Chapter 4 - Nobody Touches My Family
Declan moved them into the zoo administration building while his men checked the street.
Maisie sat beside Sienna.
She wasn’t crying.
That almost made Sienna more afraid.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Are bad people looking for Declan?”
Sienna glanced at him.
Declan crouched.
“Some people I used to work with are angry with me.”
“Why?”
“Because I stopped letting them make decisions for me.”
Maisie nodded slowly.
“That happens when I tell Chloe she can’t pick every game at recess.”
Declan blinked.
Sienna nearly laughed despite the situation.
“Similar concept,” he said.
“Is Chloe dangerous?”
“No.”
“Then not very similar.”
Declan glanced at Sienna.
“She’s definitely yours.”
Sienna’s smile vanished quickly.
“Who is Victor?”
Declan stood.
“The man whose organization controlled the debt my father owed.”
“The man who had my photograph?”
“His older brother.”
“And Victor?”
“Took over afterward.”
“Why does he care now?”
Declan hesitated.
“Because I’m dismantling what his family built.”
Sienna stared.
“You said nobody gives you orders.”
“They don’t.”
“That doesn’t mean you’re out.”
“No.”
She stepped closer.
“What exactly do you do?”
Declan’s voice stayed quiet.
“I took control because leaving wasn’t an option. Then I started cutting away the parts that made innocent people targets.”
“That sounds very noble for organized crime.”
“It isn’t noble.”
“Then stop making it sound like it is.”
“I’m not.”
His eyes held hers.
“I’m telling you I spent years becoming the man they couldn’t threaten. The problem is, that made me someone everyone else fears.”
Sienna folded her arms.
“And now Victor knows about Maisie.”
“Yes.”
“What does that mean?”
“That I make sure he never gets close enough to matter.”
“No.”
Declan’s expression changed.
“No?”
“You don’t get to make decisions for us.”
“Sienna—”
“You disappeared once because you decided alone what would protect me.”
His jaw tightened.
“And it kept you alive.”
“It also left me pregnant and alone.”
The words landed brutally.
Declan lowered his voice.
“You’re right.”
Sienna hadn’t expected that.
He continued.
“I don’t get to make decisions for you. But right now, I need you to trust my judgment about one thing.”
“What?”
“Your apartment isn’t secure.”
Her stomach sank.
“No.”
“I have a house in Lake Forest.”
“No.”
“Sienna.”
“I am not moving my daughter into some mafia mansion.”
Maisie raised her hand.
Both adults looked at her.
“What’s a mafia mansion?”
Sienna closed her eyes.
Declan rubbed his forehead.
“Later,” Sienna said.
Maisie lowered her hand.
Declan turned serious again.
“Not permanently. Forty-eight hours. Let my team verify there’s no threat.”
“I have work.”
“I’ll arrange transportation.”
“I have a life.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t. You walked into it twelve days ago.”
That shut him up.
Then one of Declan’s men entered.
“We found the SUV.”
Declan looked at him.
“And?”
“Empty. Burner phone inside. One message.”
He handed Declan the phone.
Declan read it.
His face became frighteningly calm.
Sienna stepped forward.
“What does it say?”
“Sienna.”
“What does it say?”
He handed her the phone.
The message contained six words.
Family makes powerful men very careless.
Sienna’s blood turned cold.
Maisie couldn’t see the screen.
Good.
Sienna looked at Declan.
“Forty-eight hours.”
He nodded.
“Forty-eight.”
His Lake Forest home wasn’t what Sienna expected.
It was large, yes.
Guarded, yes.
But it didn’t feel like a gangster palace.
There were books.
Old photographs.
A kitchen that looked genuinely used.
And, sitting in the living room, was a gray-haired woman Sienna recognized instantly.
Declan’s mother.
Margaret Voss stood slowly.
Her face went white.
“Sienna?”
Sienna froze.
Margaret looked at Maisie.
Then at Declan.
Then back at Maisie.
“Oh my God.”
Declan’s voice was quiet.
“Mom.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
Maisie whispered to Sienna, “Why does everybody look like they’re going to cry around me?”
Margaret laughed through tears.
Declan introduced them.
“This is Maisie.”
Margaret’s hands trembled.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Maisie smiled shyly.
“Hi.”
Later, when Maisie was upstairs choosing between two guest bedrooms, Sienna cornered Margaret in the kitchen.
“You knew where Declan was?”
Margaret’s face fell.
“Not at first.”
“But later?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was told if I contacted anyone from his old life, they would know.”
“I was pregnant.”
“I didn’t know.”
“I called you.”
“I know.”
Sienna went still.
Margaret’s voice broke.
“I found the messages months later after they allowed me access to my old number. By then, Declan was buried too deep. I told him.”
Sienna stared.
“When?”
“Maisie was almost a year old.”
Her breath caught.
“You told him?”
“Yes.”
Footsteps sounded behind them.
Declan stood in the kitchen doorway.
Sienna turned.
“You knew.”
His face said everything.
“You knew she existed.”
Declan said nothing.
Sienna’s voice became dangerously quiet.
“You looked me in the eye and said you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t know when I disappeared.”
“You knew later.”
“Yes.”
“When she was a baby.”
“Yes.”
Rage replaced every softer emotion Sienna had started to feel.
“You knew for five years.”
Declan took one step forward.
“Sienna—”
She slapped him.
The sound cracked through the kitchen.
Nobody moved.
Declan didn’t touch his face.
He simply accepted it.
“How dare you?”
“I deserve that.”
“You deserve worse.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
His eyes were full of something she had never seen there before.
Shame.
“Because the day my mother told me about Maisie, Victor’s brother was sitting three seats away.”
Sienna stopped breathing.
Declan continued.
“He heard everything.”
“What happened?”
“I told him she wasn’t mine.”
Sienna stared at him.
“I called you a liar. Said you had cheated on me before I disappeared.”
Her face twisted.
“You what?”
“I made them believe I hated you.”
“You destroyed me to protect us.”
“Yes.”
“That isn’t romantic, Declan.”
“I know.”
“It isn’t heroic.”
“I know.”
“You should have found another way.”
His voice cracked for the first time.
“I know.”
Sienna’s eyes filled.
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because I was afraid that if I saw my daughter once, I wouldn’t be strong enough to walk away again.”
Silence filled the kitchen.
Then a small voice came from the doorway.
“You knew about me?”
Maisie stood there.
May you like
And judging from her face, she had heard enough.
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