Chapter 2 - The Woman I Loved Was Hiding My Son From the Man Who Wanted Me Dead
The first bullet shattered the glass behind me.
I pulled Leo to the floor.
Marcus fired back.
The corridor erupted into chaos.
Nurses screamed.
Patients fled.
One of the men in scrubs dropped behind a wall.
The other two returned fire.
I grabbed Clara's bed and shoved it sideways.
“Can you walk?”
She tried to stand.
Her legs buckled.
I caught her.
“Not alone.”
Marcus shouted, “East exit!”
We moved.
Leo was crying.
I lifted him with one arm while supporting Clara with the other.
My mind wasn't thinking about territory or enemies anymore.
It had narrowed to one command.
Get them out.
We reached the stairwell.
Marcus held the door.
“Boss, go!”
We descended.
On the second floor, another gunman appeared.
I fired before he could raise his weapon.
He fell backward.
Leo buried his face in my shoulder.
“Don't look.”
He clung tighter.
“Are you my dad?”
The question almost broke me.
I looked at him.
“Yeah.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“But Mom said you were gone.”
“She thought I was.”
“But you're here.”
“I am.”
He stared at me for a moment.
Then he wrapped both arms around my neck.
Something inside me shifted.
A locked door I hadn't known existed suddenly opened.
I had spent eighteen years building a life where no one could hurt me.
One little boy had shattered it in less than an hour.
We got Clara into a waiting SUV.
Marcus drove.
I sat in the back with Leo and Clara.
We headed toward one of my safest properties in Westchester.
Clara remained silent.
Finally I said, “You're going to tell me everything.”
She looked out the window.
“I know.”
“Why did you let me believe you were dead?”
“Because the alternative was letting them kill you.”
“Who are they?”
She lowered her gaze.
“The people who took your father.”
I stared.
“My father died of a heart attack.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“He was murdered.”
Marcus glanced in the rearview mirror.
I felt the old memories returning.
My father had collapsed at dinner.
Doctors said heart failure.
I was twenty-one.
Victor told me not to ask questions.
That night, everything changed.
“You're saying Victor killed him?”
Clara hesitated.
“Victor gave the order.”
I clenched my jaw.
“Why?”
“Because your father wanted out.”
“Out of what?”
“The organization.”
I looked at Marcus.
He knew.
Or at least he knew part of it.
Clara continued.
“Your father had built a secret network inside the family. Legal businesses. Real estate. Shipping. Restaurants. He wanted to leave the criminal side.”
“That was impossible.”
“He believed he could do it.”
She looked at me.
“He was wrong.”
We arrived at the estate.
Leo fell asleep before we reached the door.
I carried him inside.
He was so light.
I placed him on the guest bed.
Clara watched from the doorway.
“You were always good with children.”
“You knew that?”
“You used to take care of your little cousins.”
I smiled faintly.
“I barely remember.”
“You forgot a lot.”
“I had to.”
She looked away.
Later, I found Clara in the kitchen.
“You need rest.”
“So do you.”
“I'll sleep after you answer me.”
She sighed.
“I knew about Leo from the day he was born.”
“Of course.”
“I wanted to tell you.”
“Then why didn't you?”
“Because I saw what happened to your family.”
She touched the scar beside her eyebrow.
“Your uncle's men came after me.”
I looked at it.
“They did that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“They thought I'd tell you the truth.”
“What truth?”
She walked to the window.
“Your father didn't just leave the organization.”
She hesitated.
“He was building evidence against it.”
I stared.
“What kind?”
“Names. Accounts. Judges. Police officers. Politicians.”
“Enough to destroy the entire empire.”
“Yes.”
“And Victor took it?”
“He tried.”
I pulled the silver key from my pocket.
“What does this open?”
Clara stared at it.
“Your father's old office.”
“My father had an office in Manhattan?”
“Not the public one.”
“Where?”
“Beneath his restaurant.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course.”
Clara looked at me.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“Your father knew you would inherit everything.”
“And?”
“He wanted you to destroy it.”
The sentence landed harder than any bullet.
“Why would he want his own son to destroy what he built?”
“Because he realized what it was doing to you.”
I thought about every man I'd ordered killed.
Every business deal that began with fear.
Every night I'd looked in the mirror and wondered when Ethan Mercer had disappeared and Ethan Vale had taken his place.
Maybe my father had seen it coming.
Maybe he had tried to stop it.
A knock interrupted us.
Marcus entered.
“We found one of the attackers.”
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Bring him in.”
The man was tied to a chair.
Blood covered his shirt.
I stood in front of him.
“Who sent you?”
He smiled.
“Victor.”
My hands curled.
“Where is he?”
“He's been waiting for you.”
“For me?”
“Yes.”
The man laughed.
“He knew the woman would lead you back.”
I grabbed his collar.
“What does Victor want?”
“You.”
“Why?”
“Because you have something he needs.”
I frowned.
“What?”
The man looked toward Leo's room.
“The boy.”
My blood turned cold.
I released him.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“There’s more.”
He held up a photograph.
It showed Clara.
Leo.
And another man.
A man I didn't recognize.
He was standing beside Clara outside a hospital five years earlier.
On the back was a handwritten message.
She never told Ethan about the second child.
I looked at Clara.
She was standing in the doorway.
Her face had gone white.
“Second child?”
May you like
She closed her eyes.
“There is something else I never told you.”
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