Chapter 3 - BLOOD TIES AND BETRAYAL
I brought Elena into my private study, a room most of my capos were terrified to enter. I poured a glass of amber scotch and offered it to her. She took it with trembling hands but didn't drink.
"Who are you, Elena?" I asked, sitting across from her. "You are not just a maid. The way you held Sofia, the way you braced her spine when she fell… that was clinical. Professional."
Elena looked down at the crystal glass. "My name is Elena Rostova. Before I fled Russia, I was a pediatric physical therapist. I worked with trauma victims. But I… I made an enemy."
She explained how a powerful Russian oligarch had demanded she fix his son’s irreversible spinal injury. When she couldn't perform a medical impossibility, he blamed her, forcing her to flee for her life. She took the lowest-profile job she could find in America: cleaning the home of a man whose security would keep the Russians at bay.
"I didn't mean to overstep, Mr. Moretti," she whispered. "But when I saw Sofia… I saw the misdiagnosis. Her spine wasn't entirely severed. It was compressed. With the right stimulation, neuroplasticity could take over. I had to try."
"You succeeded where the best doctors in the world failed," I said, the weight of my gratitude threatening to choke me. "You don't have to hide anymore, Elena. I will tear apart anyone who comes looking for you."
Before she could answer, the heavy oak doors of my study burst open.
Marco stood there, bleeding from a cut above his eye. "Boss. We have a massive problem."
"What is it?" I demanded, pulling my Beretta from the desk drawer.
"It’s your mother," Marco gasped. "She didn't just plant the necklace to get Elena fired. It was a distraction. She’s made a deal with the Calabrese family. They just breached the outer gates. Half the guards have turned on us. They're coming for you."
A hostile takeover. Initiated by my own flesh and blood. Isabella had decided I was no longer fit to rule, and she was willing to slaughter me to take control of the empire.
"The girls," I said, my blood running cold.
May you like
"I'll get them," Elena said, her voice instantly hardening into steel. She slammed the scotch glass onto the desk. "Get us out of here, Adrian."
It was the first time she used my first name. And in the face of death, it sounded like a promise.
