Chapter 1 - THE BOY IN THE STORMI thought feeding a lost, shivering eight-year-old child during a sudden autumn downpour was the safest, most decent choice I could possibly make.
Then his father—Chicago’s most feared and ruthless mafia boss—walked straight into my failing diner and discovered that someone had deliberately used his dead wife’s secret words to lure the boy right to my door.
Whoever orchestrated the plot expected Mikhail Volkov to grab his son, rush home, and never look twice at my little corner of the city. What they didn't know was that my struggling, half-empty diner was hiding a massive, forgotten secret that his late wife had left behind decades ago.
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The boy had wandered into Ruby’s Place completely soaked through, his small frame shaking violently as he clutched a damp paper bag to his chest. His high-end wool jacket and leather shoes told me he belonged in a very different world from my neon-lit diner. But his empty, starving stomach told me none of that mattered.
Without hesitation, I sat him in the warmest booth, wiped his face, and piled his plate high with pancakes, eggs, thick-cut bacon, hot chicken soup, and the single slice of homemade apple pie I had been saving for my own dinner.
