“KNEEL DOWN AND APOLOGIZE TO HIM! HE'S THE REASON YOU STILL HAVE A JOB!” THE MAFIA BOSS'S FIANCÉE HUMILIATED HIS 25-YEAR-OLD MAID IN FRONT OF FORTY DINNER GUESTS -

Chapter 5 – INTO THE FIRE

“Are you insane?” Vanessa shrieked, backing away toward the kitchen. “He has a bomb!”

“He has a bluff,” Luca corrected, stepping away from Charles. He looked at me, standing tall in the center of the dark room. “Arthur Brooks is a coward. He uses other people to do his dirty work. He wouldn’t park a rigged car next to a gas line while he was still standing in the blast radius.”

The heavy oak doors were unbolted.

They swung open, revealing the grand circular driveway of the estate.

A single black sedan sat idling.

Standing in front of it, illuminated by the headlights, was an older man in a dark coat. He held a small detonator in his hand.

I stood up, holding Lily tightly by the hand. My legs felt like lead, but I forced myself to walk out from behind the dining table.

“Hannah, stay back,” Luca warned, stepping in front of me.

But I stepped around him.

I had spent my entire life hiding. I hid from my father’s abandonment. I hid from Charles’s cruelty. I hid in this mansion, wearing a maid’s uniform, trying to disappear so the pain couldn’t find me.

I wasn’t hiding anymore.

“Dad,” I called out, my voice echoing in the cool night air.

The man in the driveway narrowed his eyes. “Hannah. Get out of the way.”

“No,” I said, stepping onto the front portico. The wind whipped my hair across my face. “You want your money? You want your revenge? Look at me.”

Arthur Brooks sneered. “You’re just collateral damage, kid. You always were. Tell Moretti to come out here.”

“He doesn’t have to,” a small voice said.

Lily peeked out from behind my legs.

She looked at her grandfather, a man she had never met, and then she looked down at her own hand.

She unclasped the silver bracelet from her wrist. The one with the broken rose.

“Here,” Lily said loudly, her childish voice carrying over the wind. She tossed the silver bracelet onto the gravel driveway. It landed with a soft clink. “Take your jewelry back. We don’t want it.”

Arthur looked down at the bracelet.

In that split second of distraction, Luca moved.

He didn’t fire his weapon. He didn’t shout.

He raised his hand, and two sharp, suppressed shots phut-phut rang out from the shadows of the roofline.

Arthur’s knees buckled. The detonator slipped from his fingers, clattering harmlessly onto the pavement as he collapsed, screaming, grabbing his shattered kneecaps.

Luca’s snipers had been waiting the entire time.

Red and blue sirens suddenly flooded the gates at the bottom of the hill. The police.

I sank to my knees on the cold stone of the porch, wrapping both arms around Lily. I buried my face in her neck, breathing in the scent of her, shaking uncontrollably as the adrenaline left my body.

“It’s over,” I whispered. “It’s over, baby.”

But as I pulled back to look at her, Lily’s eyes rolled back.

She went completely limp in my arms.

“Lily!” I screamed, catching her small body before she hit the stone. “Lily, wake up!”

Luca sprinted toward us, dropping his gun.

He touched her neck. His face went pale.

“She’s burning up,” Luca said, his voice tight with panic. He looked back at Charles, who was being dragged out by security.

“What did you do to her?” I screamed at my ex-husband.

Charles gave a twisted, desperate smile. “She’s sick, Hannah! That’s why I brought her to Vanessa! She needs a bone marrow transplant, and you’re the only match!”