# HE PAID ME TO DISAPPEAR WHILE I HID HIS BABY — SIX YEARS LATER, OUR SON ROLLED A TOY CAR TO THE MAFIA KING WHO NEVER KNEW HE EXISTED

Storm didn't just move into Boston; he annexed it.

Within forty-eight hours, my life was no longer my own. Black SUVs idled at the end of my street in South Boston. Men in tailored suits pretending to read newspapers sat in the coffee shop across from Carmichael Studio. Vanguard Holdings suddenly became the primary investor in three of my biggest projects.

He was weaving a cage of protection around us, and I was suffocating.

I stormed into his temporary office at the Vanguard building downtown on a Tuesday, slamming the door behind me.

"Call off your guard dogs," I demanded.

Storm was sitting behind a massive oak desk, reviewing a ledger. He didn't look up. "They’re keeping you safe."

"They're terrifying my clients and confusing my son! Leo asked me this morning why the 'men with the ear-noodles' were following his school bus."

Storm finally looked up, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "He called earpieces 'ear-noodles'?"

"Don't smile," I snapped. "This isn't a family sitcom. This is my life. The life I built."

Storm stood, walking slowly around the desk until he was inches from me. The scent of him—bergamot and danger—made my head spin. "The Volkovs are dead, Juliet. I eradicated them five years ago to make sure nobody could ever come after the things I care about. But there are always new threats. If anyone finds out he exists..."

"No one knows who he is unless you tell them!"

Suddenly, Storm's phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen, and the smirk vanished. His jaw tightened into a rigid line.

"What?" I asked, my blood running cold.

Storm looked at me, his eyes dead and hollow. "My underboss in New York just got hit. Car bomb." He grabbed his suit jacket. "The Chicago outfit. They’re making a play for my territory. And they just sent a photo to my private server."

He turned the screen toward me.

It was a picture taken from across the street in South Boston. It showed me holding Leo’s hand as we walked into our apartment building.