Chapter 1 - THE SHATTERED MIRROR
The words hung in the air of the Long Island kitchen like a physical blow, heavy and suffocating. "Daddy killed Mommy."
For a fraction of a second, the world stopped spinning. The ambient hum of the state-of-the-art refrigerator, the distant sound of the Atlantic waves crashing against the perimeter bulkheads of the estate, the shallow, frightened breathing of Rosa Bennett standing frozen in the doorway—all of it vanished. There was only the small, trembling grip of my eldest daughter, Lucia, whose tiny fingers were clenched so tightly around the lapel of my bespoke Italian wool coat that her knuckles were entirely white.
Her dark eyes—eyes that were an exact, haunting mirror of Isabella’s—did not blink. They stared straight through me, carrying a terrifying weight that no four-year-old child should ever possess.
"Lucia," I choked out, my voice raspy, unfamiliar even to my own ears. I reached down, my large, calloused hand hovering inches from her shoulder, terrified that if I touched her too hard, she would shatter completely. "What... what did you say, sweetheart? Who told you to say that?"
Lucia didn't answer. Her lower lip quivered, and the fragile spark of courage that had driven her to speak vanished as quickly as it had appeared. The heavy, dead silence of trauma rushed back in, filling the void. Her eyes rolled back slightly in sheer exhaustion, her tiny frame going completely limp.
I caught her before she hit the marble floor, scooping her up against my chest. Her head fell heavily against my shoulder.
"Rosa!" I roared, the dormant fury of a man who controlled half the criminal underworld of the Eastern Seaboard bleeding into my tone.
Rosa flinched, her elderly hands flying to cover her mouth. The longtime housekeeper rushed forward, her face pale as parchment. "Mr. Russo—Dominic, please, she’s just a baby, she doesn’t understand what she’s saying—"
"Get the doctor," I commanded, my voice dropping to a low, lethal register that had made seasoned cartel lieutenants beg for a quick bullet. "Not the local pediatrician. Call Dr. Sterling in Manhattan. Tell him if his helicopter isn't on my private pad within twenty minutes, I’ll burn his entire hospital to the ground."
"Right away, sir. Right away," Rosa stammered, sweeping her gaze toward the other two girls. Valentina and Mia were huddled together by the kitchen island, tears streaming silently down their identical, terrified faces.
The young maid—the one I had been half a second away from throwing out onto the streets—was still kneeling on the floor, her hands resting flat against the flour-dusted marble. A smudge of white powder ran across her cheekbone, accentuating wide, terrified blue eyes that looked up not with submission, but with a fierce, protective defiance.
"Take Valentina and Mia to the west wing," I barked at the maid, not even knowing her name. "Give them water. Keep them out of my sight until Sterling arrives."
"I’m not a piece of furniture you can order around, Mr. Russo," the girl replied, her voice surprisingly steady despite the tremor in her hands. She stood up slowly, keeping herself between me and the younger twins. "And those little girls have been through enough terror today without you barking like a general executing a court-martial. Hand Lucia to me. You’re holding her so tight you're cutting off her circulation."
My gaze snapped to hers. In any other circumstance, a domestic employee speaking to Dominic Russo in such a tone would have found herself packed into the trunk of a Lincoln before sunset. But looking down at her, seeing the way Mia instinctively reached out to grab the hem of her blue apron, I froze.
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"Who hired you?" I demanded, shifting Lucia’s sleeping weight securely into one arm while my free hand instinctively twitched toward the hidden holster beneath my jacket.
"Rosa did," the girl said, her chin lifting defiantly. "My name is Chloe. And if you have an ounce of sense left under all that expensive cashmere, you'll put that gun away, step back, and let me put your eldest daughter to bed where she belongs."
