Chapter 2 - The Enemy Behind the Glass
The SUV sped through the wet streets, swerving between cars as Alessandro’s driver ignored red lights.
Lily cried against Ella’s chest.
“Mommy, the window broke.”
“I know, baby. You’re safe.”
“I want my rabbit.”
Her stuffed rabbit had fallen outside the bakery.
Ella stroked Lily’s curls with trembling fingers. “We’ll get you another one.”
“I want that one.”
Across from them, Alessandro pressed a handkerchief to the cut on his cheek. His expression was controlled, but his breathing was heavier than usual.
Ella looked at the blood staining the white fabric.
“You’re hurt.”
“It’s glass.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know what a bullet feels like.”
Lily stopped crying long enough to stare at him.
“You got shot before?”
Ella shot him a warning look.
Alessandro lowered the handkerchief. “A long time ago.”
“Did you cry?”
“No.”
“Mommy says crying is okay.”
He glanced at Ella. “Your mother has many rules.”
“They’re good rules.”
“I’m beginning to understand that.”
Ella pulled Lily closer. “Stop talking to her as if this is normal.”
Alessandro’s eyes hardened. “Nothing about this is normal.”
“Then explain it.”
He looked toward the driver. “How far behind is the second vehicle?”
“Two minutes,” the man answered. “Marco’s team has the shooter’s route blocked, but the dark sedan escaped east.”
“License plate?”
“Stolen.”
Alessandro leaned back.
Ella stared at him. “Who fired at us?”
“No one you know.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only answer I’m giving with Lily in the car.”
“She was just shot at. You don’t get to protect her from words after failing to protect her from bullets.”
His jaw flexed.
The driver glanced at him in the mirror and immediately looked away.
Alessandro spoke quietly. “The man leading them is named Enzo Moretti.”
Ella recognized the surname.
During their marriage, Alessandro had forbidden her from asking about business. She had still heard names whispered by bodyguards and lawyers.
“The Moretti family was destroyed,” she said.
“The old leadership was.”
“And Enzo?”
“The younger brother survived.”
“Why does he want Lily?”
“He doesn’t want her.”
Ella gave a bitter laugh. “That’s comforting.”
“He wants me. Lily is leverage.”
“You told me leaving would protect her.”
“At the time, it did.”
“At the time?”
“Enzo did not know she existed.”
Ella stared at him.
“You hid her existence?”
“I erased every hospital record tied to you. I redirected every financial trail. I placed people near each apartment without allowing them to approach.”
“You had strangers watching my daughter?”
“I had professionals making sure strangers stayed away from her.”
“You should have told me.”
“You would have run again.”
“Yes.”
“That is precisely why I didn’t tell you.”
The SUV turned sharply through iron gates.
Ella looked through the tinted window.
A massive stone estate rose beyond rows of dark trees. Security cameras rotated above the walls. Armed guards moved toward the gates as the convoy entered.
Her chest tightened.
She knew this place.
The Vitale estate.
The house she had escaped two years earlier.
“No.”
Alessandro looked at her. “It’s the safest location.”
“It’s a prison.”
“It has reinforced windows, a medical wing, underground access, and thirty-two men protecting the property.”
“That doesn’t make it a home.”
“I’m not asking you to call it one.”
The SUV stopped beneath the covered entrance.
Alessandro stepped out first and scanned the courtyard before reaching for Lily.
Ella turned away from him and climbed out with her daughter in her arms.
“I can carry her.”
“I know.”
His answer held no anger, which somehow made her more frustrated.
The front doors opened.
An elderly housekeeper stood inside, one hand pressed to her mouth.
“Mrs. Vitale?”
Ella stopped.
Rosa had worked for Alessandro’s family since he was a child. She looked older now, her silver hair pulled into a neat bun.
“I’m not Mrs. Vitale anymore,” Ella said.
Rosa’s eyes filled with tears when she saw Lily.
“Oh, my goodness.”
Lily hid her face against Ella’s neck.
Rosa lowered her voice. “I am sorry. I did not mean to frighten her.”
Alessandro entered behind them. “Prepare the east bedroom.”
Rosa nodded. “For Miss Ella?”
“For both of them.”
Ella turned. “We are not staying.”
A car door slammed outside.
Marco DeLuca, Alessandro’s security chief, rushed into the entrance hall. He was broad-shouldered, clean-shaven, and soaked from the rain.
“We recovered the shooter’s rifle,” Marco said. “No fingerprints.”
“Cameras?”
“Traffic footage caught the escape vehicle three blocks east. Then it vanished inside a parking garage.”
Alessandro’s voice became colder. “Who knew I would be at that bakery?”
Marco hesitated.
Ella noticed.
Alessandro noticed too.
“Answer me.”
“You, me, and the two men assigned to the meeting.”
“What meeting?” Ella asked.
Alessandro ignored her. “Names.”
“Daniel Costa and Peter Rizzi.”
“Separate them.”
“They’re already downstairs.”
Lily lifted her head. “Why are they downstairs?”
Everyone went silent.
Ella gave Alessandro a sharp look.
He crouched beside Lily again. “Because they made a mistake at work.”
“Are they in trouble?”
“Possibly.”
“Mommy says people should say sorry.”
