Chapter 3 - The Shadow in the Room
The tiny apartment went completely silent except for the groans of the wounded enforcer.
Mara stood frozen against the peeling wallpaper, shielding her small son with her body.
The boy, Leo, stared at me with wide, terrified eyes over the edge of a worn blanket.
I kept my weapon leveled at the second enforcer, who was sweating profusely.
I asked him to repeat what he had just said about my future wife.
The man swallowed hard and refused to speak, glancing nervously at the door.
I did not have the patience for loyalty among lower-tier criminals today.
I stepped forward and pressed the hot barrel of my gun against his forehead.
He broke immediately, his voice trembling as he confessed everything he knew.
He swore that Vanessa Marino had ordered the clinic to inflate the medical bill deliberately.
The goal was to bankrupt Mara and force her into a situation where she could not save her son.
I demanded to know why the Marino family cared about a random maid working in my estate.
The enforcer swore he did not know the deeper reasons, only that the order came directly from the top.
I hit him across the jaw with the heavy grip of my pistol, knocking him unconscious.
I turned my attention back to the bleeding man on the floor.
I told him to deliver a message to the Marinos that the debt had been permanently canceled.
I grabbed him by his leather collar and threw him out into the hallway, tossing his unconscious friend right after him.
I closed and locked the damaged apartment door, turning to face Mara.
She was shaking violently, clutching her son so tightly her knuckles were completely white.
She knew exactly who I was, and she knew the brutal reputation that followed my name.
I lowered my weapon and tried to adopt the least threatening posture I could manage.
I asked her why Vanessa Marino wanted her child dead.
Mara refused to answer, tears spilling over her pale cheeks.
I pulled out the medical bill and placed it gently on the small kitchen table.
I promised her that I was not there to hurt her or the boy.
I told her I would pay the bill entirely and get Leo the best doctors in New York, but only if she told me the truth.
Mara looked at the piece of paper, then looked at the frail boy coughing in her arms.
She realized she had absolutely no other options left in this world.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and finally whispered the secret she had carried for years.
She confessed that six years ago, she had briefly dated a charismatic man who turned out to be Vanessa’s older brother, Marco Marino.
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Marco was dead now, killed in a gang war, but he was Leo’s biological father.
Mara looked me directly in the eyes and revealed that her sick little boy was the true, legitimate heir to the entire Marino criminal empire.
