CHAPTER 2 — The Woman Everyone Thought Was Dead
Rose Bennett opened her apartment door holding a grocery bag.
She froze.
The oranges slipped from her hands and rolled across the hallway.
Standing beside Audrey...
Was the only man she had ever loved.
Joseph Salvini.
For several endless seconds...
Neither of them moved.
Neither breathed.
Rose looked exactly as Joseph remembered.
Older.
More tired.
But unmistakably her.
The silver compass pendant still rested against her neck.
She instinctively reached for it.
Joseph lifted his matching half.
The broken pieces fit together perfectly.
Rose burst into tears.
"No..."
"This can't be real."
Audrey looked between them in confusion.
"You know each other?"
Rose collapsed into a chair.
"I loved him."
Joseph whispered...
"I still do."
Audrey felt the room spin.
Everything she believed about her family had just shattered.
Rose finally found her voice.
"I was told you died."
Joseph nodded.
"And I was told you lost the baby."
Silence.
Heavy.
Crushing.
Then Rose said the words neither had expected.
"I never miscarried."
Joseph closed his eyes.
"I know."
Rose stared at him.
"You know?"
"I figured it out tonight."
She broke completely.
For twenty years...
She had raised Audrey alone.
Working three jobs.
Selling her engagement ring.
Skipping meals.
Protecting her daughter from a past she believed was buried forever.
"I hated you," Rose admitted.
"I thought you abandoned us."
Joseph slowly knelt before her.
The most feared mafia boss in America...
Kneeling.
"I deserved your hatred."
"But I never abandoned you."
Rose touched his face.
For the first time in two decades...
She believed him.
Then every light inside the apartment suddenly went out.
Darkness.
Complete darkness.
Joseph's instincts exploded.
"Everyone down!"
The front window shattered.
A silenced bullet ripped through the living room.
Marco tackled Audrey behind the sofa.
Another sniper round smashed the family photographs hanging on the wall.
Joseph drew his pistol.
Not to attack.
To protect.
Rose stared at him.
"You brought this here."
Joseph's face hardened.
"No."
"It followed us."
His phone vibrated.
Unknown Number.
One sentence appeared.
Welcome back, Joseph.
Your daughter dies first this time.
Joseph looked at the message.
His expression became colder than death.
Marco quietly asked...
"Boss..."
"Who knows about Audrey?"
Joseph answered without hesitation.
"Only one man."
He whispered the name that every surviving member of the old mafia feared.
"Victor Moretti."
The man everyone believed had been executed twenty years earlier.
Except...
Dead men don't send text messages.
May you like
And Victor...
Was very much alive.
