Chapter 2: The Night Everything Changed
Chapter 2: The Night Everything Changed
Three weeks later, the threat arrived.
Not against Dominic.
Against Leo.
Calvin burst into the study just after midnight.
"We intercepted a call."
Dominic looked up immediately.
"What kind of call?"
The answer chilled the room.
A rival family had been gathering information.
School schedules.
Security routes.
Household routines.
Most importantly...
The child.
Dominic stood so quickly his chair crashed backward.
Within minutes the mansion transformed into a fortress.
Extra guards.
Locked gates.
Armed patrols.
Every protection money could buy.
Yet fear remained.
Because Dominic understood something most people didn't.
Every security system eventually fails.
Every wall has a weakness.
Every man has a blind spot.
The next morning, Leo disappeared.
Only for eight minutes.
But eight minutes was enough.
The entire estate erupted into panic.
Guards searched hallways.
Calvin checked cameras.
Dominic felt his pulse pounding harder than during any gunfight he'd ever survived.
Then they found him.
In the greenhouse.
Curled beside Bea.
Asleep.
Leo had become frightened by the shouting and hidden where he felt safest.
With her.
Dominic stared at the scene.
The little boy slept with one hand wrapped around Bea's arm.
She sat perfectly still so she wouldn't wake him.
Exhausted.
Patient.
Protective.
Like she'd been sitting there for hours.
Something shifted inside Dominic.
Something permanent.
Because for the first time he saw the truth clearly.
Every guard could be replaced.
Every employee could leave.
Every asset could disappear.
But Leo trusted exactly one person.
And that person was Beatrice Gallagher.
The nanny everyone ignored.
May you like
The woman his son loved.
The woman Dominic was beginning to love too.
