THE MAFIA BOSS’S FIANCÉE LET HIM WALK TOWARD THE STAIRS HALF-BLIND—THEN I SAW THE TWO EMPTY SCREW HOLES WHERE HIS SAFETY RAIL HAD BEEN

I aimed my penlight upward. Sitting on the landing above us, clutching a bleeding shoulder, was an older man with graying hair.

“Dad?” I choked out, dropping to my knees.

My father looked down at me, his face pale, covered in dirt and dried blood. “Sofia,” he rasped, forcing a weak smile. “I told you to stay away from the family business.”

“Antonio,” Marco said, moving past me and kneeling beside his old driver. “You’ve been hiding in the walls for a month?”

“The tunnels run under the whole estate,” my father coughed. “I’ve been trying to find a way to get Leo’s files from his office. He shot me two days ago when I got too close. I’ve been hiding here since.”

“He has Vivian’s nephew,” Marco said urgently. “In the library. He’s going to burn the wing.”

My father shook his head. “No, he’s not. Leo doesn’t have the boy, Marco.”

We both stared at him. “What do you mean?” Marco asked. “We saw Vivian’s drawing.”

“Leo manipulated Vivian,” my father explained, gripping his rosary. “He forced her to remove the safety rail to weaken you tonight. But Leo didn’t kidnap the child.” He looked at Marco with a sorrowful expression. “Marco... Vivian’s sister doesn’t have a son.”

The passageway spun around me. “Then whose child is it?” I asked.

My father looked at Marco. “He’s yours, Marco. Vivian found out you had a child with a woman before you met her. She’s been paying Leo to keep the kid hidden so it wouldn't ruin her inheritance.”

Marco stopped breathing. He backed up until his shoulders hit the brick wall. “Elena’s baby?” he whispered, his voice cracking. “Elena died four years ago. The hospital told me the baby didn’t make it.”

“Leo paid the doctors to lie,” my father said. “He’s had your son hidden away, waiting for the right moment to use him against you. And Vivian found out.”

Everything clicked into place. Vivian wasn’t a victim being blackmailed. She was a co-conspirator who got in too deep, and when Leo threatened to expose her, she helped him try to kill Marco on the stairs.

“Where is he?” Marco’s voice was no longer human. It was the low growl of a predator. “Where is my son?”

“The library,” my father nodded. “But Leo isn’t trying to burn the wing. He’s trying to force you into a trap. He has three men waiting for you outside the secret door.”

Marco stood up. He took off his dark glasses and tossed them onto the stairs. He didn't care about the pain in his eye anymore.

He reached down and helped my father to his feet. “Sofia, stay with your father,” Marco ordered.

“Marco, you can’t fight three men blind,” my father protested.

Marco pulled a heavy steel pipe from the plumbing fixtures along the wall. “I don’t need to see them,” Marco said coldly. “This is my house. I know where the floorboards creak.”

He turned and walked up the remaining stairs. Before he reached the top, he stopped and looked back at me. “Sofia. In my left pocket. Take it.”