Chapter 3 - The Ghost of the PastBy nightfall, we were miles away from Manhattan, deep in the heavily forested mountains of upstate New York.
Vance Manor—a sprawling, gothic stone fortress surrounded by iron gates, armed guards, and private patrol drones—felt less like a safehouse and more like a medieval castle modified for modern warfare.
Sitting in front of a crackling stone fireplace in the master suite while my twins slept peacefully in a custom mahogany bassinet, I stared out at the dark, swirling snow outside.
The door opened silently. Elias walked in, wearing a fresh black sweater, holding a steaming mug of tea. He handed it to me without a word.
“Thank you,” I murmured, wrapping my cold fingers around the ceramic cup. “For saving us twice in twenty-four hours. I don’t even know how to begin to repay you.”
“You don’t owe me a debt, Ava,” Elias said softly, sitting down in the leather armchair opposite me. He rested his elbows on his knees, staring into the flames. “When I saw you under that overpass, holding those babies while you were half-frozen to death... you reminded me of someone I failed a long time ago.”
I looked up, surprised by the sudden vulnerability in his normally impenetrable expression.
“Who?”
“My younger sister,” Elias whispered, his jaw tightening. “Twelve years ago, Moretti’s men burned down our family home because my father refused to bow to their syndicate. I was away at college. By the time I got back, my parents were gone, and my little sister... she didn't survive the winter in the refugee camp we fled to.”
He looked up, meeting my eyes directly.
“I swore on my father's grave that I would dismantle Moretti’s entire organization brick by brick. When I saw Victor throw you out into the snow to die for a corporate war, I saw Moretti’s cruelty reflected in his eyes. I couldn't save my sister, Ava. But I will burn this entire city to the ground before I let anyone touch you or your daughters.”
A shiver ran down my spine—not from cold, but from the raw, overwhelming intensity of his devotion. This wasn't just protection. This was a blood oath.
Just then, the heavy oak door flew open.
Marcus, Elias’s head of security, rushed in, looking paler than I had ever seen him.
“Boss! We intercepted an encrypted transmission from Moretti’s primary communications hub in Brooklyn.”
Elias stood up instantly, all softness vanishing from his face, replaced once again by the ruthless Mafia kingpin.
“What is it?”
“It’s not just a hit squad, Boss,” Marcus stammered, looking nervously between Elias and me. “Moretti just leaked Ava’s identity and location to every bounty hunter, cartel enforcer, and corrupt federal agent in the country. He’s putting a fifty-million-dollar bounty on the twins. And... and he’s claiming that Ava is a fugitive wanted for corporate espionage and murder.”
My heart plummeted into my stomach.
“They’re turning the whole world against us,” I whispered in horror.
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Elias walked over, grabbed his heavy wool coat, and slid a custom holster containing a pair of silver-engraved Berettas under his arm.
“Let them come,” Elias said, his eyes burning with dark resolve. “Let the whole world try to take them. They’ll have to step over my corpse first.”
