Chapter 4 - THE EMPTY CRIBDante knocked the silver tray out of her hands with a violent sweep of his forearm. The porcelain cup shattered against the wainscoting, sending dark, steaming liquid splashing across Elena’s pristine black shoes.
She didn't flinch. She didn't blink. She simply looked down at the dark stain spreading across her leather heels with mild, detached curiosity.
"Where is my son?" Dante snarled, grabbing her by the velvet collar of her dress and slamming her back against the wall. The impact rattled the antique wall sconces.
Elena’s lips curved into a slow, chilling smile. "Safe, Mr. Moretti. Much safer than he would be in a house built on stolen ground."
"Dante, check the nursery!" Marco shouted, already bolting down the corridor.
Dante shoved Elena hard against the wall, releasing her just enough to draw his pistol and press the cold barrel beneath her chin. "One word. One second. And I scatter your brains across this hallway. Who sent you?"
"Look in the crib, Dante," she whispered, her voice laced with an eerie, maternal calm. "Go on. See what your empire bought you."
Dante didn't wait. He left her pinned against the wall, sprinting the final ten yards to the nursery door and kicking it wide open.
The room was pitch black except for the strobe-like flashes of lightning illuminating the windows. The mahogany crib sat in the exact center of the room. Dante rushed to it, throwing his hands down over the silk blankets.
His heart stopped.
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The blankets were bunched up to look like a sleeping infant, but beneath them lay only a heavy, ticking brass pocket watch—the exact watch Dante’s father had carried the night he was murdered twenty years ago.
And scrawled across the white nursery wall in dripping crimson letters were the words: CHECK THE DOCKS.
