Chapter 1 - The Midnight VisitorThe grandfather clock in the east wing struck midnight with a heavy, resonant toll that vibrated through the reinforced concrete and ancient oak beams of the Moretti estate. Adrian Moretti, the most feared syndicate leader in Chicago, sat at his walnut desk, reviewing encrypted cargo manifests from the port.
Then came the knocks. Three soft, hesitant taps.
Adrian’s hand drifted instinctively to the weighted Sig Sauer resting beneath his blotter. In his world, midnight visitors were never bearing gifts. They carried silenced pistols, federal warrants, or death sentences.
He pulled the heavy door open, muscles coiled to strike. Instead of a hit squad, his eyes landed on a barefoot three-year-old girl in a faded flowered nightgown, clutching a battered stuffed rabbit.
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"I need your help," she whispered.
Adrian stared down at her, the sheer absurdity clashing with the lethal instincts honed over decades. Yet, as little Lily Bennett explained that her mother wouldn't wake up and uttered the name Victor Kane, the air in the hallway turned to ice. Victor Kane was the snake who had sat across his conference table three days ago, smiling like a corporate shark while plotting a silent hostile takeover. And now, Kane's shadow had reached inside Adrian's own fortress.
