Chapter 5
Dominic did not speak for several seconds.
No one did.
Even Lily stopped crying.
On the phone, Vincent’s breathing came fast and broken.
“They took Sofia,” he repeated. “They said if I warned you, they’d send her back in pieces.”
Rosa covered her mouth.
Ethan whispered, “Sofia?”
Dominic looked at him.
His face softened just enough.
Sofia was Vincent’s daughter.
Nine years old.
Ethan’s cousin.
I had seen her at Christmas parties, spinning in velvet dresses, always dragging Ethan into games when he looked too lonely.
Ethan’s eyes filled.
“Dad.”
Dominic held up one hand, not to silence him, but to steady the room.
“Vincent,” he said, “where are you?”
“I can’t say.”
“You can.”
“No, Dom. You don’t understand. They’re listening to everything.”
Dominic’s eyes cut to Marco.
Marco was already moving, typing into a secure phone.
Vincent continued, “They made me wear the ring. They wanted Ethan to see it. They wanted you to think I chose Falcone.”
Dominic’s voice remained calm.
Too calm.
“And Bianchi?”
“I don’t know how deep he is. He was assigned to watch me. When the cake fell, he panicked.”
“He planted the box in Anna’s locker?”
“I think so.”
“You think?”
“I was trying to get out. Trying to find Sofia.”
Dominic’s hand tightened around the phone.
“You used my son as bait and want me to believe you didn’t know?”
Vincent started crying harder.
“I deserve whatever you do to me. But Sofia doesn’t. Please, Dom.”
Ethan’s breathing shook.
I wanted to cover his ears.
But it was too late for innocence.
The adults had dragged the children into their war, and now every child in the room understood something had been stolen from them.
Dominic glanced at Lily.
Then at me.
Then back to the phone.
“Who took her?”
Vincent’s voice dropped.
“Lucian Falcone.”
The name hit Marco like a bullet.
He looked up from his phone.
“Boss.”
Dominic’s eyes stayed on the speaker.
“Why now?”
“Because your port contract closes Friday. Falcone wants access. He said if you signed without him, Ethan would die at his own birthday table and everyone would blame a desperate housekeeper.”
My stomach dropped.
There it was.
The whole plan.
Kill Ethan.
Frame me.
Destroy Dominic’s judgment in grief.
Force weakness.
Use the scandal to take his business.
My daughter had not just saved a child.
She had shattered a machine built to crush all of us.
Dominic’s voice lowered.
“Where is Sofia?”
“I only know they moved her once. I heard train horns. Water. A bell tower.”
Marco looked at Dominic.
“Red Hook, maybe.”
Vincent breathed harder.
“They said they’d call again at dawn. They want me to deliver you.”
“Where?”
“The old ferry terminal.”
Rosa crossed herself.
Dominic looked at the clock.
It was nearly four in the morning.
Dawn was close.
“Listen to me carefully,” Dominic said. “You will answer when they call. You will agree. You will not mention this conversation.”
“Dom—”
“And Vincent?”
“Yes?”
“If Sofia dies, there is no corner of this earth where you can hide from me.”
Vincent whispered, “I know.”
The call ended.
Ethan backed away from his father.
“You’re going to help her, right?”
Dominic turned.
“Yes.”
“Even if Uncle Vincent lied?”
“Yes.”
“Because she’s family?”
Dominic knelt in front of him.
“Because she’s a child.”
Ethan looked at Lily.
“And Lily?”
“She stays here with guards.”
“No,” Lily said.
Everyone turned.
My stomach sank.
She stood beside me, cheeks wet, hair messy from sleep.
“I want to help Ethan find Sofia.”
“No,” I said immediately.
Dominic also said, “Absolutely not.”
Lily’s lip trembled, but she did not back down.
“I saw the cake man.”
“You already helped,” I said. “You helped enough.”
“But Sofia is scared.”
Her tiny voice cracked on the name.
“She needs her mommy.”
I knelt and took her hands.
“Baby, I know you want to help. But grown-ups will handle this.”
She looked past me at Dominic.
“Grown-ups didn’t see the cake.”
The room went silent.
It was the most painful truth in the world.
Grown-ups with guns.
Grown-ups with money.
Grown-ups with cameras, rules, power, suspicion.
And a three-year-old had been the only one who saved Ethan.
Dominic stood slowly.
“No child goes near Falcone.”
“Good,” I said.
Then he looked at Marco.
“But Lily may remember something else.”
My heart clenched.
“What does that mean?”
“It means we ask carefully. Here. With you. No pressure.”
I hated that he was right.
I hated even more that Lily was already nodding.
So we sat with her on the rug while dawn turned the windows gray.
Dominic brought out a map of New York, not a digital one, but paper.
Lily loved maps.
She traced roads with her finger.
Marco showed pictures.
Not suspects this time.
Places.
Warehouses.
Piers.
Ferry terminals.
Train yards.
Churches.
At first, Lily only shook her head.
Then one image made her stop.
A red brick building near the water.
An old ferry terminal with broken windows and a bell tower in the distance.
Lily touched the picture.
“That’s the song.”
I frowned.
“What song?”
“At night,” she said. “When the cake man called somebody. His phone made a ding-dong.”
“A bell?” Marco asked.
She nodded.
“Like that tower.”
Dominic leaned closer.
“You heard a bell through his phone?”
“He was hiding near the cold room. He said, ‘The girl saw me.’ Then the bell went ding-dong.”
Marco’s face changed.
Dominic’s did too.
A phone call.
A bell tower.
Near water.
Train horns.
The old ferry terminal.
Dominic stood.
“That’s where they’re holding Sofia.”
I grabbed his arm before he could move.
It was the first time I had ever touched him.
He looked down at my hand.
I let go quickly.
“If Falcone is setting a trap, you know he expects you there.”
“I know.”
“Then call the police.”
Marco made a sound under his breath.
Dominic looked at me.
“The police have Falcone men inside.”
“Then federal agents. State police. Someone outside your world.”
His eyes narrowed.
“My world kept Ethan alive until last night.”
“No,” I said. “Fear kept people quiet. Rules kept people careful. But Lily kept him alive.”
The words landed hard.
Rosa whispered, “She is right.”
Dominic looked at her, startled.
Rosa lifted her chin.
“If you go to war alone, more children bleed.”
Ethan gripped his father’s sleeve.
“Please.”
Dominic looked around the room.
At his son.
At Rosa.
At me.
At Lily, who was half asleep against my knee after saving them all twice without understanding how.
Finally, he took out his phone.
“Marco,” he said.
“Yes?”
“Call Agent Reeves.”
Marco stared.
“The FBI?”
May you like
Dominic’s mouth tightened.
“If Falcone wants to use children, we use every law he forgot to fear.”
