Chapter 6 - WHISPERS OF THE UNDERWORLD
By morning, the underworld was in chaos. Marco’s burner phone was blowing up with encrypted messages.
My mother had officially declared me dead. She had assumed control of the Moretti syndicate, promising the Calabrese family unprecedented access to our shipping routes in exchange for their muscle. Worse, she had put a two-million-dollar bounty on Elena’s head, claiming the "deranged maid" had kidnapped my daughters.
"She is brilliant, I’ll give her that," I muttered, pacing the wooden floor of the cabin. "If Elena is killed by bounty hunters, there’s no one to testify about the necklace, the ambush, or my mother's treason."
"We can't stay here," Marco rasped from the couch. "If the bounty is that high, every rat in New York is looking for this cabin."
While Marco and I plotted our counter-offensive, Elena was in the back room with Sofia. I paused by the door, watching them through the crack.
Sofia was holding onto the edge of a rustic wooden bedframe.
"Breathe, milaya," Elena murmured in Russian, her hands hovering inches from Sofia's waist. "Push the fear away. Trust your legs."
Sofia took a deep breath, let go of the bed, and took a step. Then another. Then a third. She was walking better than she had on the camera feed. Her core was stronger.
Tears pricked my eyes. My empire was crumbling, my mother wanted me dead, but in this dusty, freezing cabin, my daughter was conquering the impossible.
I walked into the room. Sofia saw me, her face lighting up. "Daddy! Look!"
May you like
She took two more steps and crashed into my legs. I fell to my knees, scooping her up and burying my face in her neck, breathing in the scent of baby shampoo and pure innocence.
I looked up at Elena over Sofia’s shoulder. "I am going to take my city back," I promised her. "And then I am going to give you the world."
