Chapter 3 - The Gilded Cage
The entire courtyard went perfectly silent at Lily's innocent, terrifying revelation.
Emma pulled her daughter firmly behind her legs, her maternal instincts flaring into absolute panic.
"You have been having my five-year-old child followed?" she demanded, glaring furiously at Alexander.
Alexander did not look apologetic, but he quickly signaled his enforcer to step back into the shadows.
"I prefer the term protected, Emma," he replied with a dangerously calm voice.
"I do not need protection from you or your mafia thugs," she fired back bravely.
"You do not understand the danger you are in, but you will," he said, turning toward the massive oak doors.
He ordered his staff to show Melanie and Lily to their luxurious guest suites in the east wing.
Emma was escorted to the master wing, realizing quickly that her room was directly connected to Alexander's suite.
The bedroom was breathtakingly beautiful, filled with expensive silk sheets and fresh white roses.
She paced the luxurious carpet for hours, trying desperately to understand her bizarre new reality.
Why would a billionaire mafia boss spend months secretly protecting a broke, single mother?
When midnight finally arrived, Emma crept out of her room and silently entered Alexander's dark office.
She needed to find answers before she could ever trust the dangerous man holding her captive.
She turned on a small desk lamp and began rummaging through his unlocked filing cabinet.
Most of the folders contained boring shipping manifests and complicated corporate ledgers.
Then, she found a thick, red folder hidden at the very bottom of the drawer.
Her own name was printed clearly across the top tab in bold, black ink.
She opened the file with trembling fingers, expecting to find information about Greg's massive debt.
Instead, she found dozens of surveillance photographs of herself from three years ago.
The dates on the photos proved Alexander had been watching her long before she ever met Greg.
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Suddenly, the heavy office door clicked shut, and the main lights flickered on brightly.
"You are looking in the wrong file, Emma," Alexander said, standing in the doorway with a loaded gun.