Alessandro glanced at Marco. “You heard her.”
Marco almost smiled. “Yes, sir.”
Ella carried Lily toward the staircase.
Alessandro followed.
She stopped on the first step. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To show you the safe room.”
“I remember where it is.”
His expression changed.
The safe room was where Ella had spent the worst night of their marriage, locked inside while gunfire shook the house. Alessandro had returned at dawn with blood on his shirt and refused to tell her whose it was.
“That room has been rebuilt,” he said.
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
“Why?”
“Because the old access codes were compromised.”
Her anger gave way to unease. “By whom?”
“That is what I intend to find out.”
Lily yawned and rested her head on Ella’s shoulder.
Rosa approached. “I can prepare warm milk.”
“She doesn’t drink milk before lunch,” Ella said automatically.
Lily raised one finger. “Except chocolate milk.”
Ella sighed. “Except chocolate milk.”
Rosa smiled. “I believe we have chocolate.”
Lily looked at Alessandro. “Do you like chocolate milk?”
He seemed unprepared for the question.
“I prefer coffee.”
“That’s boring.”
Marco coughed to hide another laugh.
Alessandro slowly removed his wet coat. Tattoos covered both forearms, dark lines disappearing beneath his rolled sleeves.
“Perhaps I’ll try chocolate milk.”
Lily nodded approvingly.
Ella watched him.
This was dangerous.
Not the guards. Not the guns. Not the stone walls.
This.
The way Alessandro looked at Lily as if every word mattered.
The way Lily had already stopped calling him scary.
“Rosa,” Ella said, “please take Lily upstairs for five minutes.”
Lily tightened her arms around Ella. “No.”
“You’ll get chocolate milk.”
“With the rabbit cup?”
Rosa nodded. “I will find one.”
After a moment, Lily allowed Rosa to take her.
Alessandro watched until they disappeared upstairs.
Then Ella turned on him.
“You’re going to tell me everything.”
“I told you enough.”
“No. You told me a name and expected obedience.”
“I expect you to stay alive.”
“And I expect you to stop controlling every decision.”
He stepped closer. “Someone fired through a bakery window while our daughter stood beside it.”
“Our daughter?”
His face tightened. “Yes.”
“You don’t know her.”
“I know that she is mine.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No,” he said quietly. “It isn’t.”
The anger in Ella’s chest shifted.
For the first time since the bakery, Alessandro looked less like a mafia boss and more like a man who understood exactly what he had lost.
He placed both hands on the marble table between them.
“I missed her first word.”
Ella said nothing.
“Her first step. Her first birthday. The first time she was sick. The first time she called someone Daddy.”
“She has never called anyone that.”
His gaze lifted to hers.
“She hasn’t?”
“No.”
The tension in his shoulders loosened slightly.
Ella hated that she noticed.
Alessandro straightened. “I am not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“But I will not apologize for keeping both of you hidden.”
“You let me believe I escaped.”
“You needed to believe it.”
“You decided what I needed.”
“Yes.”
“That is why I left.”
He absorbed the words without flinching.
Then Marco reentered the hall, carrying a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a small stuffed rabbit, damp from the rain.
Lily’s rabbit.
Ella stepped forward. “Where did you get that?”
“It was found in the shooter’s abandoned vehicle,” Marco said.
Her stomach twisted.
“That’s impossible. It fell outside the bakery.”
Marco placed the bag on the table.
A narrow cut ran along the rabbit’s back.
Something small and metallic protruded from the fabric.
Alessandro’s expression turned murderous.
“A tracker,” he said.
Ella looked toward the staircase.
“No.”
Marco continued carefully. “It has been transmitting for at least six months.”
Ella shook her head. “She carries that rabbit everywhere.”
Alessandro stared at the device.
“Who gave it to her?”
Ella tried to remember.
Then the answer struck her.
Her face went cold.
“A woman from Lily’s daycare.”
Alessandro looked up. “Name?”
“She said her name was Rebecca.”
Marco was already reaching for his phone.
Ella whispered, “She gave it to Lily on her birthday.”
Alessandro moved toward the stairs.
“Lock down the house.”
Marco spoke into his radio. “Full lockdown. No one enters or leaves.”
Ella grabbed Alessandro’s arm.
His muscles tensed beneath her hand.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
He looked down at her fingers, then at her face.
“Enzo Moretti does not use women named Rebecca.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone inside your life placed that tracker.”
A heavy metallic sound echoed through the estate as the security doors sealed.
Then the lights went out.
For half a second, the hall was completely dark.
Upstairs, Lily screamed.
Ella released Alessandro and ran toward the staircase.
“Lily!”
Emergency lights flickered red along the walls.
A gunshot cracked from the upper floor.
Alessandro caught Ella around the waist before she could climb the stairs.
“Let me go!”
“No.”
“My daughter is up there!”
“So is mine.”
He drew a pistol from beneath his shirt and looked at Marco.
“Seal the west wing.”
Another shot echoed above them.
Alessandro placed Ella behind the marble column.
“Stay here.”
She grabbed the front of his shirt.
“Bring her back.”
His eyes locked with hers.
May you like
“I will.”
Then he turned toward the staircase, weapon raised, and disappeared into the red darkness.
