CHAPTER 2 — The Child Who Knew the Mafia Boss's Greatest Secret
No one spoke.
Not a single bodyguard dared breathe.
Vincenzo stared at the silver necklace trembling in the boy's tiny hands.
Impossible.
He had buried that necklace with Sofia's empty coffin fifteen years ago.
No one else should have had it.
No one.
"Where did you get this?" Vincenzo demanded.
The boy flinched but didn't cry.
"A woman gave it to me."
"What woman?"
"I... I called her Mommy."
Silence.
Even the rain seemed to stop.
One lieutenant quietly whispered,
"Boss... it could be a trap."
But Vincenzo couldn't take his eyes off the child.
The necklace wasn't a copy.
It had the tiny scratch near the clasp that Sofia made when she accidentally dropped it on the marble stairs during her fifth birthday party.
Only family members knew that mark.
Only family.
Vincenzo knelt.
"For the first time in twenty-five years."
His soldiers exchanged shocked glances.
They had never seen their ruthless leader kneel before anyone.
"What is your name?" he asked softly.
"Ethan."
"How old are you?"
"Six."
"And your mother?"
The boy looked down.
"They took her."
Those three words hit Vincenzo harder than any bullet.
"Who took her?"
"The men with the wolf tattoo."
Every color drained from Vincenzo's face.
The Wolf Syndicate.
The very cartel he believed he had destroyed fifteen years ago.
His oldest enemy wasn't dead.
They had been hiding... waiting.
Before Vincenzo could ask another question—
A black drone hovered above them.
Its speaker crackled.
A distorted voice echoed through the empty street.
"Welcome back to the game, Vincenzo."
The mafia boss slowly looked up.
Every bodyguard raised their rifles.
The voice laughed.
"You've protected the boy exactly as we planned."
Then...
A package dropped from the drone.
Inside was a single photograph.
It showed a woman chained inside a dark warehouse.
She looked exhausted.
Older.
Scarred.
But unmistakable.
It was Sofia.
Alive.
At the bottom of the photo, written in blood-red ink, were chilling words:
"Save your daughter... if you're willing to burn your entire empire to the ground."
Vincenzo's hands shook for the first time in his life.
He finally understood the horrifying truth.
Saving the little boy hadn't been an accident.
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It was the first move in a deadly game someone had been planning for fifteen years...
And the real war had only just begun.
