.
Dominic closed his eyes.
And the man who had once ruled Chicago through fear began sobbing into his son's shoulder.
I turned away.
May you like
Not because the moment embarrassed me.
Because it belonged to them.
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