I stared at the drawing in Lily’s tiny hands.

At first, I couldn’t understand what I was looking at.

It was another picture of the man from the tie shop. The same round glᴀsses, brown vest, and measuring tape around his neck.

But this time, he wasn’t standing alone.

Beside him stood another man.

A tall man wearing a black suit, with a silver watch and something that looked like a scar across his left cheek.

Underneath the drawing, Lily had written three crooked words with her colored pencil.

THE BAD UNCLE.

I felt something тιԍнтen in my chest.

“Lily, sweetheart, who is this man?”

She pointed at the second figure.

“He came with the glᴀsses man.”

“When?”

“Yesterday.”

“Where did you see them?”

“At the back door.”

I looked at the drawing again.

“Did they talk?”

Lily nodded.

“The glᴀsses man gave him a little box. Then the bad uncle gave him money.”

My fingers тιԍнтened around the paper.

“Did you hear what they said?”

She thought for a moment.

“Something about the big meeting.”

I leaned forward.

“What else?”

Lily lowered her voice.

“The bad uncle said, ‘Make sure the boss wears the black one. Then nobody will know we’re listening.’”

For several seconds, I couldn’t breathe.

The black tie.

The surveillance device.

Victor’s unusual interest in my replacement tie.

Everything was beginning to fit together.

But there was one detail I couldn’t ignore.

The man Lily called the bad uncle wasn’t a stranger.

I knew that scar.

I’d seen it countless times.

On the face of someone who had attended my father’s funeral, stood beside me during my first major business negotiations, and claimed to love our family like his own.

“Marco!” I shouted.

My head of security appeared almost immediately.

“Yes, boss?”

I handed him the drawing.

“Find out who this man is.”

Marco examined it.

His expression changed.

“Boss…”

“You recognize him?”

He nodded slowly.

“That’s Vincent Romano.”

My father’s younger brother.

My uncle.

The man who had disappeared from the family business seven years earlier after a disagreement over territory.

I’d been told he was living in Europe.

Apparently, someone had forgotten to mention that he was back.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“We’re checking.”

“Check quietly. Nobody contacts Victor.”

Marco nodded.

Then he glanced at Lily.

“Boss, perhaps the child should be taken upstairs.”

“No.”

I looked at the little girl.

“She stays with her mother.”

Lily tilted her head.

“Did I do something bad?”

My expression softened.

“No, sweetheart. You did something very brave.”

She smiled.

Then she reached into her shoebox again.

“There’s one more.”

I looked at her.

“One more what?”

“One more picture.”

She pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper.

This drawing was different.

It showed a large black car parked outside our mansion.

A man was standing beside the driver’s door.

And inside the car, Lily had drawn a little red circle.

“What is this?” I asked.

“That’s the car from yesterday.”

“Whose car?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why did you draw the red circle?”

Lily looked down.

“Because the man put something under the car.”

I slowly raised my eyes toward Marco.

“Check every vehicle on this property.”

Marco immediately spoke into his radio.

“Security team, initiate a full vehicle inspection. Nobody starts an engine until further notice.”

Then he turned toward me.

“Boss, this is getting bigger than a listening device.”

I already knew.

Someone wasn’t simply trying to steal information from my meeting.

Someone was preparing something.

And they had access to my home.

At 11:20 a.m., Marco returned.

His face told me everything before he opened his mouth.

“We found something.”

“What?”

“A second device underneath your black Mercedes.”

“Surveillance?”

He shook his head.

“Worse. An explosive charge.”

Elena, who had been standing near the library door, covered her mouth.

Lily immediately grabbed her mother’s hand.

“Mommy?”

Elena pulled her daughter close.

I stood up.

“Has it been removed?”

“No. Our bomb technician is handling it.”

I looked at the drawing again.

The little red circle.

The black car.

The man beside it.

Lily had seen the entire thing.

A four-year-old child had noticed a detail that dozens of armed professionals had overlooked.

I turned toward Elena.

“Your daughter just saved my life.”

Elena’s eyes filled with tears.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Moretti. I don’t know why she keeps getting involved in things like this.”

“Don’t apologize for protecting your child.”

I crouched in front of Lily.

“Can I ask you something?”

She nodded.

“Did you tell anyone else about the man near the car?”

“No.”

“Did anyone ask you about him?”

She hesitated.

Then she nodded.

“Uncle Victor.”

My entire body went still.

“What did he ask?”

Lily looked at her mother.

“He asked if I saw anything funny yesterday.”

“And what did you say?”

“I said I was coloring.”

“Good girl.”

She leaned closer.

“But then he told me not to tell you about the black car.”

A cold silence settled over the library.

I slowly stood.

Victor hadn’t merely known about the surveillance device.

He had known Lily might have witnessed something.

And he had tried to silence her.

“Marco,” I said quietly.

“Yes, boss?”

“Bring Victor Romano to my office.”

“Alive?”

I looked at him.

“Very much alive.”

Then I added:

“And don’t tell him why.”

Victor arrived twenty minutes later.

