“MARCUS SAID THE GIRL WASN’T SUPPOSED TO FIND HIM!”

For one second, nobody moved.

Then the emergency lights flickered on.

I immediately pulled Daisy against my chest, shielding her tiny body with my arm.

“Stay behind me,” I ordered.

My security team moved instantly.

“LOCK DOWN THE BUILDING! Nobody leaves this H๏τel!”

Two hundred men scrambled to their feet. Chairs crashed against the marble floor. My guards surrounded the ballroom entrances while others rushed toward the stage.

But Daisy wasn’t looking at the armed men.

She was staring at the curtain.

“Uncle Teddy?”

I lowered my head.

“Yes, princess?”

“Dat bad man… he has Mommy’s necklace.”

My blood turned cold.

“What necklace?”

Daisy pointed with her tiny finger.

A man emerged from behind the curtain.

He wore a black security uniform, but around his neck hung a delicate silver necklace with a small heart-shaped pendant.

I recognized it immediately.

Emily had worn that necklace every single day since our mother gave it to her.

I had bought her a matching one for her twenty-first birthday.

And now a stranger was wearing it.

“PUT HER DOWN, DOMINIC!”

The man raised his weapon.

My men immediately aimed theirs at him.

But I didn’t move.

Daisy buried her face in my shoulder.

“That’s Mommy’s necklace,” she whispered. “He took it when Mommy was sleeping.”

I looked directly at the man.

“Where is my sister?”

He smiled nervously.

“You should have stayed out of this, Romano.”

I тιԍнтened my hold around Daisy.

“That’s not an answer.”

“Your sister made a terrible mistake. She should have kept her mouth shut.”

Before I could respond, a familiar voice came from behind me.

“Dominic, don’t listen to him.”

Marcus Bell.

My closest friend.

My right-hand man.

The person who had stood beside me for eight years.

He walked toward us with both hands raised.

“Let me handle this. We don’t know what this man is talking about.”

I slowly turned.

“Marcus.”

“Yes, boss?”

“Why were you leaving my gala before the lights went out?”

His expression barely changed.

“I received an urgent call.”

“From whom?”

“An informant.”

I stared at him.

Then Daisy suddenly lifted her head.

Her little eyes widened.

“NO!”

Everyone turned toward her.

She pointed directly at Marcus.

“YOU!”

Marcus froze.

Daisy clutched my lapel.

“You are the man Mommy talks about!”

My heart began pounding.

“What did Mommy say about him, sweetheart?”

Daisy hesitated.

Then she whispered something that made every man in the ballroom go silent.

“Mommy said… Mister Marcus is the bad uncle.”

Marcus’s face changed.

For the first time in eight years, I saw fear in his eyes.

“She’s two years old,” he snapped. “She doesn’t understand what she’s saying.”

Daisy shook her head furiously.

“I DO TOO!”

She reached into the pocket of her fluffy yellow dress and pulled out a tiny pink toy phone.

“Mommy said press da red ʙuттon when I find Uncle Teddy.”

My eyes dropped to the device.

It wasn’t an ordinary toy.

Someone had modified it.

There was a small red ʙuттon hidden beneath the plastic screen.

I looked at my security chief.

“Get that.”

He approached carefully, but Daisy refused to hand it over.

“No! Mommy said Uncle Teddy must hear!”

I softened my voice.

“Okay, princess. You can show me.”

She pressed the ʙuттon.

A tiny electronic beep sounded.

Then a woman’s trembling voice filled the ballroom.

“Dominic… if you’re hearing this, Daisy has found you.”

My entire body went rigid.

Emily.

It was Emily’s voice.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come myself. I know you probably hate me for disappearing, but I had no choice. Marcus discovered that I had found the financial records connecting him to the people who arranged our father’s death.”

A murmur spread through the ballroom.

I stopped breathing.

Our father had died five years ago.

The official report said his car had crashed during a storm.

I had never questioned the investigation.

Because Marcus had personally handled everything.

Emily’s recording continued.

“He wasn’t working alone, Dominic. There were people inside your organization helping him. I tried to expose them, but they found out I had Daisy.”

I looked down at my niece.

Her little fingers were trembling around the toy phone.

“Mommy said she coming back,” she whispered.

I kissed the top of her head.

“She will, princess. I promise.”

Then Emily’s voice changed.

“There’s something else you need to know. The man you trust most isn’t the only traitor. The person who ordered our father’s murder is someone you call family.”

The recording ended.

Nobody spoke.

I slowly turned toward Marcus.

He was no longer pretending to be calm.

“Dominic, this is a setup.”

“Really?”

“She manipulated you! Your sister has always been paranoid.”

I took one step toward him.

“Then explain why you were wearing my sister’s trust while she was missing.”

Marcus glanced toward the exits.

That single movement told me everything.

“DON’T MOVE!” my security chief shouted.

But Marcus had already reached inside his jacket.

Three of my guards rushed forward.

A gunsH๏τ exploded.

BANG!

One chandelier shattered overhead.

