Chapter 1 - The Tears I Never Shed
Maria stood perfectly still in the doorway of my living room.
Her face was pale under the dim glow of the crystal chandelier.
She had just called me by my first name.
Nobody in this massive house dared to speak to me without a formal title.
I wiped the tears from my face before slowly standing up.
My voice was cold and perfectly steady when I finally spoke.
"Who exactly are you, Maria?"
She walked slowly toward the center of the expansive room.
She gently pulled Sofia behind her legs to shield the tiny child.
"I am a mother trying to keep her daughter alive," she whispered.
I stepped closer, deliberately ignoring the thick envelope of cash on the table.
"You said that Sofia's father was cold before he died."
Maria looked down at the expensive hardwood floor.
"His name was David, and he was a brilliant accountant."
My mind raced through the long list of dead men in my syndicate.
"He worked for Vincent Russo," she confessed quietly.
The name of my greatest traitor echoed like a gunshot in the silent room.
Vincent Russo was the lieutenant I had trusted like a blood brother for eleven years.
He was the man who had secretly sold my operations to the rival Falcone family.
"David found out exactly what Vincent was doing behind your back," Maria continued.
"He tried to leave the criminal life and take us far away from New York."
"Vincent shot him in the chest and left his body in the freezing snow."
I stared at the quiet, careful woman I had hired just three weeks ago.
"You didn't come to this estate looking for a simple housekeeping job."
"You came into my home looking for a shield."
Maria nodded slowly with fresh tears streaming down her hollow cheeks.
Before I could ask another question, the deafening sound of the estate alarm shattered the silence.
Red emergency lights suddenly bathed the living room in a bloody, pulsing glow.
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My heavy oak front doors shuddered under a massive, violent impact.
Someone had just breached the most heavily secured fortress in New York City.
