"She thought she could easily silence a helpless nanny, until the terrifying footsteps of the mafia boss echoed from the shadows behind her." THE MAFIA BOSS WALKED IN EARLY AND FOUND HIS FIANCÉE HURTING HIS BABY—THEN THE NANNY’S TESTIMONY EXPOSED EVERYTHING “Stop it, please. You’re breaking his arm.” Lily’s scream tore through the marble foyer of the Blackwood mansion. Baby Ethan was on the floor, crying so hard his little body could barely breathe, while Serena Montigue dragged him by the arm like he was nothing more than a rag doll. His face had gone from red to a frightening purple. His cries were getting weaker. And Lily knew, with a terror that swallowed every thought in her head, that the 14-month-old boy she had loved like her own for six months was slipping into shock. She threw herself forward. Bare feet sliding on the cold marble. Hands reaching for Serena. Heart pounding one single prayer. Save him. But Serena was faster. Her heel drove into Lily’s stomach with brutal force, knocking the air from her lungs and sending her crashing backward onto the stone floor. Pain exploded through her body. But Lily did not care about the pain. She only cared about Ethan. The baby’s arm hung at an unnatural angle. His little face was crumpled in agony. His sobs were fading into small, broken sounds no child should ever make. Serena stood over Lily with cold, perfect eyes. The same woman who smiled at charity galas. The same woman who played the elegant fiancée. The same woman who was about to marry Victor Blackwood, the most feared mafia boss in Chicago. “Touch him again,” Serena said calmly, pressing her heel into Lily’s abdomen, “and I’ll make you disappear. Nobody cares about a nobody like you. You think anyone will believe some cheap nanny?” Lily could barely breathe. But she crawled. One inch. Then another. Her hands shook. Her stomach burned. Her knees scraped against the marble / Chapter 14 / 30

Chapter 14 - THE MAN WHO STOOD GUARD

Marco did not resist arrest.

He looked at Victor once. “I never touched that phone.”

Lily believed him.

The burner had no fingerprints. The coat Marco wore had been hanging in the mudroom for two hours while he helped police outside. Anyone could have planted it.

Quinn examined the payment list. “The ink is fresh. Damien wants us looking at the wrong man.”

A fingerprint on the paper belonged to one of the captured attackers. Under questioning, he admitted a woman had paid him to frame Marco.

The woman was Celia Price.

She had escaped the clinic before formal booking because the arresting officer—one of the corrupt names in Warren’s ledger—released her through a back door.

Celia’s plan was simple. Remove Marco, isolate Lily, and take Ethan during the confusion.

But Lily had already moved Ethan.

She hid with him in the estate’s old wine cellar, accessible through a pantry panel Serena had never known existed. Victor and Quinn used the baby monitor as bait in the safe room.

Celia entered through a kitchen window. She carried a syringe and moved quietly toward the false sound of Ethan crying.

Police arrested her the moment she opened the safe-room door.

In her bag they found passports, cash, and a photograph of Victor’s late wife, Amelia.

The back of the photograph contained a date.

It was the day Amelia died in a car crash.

Celia finally broke.

“My father changed the maintenance report,” she said. “The brakes were not defective.”

Victor’s face lost all color.

“Then what happened?”

Celia looked toward Lily, as if afraid to speak in front of her.

“Serena was in the car with Amelia before the crash. She got out three blocks from the bridge.”

Victor sat down slowly.