CHAPTER 3 "If You Want Grace... You'll Have to Kill Me First."
The mansion fell into absolute silence.
Then—
BOOM!
Every security door slammed shut at once.
Steel barriers dropped over the windows.
The warm home Grace had walked into only hours earlier transformed into an impenetrable fortress.
Nathan Vale never raised his voice.
Yet every man in the house moved as if their lives depended on obeying him.
Because they did.
"Evacuate the children."
"Seal the east wing."
"No phones leave this property."
"And nobody touches that music box."
His orders came one after another with frightening precision.
Within seconds, armed guards flooded the corridors.
Grace stood frozen.
"A... bomb?"
Nathan looked at her.
"Stay behind me."
His tone wasn't fearful.
It was absolute.
For reasons she couldn't explain, Grace obeyed.
Emma was crying.
Not loudly.
Just enough for Grace to hear tiny broken breaths echoing through the hallway.
"My bunny..."
The little girl struggled against one of the guards.
"My bunny is still inside!"
Grace didn't think.
She ran.
"Grace!"
Nathan's voice echoed behind her.
Too late.
She rushed into the music room.
The beautiful white piano stood in the center.
Beside it rested the pink wooden music box.
Exactly where Emma had left it.
Grace grabbed the worn stuffed rabbit from the floor.
As she turned—
She noticed something.
The music box wasn't ticking.
It was...
...humming.
A faint electrical vibration.
Grace had worked part-time repairing antique toys during college.
It had helped pay tuition after her scholarship was cut.
She knew mechanical music boxes.
This wasn't one.
She looked closer.
Someone had hidden modern electronics beneath the velvet lining.
A tiny blinking red light.
Grace's pulse stopped.
"It's pressure activated..."
she whispered.
The moment anyone opened the lid—
The explosion would trigger.
Nathan appeared at the doorway.
"Grace."
"Don't move."
He immediately understood from her face.
"Everyone back!"
The guards retreated instantly.
Grace carefully set Emma's rabbit against the wall.
Then slowly stepped backward.
Every movement felt like walking across thin ice.
One wrong shift.
One vibration.
One mistake.
She reached Nathan.
He pulled her behind him without a word.
A bomb technician rushed in moments later.
After nearly twenty minutes...
He finally exhaled.
"It's safe."
Nathan frowned.
"No."
The technician swallowed.
"It was never designed to explode."
"What?"
The man carefully lifted the device.
"This wasn't meant to kill."
He held up something no one expected.
A tiny camera.
And a microphone.
The room froze.
Someone hadn't tried to murder Emma.
Someone wanted to listen.
To watch.
Inside Nathan Vale's own home.
An hour later...
The entire security team gathered in the conference room.
Screens displayed blueprints of the mansion.
Nathan stood at the head of the table.
His face betrayed nothing.
Only his eyes had changed.
Colder.
Sharper.
More dangerous.
"The device entered this house sometime within the last seventy-two hours."
One guard nodded.
"We've checked every employee."
"Again."
Another hesitated.
"No signs of forced entry."
Nathan folded his arms.
"There never are."
Grace quietly listened from the corner.
She didn't belong in the meeting.
Yet no one asked her to leave.
One of the older guards suddenly spoke.
"Sir..."
Nathan looked up.
"The only new person connected to today's events..."
The room slowly turned toward Grace.
"...is Miss Holloway."
Silence.
Grace felt every eye land on her.
The accusation hung in the air.
She had arrived.
Hours later...
A surveillance device appeared.
The timing was impossible to ignore.
"I understand why you'd think that."
Grace's voice barely trembled.
"I would too."
Nobody answered.
Lucas did.
The sixteen-year-old leaned against the doorway.
"I told you."
He looked directly at Nathan.
"She brought trouble with her."
Grace lowered her eyes.
Maybe he was right.
Maybe wherever she went...
People got hurt.
Nathan slowly walked across the room.
Every guard straightened.
He stopped beside Grace.
Without warning...
He placed one hand lightly on her shoulder.
Then faced everyone.
"If I believed Grace had anything to do with this..."
"...she would never have entered this house."
His voice remained calm.
"I brought her here."
"I take responsibility."
The room fell silent again.
Lucas stared at his father.
"You've known her for less than a day."
Nathan answered without hesitation.
"I've known liars my entire life."
He glanced toward Grace.
"She isn't one."
Grace looked at him, stunned.
No one had ever defended her so completely.
Not once.
Not even when she was a child.
Late that night...
Unable to sleep, Grace wandered onto the balcony overlooking Lake Michigan.
Cold wind swept across the water.
She wrapped her arms around herself.
"You should be resting."
Nathan stepped outside carrying two mugs of coffee.
"I couldn't."
He handed her one.
Neither spoke for a while.
Finally Grace asked,
"Why do people keep trying to destroy you?"
Nathan stared across the dark lake.
"Because power is expensive."
"And loneliness..."
He paused.
"...is even more expensive."
Grace looked at him.
"You miss your wife."
Every muscle in Nathan's face tightened.
"Every day."
He reached into his pocket.
Removing an old silver locket.
Inside was a photograph.
A smiling woman holding four small children.
Grace noticed something strange.
The youngest girl...
Looked exactly like Emma.
But the oldest child—
The boy—
Wasn't Lucas.
She frowned.
"There are only three children in this picture."
Nathan slowly closed the locket.
"There used to be four."
Grace felt a chill.
"I don't understand."
Nathan's gray eyes darkened.
"My oldest son..."
"...died the night my wife was murdered."
The words barely left his mouth—
A gunshot shattered the silence.
CRACK!
The balcony glass exploded.
Nathan tackled Grace to the floor just as another bullet tore through the window behind them.
Security alarms screamed across the estate.
Guards rushed from every direction.
Nathan shielded Grace with his own body.
Then one of his men shouted from below—
"Sniper!"
The assassin disappeared into the darkness before anyone could return fire.
Nathan slowly helped Grace to her feet.
She noticed blood running down his left arm.
"You've been shot!"
He looked at the wound.
"It's only a graze."
Grace tore a strip from her sleeve and wrapped his arm without thinking.
Nathan watched her quietly.
"You always help people."
Grace gave a sad smile.
"No."
"I just don't know how to stop."
Nathan looked at her for a long moment.
Then he said something that made her heart stop.
"They weren't aiming at me tonight."
Grace blinked.
"What?"
Nathan's expression turned frighteningly serious.
"They knew exactly where I was standing."
He looked directly into her eyes.
"They moved their aim after you stepped beside me."
Grace felt the world tilt.
"They were trying..."
Nathan nodded once.
"...to kill you."
Miles away, inside a luxury penthouse overlooking downtown Chicago, a woman watched the failed assassination through a live satellite feed.
She calmly poured herself a glass of red wine.
"So..."
she whispered.
"Grace Holloway has already earned Nathan Vale's protection."
She smiled.
"Interesting."
Behind her stood a man with his head lowered.
"What are your next orders, ma'am?"
The woman slowly turned.
The scar across her left cheek caught the moonlight.
"Tell every family in Chicago..."
"...the war officially begins tomorrow."
May you like
Then she revealed the name that had terrified the underworld for over a decade.
"Because Isabella Moretti never loses."
