The most feared man in the city came home early and found his housekeeper’s three-year-old daughter standing on a stool, scrubbing one of his custom-made shirts with freezing water because she believed her sick mother would be fired if it stayed dirty. Everyone expected me to explode in anger, but one heartbreaking sentence from that little girl ripped open a past I had spent my entire life trying to bury.

The air completely left my lungs as Antonio's horrifying words echoed through the massive warehouse. I looked at little Nora, realizing that she was far too quiet and her tiny face was already growing dangerously pale. Antonio tossed the small blue vial gently from hand to hand, mocking the absolute despair settling into my bones. He told me that there was only one single dose of the antidote left in the entire world. He wanted to watch me suffer the impossible agony of choosing whether to save the mother or the child. Antonio demanded that I drop all my weapons and sign the legal deeds to my entire shipping empire right now. He promised that if I obeyed, he would let me administer the single dose to whoever I wanted before executing the rest of us. I slowly lowered my pistol, knowing that any sudden movement would result in Clara and Nora being instantly ripped apart by gunfire. I unbuckled my tactical vest and let my primary weapons clatter loudly onto the cold concrete floor. Antonio laughed triumphantly, stepping closer to hand me the legal documents and a silver pen. He leaned in close, whispering that a real king would never sacrifice his crown for a pathetic maid and a bastard child. I looked him dead in the eye and told him that a real king protects the people who belong to him. I slowly reached my hand out, pretending to accept the documents in total, broken defeat. Suddenly, Clara let out a furious, blood-curdling scream that startled every single man in the room. She had secretly used a jagged piece of loose metal on her chair to completely sever her thick zip ties. She lunged forward with unbelievable speed, snatching a discarded pistol from the waistband of a nearby guard. Clara did not aim the weapon at Antonio or the dozens of heavily armed mercenaries surrounding us. Instead, she pressed the cold steel barrel directly against her own temple, her finger resting heavily on the trigger. She stared fiercely at Antonio and promised that if he did not give Nora the antidote right now, she would blow her own brains out. She knew perfectly well that Antonio needed her alive to find the missing Rossi ledger she had hidden years ago.