Chapter 1 - The Girl Who Asked
“You’re mafia, aren’t you?”
Every fork in the diner stopped.
Vincent Romano looked up from his coffee.
An eight-year-old girl stood beside his booth, holding a glass jar against her chest.
Behind him, two bodyguards turned.
The girl stayed put.
“Then can you buy my mom a house?”
A waitress whispered, “Honey, come here.”
“I have money.”
The girl placed the jar on Vincent’s table.
Coins rattled against the glass.
“I saved all of it.”
Vincent studied her worn sneakers, the careful braid slipping over her shoulder, the red marks the heavy jar had left on her fingers.
“What’s your name?”
“Emily.”
“Does your mother know you’re here?”
“She’s upstairs.”
Emily pointed through the diner window toward the apartment building across the street.
“She thinks I’m doing homework.”
“And you’re buying a house instead?”
Her chin trembled.
“We have to leave on Friday.”
Vincent’s hand stopped around his cup.
“Mom says we’ll figure something out.”
Emily leaned closer.
“But she cries when she thinks I’m asleep.”
The diner remained silent.
“But I can hear her.”
Vincent had heard grown men beg.
They always watched his face, looking for weakness.
Emily watched the jar.
“How much?”
“Forty-seven dollars and eighty-three cents.”
Marco, the younger bodyguard, lowered his eyes.
Vincent stood.
“Take me to your mother.”
Across the street, Emily hurried up three flights.
At the top, she froze.
Their apartment door was open.
A stranger stood inside, gripping papers.
Her mother was backed against the wall.
“You can’t make me sign!”
“Mom?”
The stranger turned.
Then he saw Vincent.
“Romano.”
Vincent stepped between him and Emily.
“Behind me.”
“I didn’t know the girl was yours.”
Vincent set the jar on the kitchen table.
“Now you do.”
Something dropped beneath the stranger’s coat.
Metal struck wood.
A gun.
“Don’t,” Vincent said.
The man lunged.
Marco kicked the weapon away.
Luca, the older guard, pinned him against the wall.
Emily screamed.
Her mother pulled her close.
Vincent picked up the scattered papers.
One wasn’t an eviction notice.
It was a property transfer.
He showed Emily’s mother the purchasing company.
She went pale.
“Reed Holdings.”
“You know it?”
“My husband started that company.”
“Where is he?”
“He disappeared before Emily was born.”
The stranger laughed.
“Her father didn’t disappear, Romano.”
Vincent turned.
May you like
The man smiled.
“You made him disappear.”
