“Daddy!” A seven-year-old girl screamed as she ran across the orphanage, threw her arms around the most feared man in Chicago, and refused to let go. Everyone stared in disbelief because the man she was calling her father was a powerful mafia boss whose only daughter had vanished six years earlier. Then he opened her intake file and discovered the little girl wasn’t mistaken, and someone he trusted had known the truth all along.

I immediately shoved Sophia and the director safely behind the heavy oak desk.

I pulled my concealed weapon and fired three rapid shots into the smoke.

Two of the tactical shooters dropped instantly to the floor.

"Marco, just give me the girl!" Matteo shouted from the hallway.

"You are a dead man, Matteo!" I roared back.

I grabbed Sophia into my arms and kicked open the back window of the office.

We tumbled out into the freezing Chicago air just as bullets shredded the wall behind us.

I sprinted across the overgrown courtyard while holding my terrified daughter against my chest.

"Daddy, I am scared," she cried into my shoulder.

"I have got you, sweetie," I promised her.

We reached my armored SUV parked in the concealed alleyway.

I threw her into the backseat and slammed my foot onto the gas pedal.

The heavy vehicle smashed through the chain-link fence and sped into the chaotic city traffic.

I needed a secure place to hide her while I hunted down the traitors in my empire.

I drove to a forgotten safehouse owned by a retired enforcer named Carlo.

We rushed inside the dark, dusty apartment and locked the steel door.

I finally took a breath and set Sophia down on the old sofa.

My encrypted phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket.

When my newborn 'passed away,' my mother-in-law leaned in and said

My Husband Left Me Alone in My Car While I Was in Labor

“You’re Dead When We Get Home,” He Snapped

It was a text message from an unknown number.

The message was a GPS coordinate of the exact apartment we were currently hiding inside.

Chapter 2 - The Escape