Sixty million dollars had just changed hands when a baby crawled under my desk, grabbed my trouser cuff, and looked up at me with the exact gray eyes of my dead brother. No child was supposed to be anywhere near the private office of a mafia boss, but when I saw what was hanging around her neck, I knew she hadn't gotten into my house by accident.

The heavy sedative burned like liquid fire as it aggressively entered my bloodstream.

My vision immediately began to blur, and the cold concrete floor seemed to tilt violently beneath my feet.

Doc Sal reached out to grab little Grace from my weakening arms.

The mere thought of giving my brother's child to a traitor flooded my body with pure, primal adrenaline.

I roared in anger and swung my heavy elbow directly into Doc Sal's jaw before the drugs could fully paralyze me.

The old doctor collapsed instantly onto the linoleum floor, completely unconscious.

I stumbled backward, fighting desperately to keep my heavy eyelids open.

I grabbed a bottle of medical-grade adrenaline from the counter and injected it straight into my own thigh.

The massive chemical shock violently restarted my heart rate and forced the fog out of my brain.

I scooped up Grace and roughly shook Hannah awake on the operating table.

I told her we had been betrayed again and we needed to disappear immediately.

Hannah fought through her intense pain and managed to stand up with my help.

We stole Doc Sal's rusty medical transport van from the alleyway and drove deep into the city's neglected industrial district.

We found a cheap, rundown motel that accepted untraceable cash and did not ask any questions.

I locked the flimsy wooden door and barricaded it tightly with a heavy dresser.

Hannah collapsed onto the cheap mattress, clutching her freshly stitched side in agony.

I sat on the edge of the bed and finally asked her why Vincent would pay ten million dollars specifically for a baby.

Hannah took a deep, shaky breath and revealed the final secret Julian had told her.

She explained that Julian had discovered Vincent was secretly selling our mafia family's most critical extortion secrets to the Mexican Cartel.

Julian had compiled all the damning evidence onto a single encrypted digital flash drive.

Before Vincent burned Julian's car, Julian had desperately hidden the flash drive in the only place Vincent would never look.

Hannah reached into her pocket and pulled out Grace's favorite stuffed bear.

She ripped the seam open and pulled out a small, metallic flash drive.

This tiny device was the sole reason Julian was murdered and the reason we were all currently being hunted.

I plugged the flash drive into my encrypted smartphone to review the undeniable proof.

While the files were silently loading, I turned on the small, static-filled television in the corner of the room.

The local news channel was playing a massive breaking news alert with my photograph plastered across the screen.

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

The female anchor announced that I was the prime suspect in a brutal mass murder at my own estate.

Vincent had brilliantly released fabricated audio of me supposedly ordering the execution of my own men and the theft of the sixty million.

Chapter 6 - The Ten Million Dollar Baby