Chapter 2
The baby slept against me while the whole restaurant stared.
His breath warmed my collarbone.
His fingers held my apron like he was afraid I might vanish.
Dante stood slowly.
The men around him went still.
“What is your mother’s name?” he asked.
My body tightened.
“My mother is none of your business.”
His eyes moved to the dragon tattoo on his own hand.
“She told you about us.”
I did not answer.
He already knew.
“She told me to run if I saw that mark.”
A guard beside him cursed under his breath.
Dante lifted one hand.
The guard went silent.
“What else did she tell you?”
“That men like you destroy women.”
Pain flashed across his face.
It disappeared so fast I almost missed it.
“She was not completely wrong,” he said quietly.
That answer unsettled me more than denial would have.
I looked back at the photograph.
“Who was she?”
Dante’s voice softened.
“Sofia.”
The name moved through me like a door opening in a house I had never entered.
“Your wife?”
“Yes.”
“The baby’s mother?”
“Yes.”
I looked down at the little boy.
“What’s his name?”
“Nico.”
“Nico,” I whispered.
He sighed in his sleep.
Something in Dante’s face broke.
Then the front window shattered.
People screamed.
Glass scattered across the floor.
Dante moved before I could think.
He placed his body between me, Nico, and the window.
His guards surrounded us.
A black envelope slid across the tile and stopped near my shoe.
No one touched it at first.
Then Dante bent down.
Inside was a photograph.
Me.
Outside my apartment that morning.
My cheap coat.
My tired face.
My life watched by someone I had never seen.
On the back, someone had written one sentence.
The wrong sister survived.
My knees almost gave out.
“Sister?” I whispered.
Dante’s jaw tightened.
He looked at Sofia’s photograph.
Then at me.
The baby woke and began crying.
I held him tighter.
Dante turned to one of his men.
“Lock every door.”
Then he looked at me.
“Mara, whether you trust me or not, someone came here tonight to show me your face.”
“Why?”
May you like
His voice dropped.
“Because whoever killed Sofia just found you.”