Daisy screamed.

I turned my body, protecting her completely.

When I looked again, Marcus was running toward the service corridor.

“GET HIM!”

My men surged after him.

But I stayed where I was.

Because Daisy was crying.

And I had just discovered that the little girl in my arms had spent her entire life hiding from the people who had destroyed my family.

I crouched and placed her gently behind a marble pillar.

“Princess, I need you to stay with Mr. Anthony. He’s going to protect you.”

She grabbed my hand.

“No, Uncle Teddy!”

“Sweetheart—”

“Don’t go! Mommy said bad men take people away!”

Those words struck harder than any bullet.

I knelt in front of her.

“Listen to me, Daisy. I am not going to let anyone take you away. Not tonight. Not ever.”

She stared at me through her tears.

Then she slowly opened her tiny arms.

“Hug first?”

My expression softened.

I pulled her into my chest and held her for several seconds.

Then I stood.

And the man who had walked into that ballroom as Chicago’s most feared mafia boss was no longer thinking about territory, money, or power.

He was thinking about his sister.

And the little girl who had trusted him enough to find him.

Twenty minutes later, Marcus was nowhere to be found.

My security team had searched every corridor, parking garage, and emergency exit.

Someone had helped him escape.

Someone inside my own organization.

I stood in my private office overlooking the city.

Daisy sat on the enormous leather sofa, her yellow dress spread around her like a little cloud.

She was eating a strawberry from a plate while my personal physician examined her.

“She’s exhausted,” the doctor said quietly. “She needs rest and a proper medical examination, but I don’t see any immediate injuries.”

I nodded.

“Arrange everything. Nobody enters this room without my permission.”

After he left, Daisy climbed down from the sofa.

“Uncle Teddy?”

I turned.

“Yes?”

“Can I ask one question?”

“Anything.”

She looked at the pH๏τograph of Emily on my desk.

“Why Mommy cry when she looks at dis picture?”

I swallowed.

“Because she misses me.”

Daisy tilted her head.

“But Mommy said you were her favorite person.”

I couldn’t speak for a moment.

Emily had always been my protector.

When I was seven, she had taken the blame for a broken window I had caused.

When I was fourteen, she had sat beside me in a hospital after I broke my arm.

And when I became involved in the family business, she was the only person who had begged me not to become like our father.

I had failed to protect her.

And now her daughter was standing in front of me, asking why her mother was crying.

I knelt.

“Did Mommy tell you where she is?”

Daisy nodded.

“She said… big house with blue windows.”

My stomach тιԍнтened.

“What big house?”

She thought for a moment.

“House where the clock goes ding-dong. And there are many trees.”

I stared at her.

A memory suddenly surfaced.

Our family’s old lakeside estate.

The Romano summer house.

A mᴀssive property surrounded by pine trees, with blue shutters and an enormous grandfather clock in the entrance hall.

It had been abandoned for years.

Nobody in my organization knew I still held the keys.

Nobody except Emily.

I immediately called Anthony.

“Prepare the car.”

“Where are we going, boss?”

I looked at the pH๏τograph.

“Home.”

The drive took forty minutes.

Daisy fell asleep against my chest in the back seat, still clutching her pink microphone.

When we arrived, the old estate stood beneath the moonlight.

Its windows were dark.

The iron gates were slightly open.

I stepped out, carrying Daisy.

Something felt wrong.

The front door was unlocked.

I raised my hand, signaling my guards to spread out.

Then I heard it.

Three soft knocks.

Coming from somewhere inside the house.

Daisy suddenly woke up.

She lifted her head.

“Uncle Teddy?”

“Yes, princess?”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“Dat’s Mommy’s knock.”

My heart stopped.

I approached the entrance.

Three knocks came again.

This time, followed by a faint voice.

“Dominic?”

I knew that voice.

I would have recognized it anywhere.

“Emily?”

A shadow moved behind the door.

Then a woman’s trembling voice whispered:

“Please… don’t let Marcus come inside.”

I reached for the handle.

But before I could open it, Daisy suddenly began crying.

“UNCLE TEDDY, WAIT!”

I turned.

She was pointing toward the upstairs window.

A small light had appeared behind the curtains.

And standing in that window was a man.

He slowly raised his hand.

In his fingers was a pH๏τograph.

A pH๏τograph of Daisy.

Taken that very evening at my gala.

Then my phone vibrated.

An unknown number.

One message appeared on the screen.

YOU FOUND YOUR SISTER. GOOD. NOW YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO LOSE.

A second message arrived.

ASK EMILY WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO YOUR FATHER.

I stared at the screen.

Behind the door, Emily began sobbing.

“Dominic… there’s something I never told you.”

I looked down at Daisy.

Then back at the door.

My sister whispered six words that would destroy everything I thought I knew about my family.

“OUR FATHER WASN’T THE MAN YOU REMEMBER.”

And suddenly, I understood.

Finding Emily was only the beginning.

Because the greatest secret in the Romano family was still waiting behind that door.