CHAPTER 2 — THE NAME SHE SPENT TWENTY YEARS RUNNING FROM
By sunrise...
The entire hospital had heard the story.
The janitor who saved the mafia king's only heir.
Doctors whispered in break rooms.
Nurses replayed every second.
Security guards suddenly treated Elena with respect they had never shown before.
She hated every minute of it.
Attention had always been dangerous.
Especially for someone carrying the last name Brooks.
Because Brooks...
Wasn't her real name.
Her real surname had died twenty years earlier.
Along with her parents.
At least...
That's what everyone believed.
Meanwhile...
Dominic refused to leave the neonatal intensive care unit.
His son, Gabriel, slept peacefully beneath soft lights.
Every tiny heartbeat felt like another impossible gift.
Finally, Dominic spoke.
"Find the cleaner."
Within fifteen minutes...
Three black SUVs pulled into the employee parking lot.
Hospital administrators nearly fainted.
Elena was washing blood from a hallway floor when two men in tailored black suits approached.
"Our boss wants to thank you."
"I'm working."
"He isn't asking."
She looked into their eyes.
Professional.
Cold.
Trained.
Exactly like the men from her nightmares.
Memories flooded back.
Gunfire.
Broken glass.
Her father's voice.
"Run!"
Her mother's scream.
The smell of smoke.
She quietly stepped backward.
"I don't know your boss."
"You saved his son."
"I only did what anyone should."
"Our boss doesn't believe in coincidences."
She turned.
And walked away.
Neither bodyguard tried stopping her.
Because a voice behind them quietly ordered,
"Let her go."
Dominic Romano had arrived himself.
Their eyes met across the hospital corridor.
For several long seconds...
Neither spoke.
Finally Dominic said,
"You gave my son another life."
Elena answered softly,
"My mother taught me every life deserves one chance."
Dominic smiled sadly.
"My wife believed that too."
Then his expression changed.
"There is something else."
He reached into his coat pocket.
Pulled out an old silver pendant.
A family crest.
Cracked down the middle.
"I've seen this symbol before."
Elena froze.
Around her neck...
Hidden beneath her uniform...
Hung the other half.
Her hand instinctively covered it.
Too late.
Dominic had already seen.
His face slowly lost every trace of color.
"Where..."
he whispered,
"...did you get that necklace?"
Elena's heartbeat became deafening.
Only one person had ever worn the matching piece.
Her father.
The man murdered when she was eight years old.
The same murder...
Police claimed had been ordered by the Romano crime family.
Before Elena could answer...
A frantic nurse burst into the corridor.
"Mr. Romano!"
"The baby's gone!"
The entire floor froze.
Gabriel's incubator...
...was empty.
Only one thing remained inside.
A single playing card.
The Ace of Spades.
Dominic's face turned white.
Because there was only one man in America who used that card.
The man everyone believed had been executed...
Ten years ago.
And somehow...
May you like
He had returned.
END OF CHAPTER 2
