Chapter 1 - The Ghost at the DoorThe rain drummed a frantic rhythm against the glass of the narrow brick building above Mrs. Carter’s alterations shop in Brooklyn. Dominic Moretti stood frozen on the threshold, his boots planted on the worn welcome mat, his lungs refusing to draw breath.
Five years. Five years of waking up in a cold sweat, reaching across an empty king-sized bed in his Manhattan penthouse, and drowning in the agonizing memory of a funeral where a closed mahogany casket held nothing but bricks and silence.
And now, Elena Parker stood before him—flesh and blood, her chest rising and falling beneath a cream sweater, her wide, terrified green eyes locking onto his.
"You need to leave, Dominic," Elena whispered, her voice trembling as she instinctively blocked the doorway with her slender frame.
"I buried you," Dominic said, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous baritone that made the air in the cramped hallway turn to ice. "I stood in the freezing rain at Calvary Cemetery, holding a folded flag, believing the love of my life had been executed by the Moretti family’s greatest rivals. And you’ve been living in Brooklyn selling dresses?"
Elena flinched as if struck. Tears spilled over her lashes, tracing a hot path down her cheek. "You don't understand. If I stayed, you would have died. My 'death' was the only ticket keeping you and Lily alive."
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Dominic stepped forward, ignoring the chill in the air. "Lily..." He tasted the name on his tongue, realizing with a shattering jolt that the five-year-old girl with his eyes was his flesh and blood. "How could you keep her from me?"
Before Elena could answer, a shadow detached itself from the dim stairwell above.
