I Gave a Mafia Boss’s Mother Her Medication—Then He Walked In and Asked, “What Mistake Did You Stop Her From Making?”

The library spun. The marble floor felt like it was dropping out from under my feet.

My father was Vincenzo’s son?

That meant my grandmother, Eleanor, hadn't just fled because she was pregnant. She had fled because she was carrying the child of the most ruthless man in the Brooklyn underworld. And this little boy, clutching Vincenzo’s hand in his dinosaur pajamas, was my father’s late-in-life mistake?

“You’re lying,” I whispered, taking a step back. “My father died three years ago. He was an honest mechanic. He never had another child.”

“Your father was a weak man,” Vincenzo wheezed, his oxygen tank hissing softly. “But he reached out to me when his mechanic shop went under. Wanted a loan. He gave me Leo as collateral while he did some... jobs for me. Sadly, your father didn't survive the work.”

I felt physically sick. Antonio lowered his gun just an inch. He couldn’t shoot the old man with a child standing right in front of him. Vincenzo knew it. He was using my little brother as a human shield.

“Come here, Leo,” I said gently, crouching down and holding out my hand. “Come to me.”

Leo looked up at Vincenzo, terrified. Vincenzo’s bony fingers tightened on the boy’s shoulder. “Leo stays with his grandfather. Now, Maria. Where is the ledger?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Maria lied, her chin held high.

“Marco failed to kill you, which is a disappointment,” Vincenzo sighed. “But I know my brother kept a ledger. And I know he hid it somewhere in Bellarosa before I had him taken care of. Tell me where it is, or Antonio dies today. And Dante. And the waitress.”

Vincenzo’s bodyguards stepped into the room, their weapons drawn.

“You can’t kill us all and keep the Commission’s support,” Antonio said, stepping in front of his mother.

“I can if I tell them you went mad and attacked an old man,” Vincenzo countered.

I looked at Leo. The little boy’s eyes were brimming with tears. He reached into the pocket of his pajama pants and pulled out a heavy, ornate brass key. It slipped from his small fingers and clattered onto the marble floor.

Vincenzo’s eyes widened in sudden fury. “Boy. Pick that up.”

“You told me to hold it, Grandpa,” Leo whimpered. “You said it opens the old restaurant.”

Antonio’s eyes darted to the key. I saw the realization hit him.

“The original safe,” Antonio breathed. “In the old wine cellar. You’ve been looking for it.”

“Get the key!” Vincenzo barked to his men.

But I was closer. I dove across the floor, grabbing the brass key just as one of the bodyguards grabbed my hair. I screamed, tossing the key backward.

Dante caught it in his good hand.

“Drop him!” Antonio roared, raising his gun.

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the front of the estate. Sirens wailed in the distance. Antonio’s perimeter guards had triggered the alarm.

Vincenzo sneered. “The police. How inconvenient.” He looked at Antonio. “You have one hour, nephew. Bring me the ledger from Bellarosa, or I burn this family to the ground.”

He wheeled himself backward out the door, his men dragging a crying Leo with them.