He walked into my office wearing his usual charcoal suit, carrying a leather folder.

“Dante, you wanted to see me?”

I sat behind my desk.

“Close the door.”

He did.

His eyes moved briefly toward the surveillance device sitting inside a transparent evidence container.

Then he looked at me.

“What is that?”

“Something I found in my tie.”

Victor chuckled.

“Expensive accessories aren’t what they used to be.”

I didn’t smile.

“Do you know where it came from?”

“No.”

“Interesting.”

I opened a drawer and placed Lily’s first drawing on the desk.

Victor glanced at it.

For the smallest fraction of a second, his expression changed.

Then he smiled.

“Children’s artwork?”

“Apparently.”

“Why are you showing me this?”

I leaned back.

“Because this little girl recognized a man who visited our tailor.”

Victor’s smile faded.

“What man?”

“A man with round glᴀsses.”

“I don’t know anyone like that.”

I studied his face.

“Really?”

“Dante, what’s this about?”

I placed the second drawing beside the first.

The one with the black car.

Victor stared at it.

Then he slowly looked up.

“Where did you get these?”

“From a four-year-old girl.”

He laughed nervously.

“You’re seriously investigating a business threat based on children’s drawings?”

“I’m investigating a murder attempt.”

His smile disappeared.

I stood.

“Someone planted a listening device in my tie. Someone placed an explosive under my car. And someone inside this house knew exactly what I would be wearing today.”

Victor shook his head.

“You’re making accusations without evidence.”

“Then help me understand something.”

I walked around the desk.

“Why did you order three identical black ties from the tailor?”

Victor said nothing.

“Why did you ask about my replacement tie?”

Still nothing.

“And why did you tell a four-year-old girl not to mention the black car?”

His face changed completely.

For the first time in twenty years, Victor looked genuinely afraid.

Then he reached into his jacket.

Marco immediately drew his weapon.

“Don’t move!”

Victor froze.

Slowly, he withdrew his hand.

But instead of a gun, he placed a small pH๏τograph on my desk.

It showed my father standing beside three men.

One was Victor.

Another was Vincent Romano.

And the third was a man I had never seen before.

On the back, someone had written a date.

October 14, 2006.

I looked at Victor.

“What is this?”

He swallowed.

“Your father didn’t build this empire alone, Dante.”

“I know that.”

“No. You don’t.”

He pointed toward the pH๏τograph.

“The man standing beside us was the original architect of the organization. He controlled the money, the weapons, and every secret your father thought he had buried.”

“Who is he?”

Victor’s eyes filled with something I couldn’t identify.

Fear.

Regret.

Maybe both.

“His name is Alessandro Moretti.”

I frowned.

“That’s impossible.”

Alessandro Moretti was my grandfather.

He had supposedly died twenty-five years earlier.

Victor shook his head.

“Your grandfather is alive.”

The room seemed to tilt.

“Where?”

Victor looked toward the closed office door.

“Very close.”

Before I could ask another question, my phone vibrated.

An unknown number.

A message appeared.

YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO GIVE US THE GIRL.

My blood turned cold.

Another message followed.

SHE SAW SOMETHING SHE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO SEE.

I immediately looked toward the hallway.

“Where’s Elena?”

Marco checked his phone.

“She and Lily were escorted to the guest wing.”

“Go get them.”

He rushed out.

I turned back toward Victor.

“Who sent this?”

He looked at the message.

Then his face went completely white.

“Dante… you need to listen to me.”

“Talk.”

“The listening device wasn’t meant to record your meeting.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Then what was it meant to do?”

Victor slowly lowered himself into the chair.

“It was designed to transmit a signal.”

I stared at him.

“What signal?”

He looked directly at me.

“The moment you entered the meeting room wearing that tie, someone would know you were there.”

“And then?”

Victor closed his eyes.

“Every member of the five families would have been killed.”

Before I could respond, a deafening explosion shook the mansion.

The lights went out.

Emergency alarms screamed.

Marco’s voice erupted through my radio.

“BOSS! WE HAVE INTRUDERS!”

I grabbed my weapon.

“Where?”

“THE GUEST WING!”

My heart stopped.

“Elena and Lily?”

There was a burst of static.

Then Marco shouted:

“They’re gone!”

I ran into the hallway.

A broken window lay scattered across the floor.

A small yellow ribbon was caught on the edge of the curtains.

Lily’s ribbon.

I picked it up.

My hands began to shake.

Then I noticed something on the carpet.

A small folded piece of paper.

I opened it.

There were only six words.

BRING THE GIRL. COME ALONE.

Below them was a pH๏τograph.

It showed Lily sitting in the back seat of a black car.

Elena was beside her, crying.

And standing outside the vehicle was an elderly man with silver hair.

A man whose face I recognized from the pH๏τograph Victor had shown me.

My grandfather.

Alessandro Moretti.

My phone rang again.

I answered.

An old, unfamiliar voice spoke.

“Hello, grandson.”

I couldn’t move.

“Where is Lily?”

The man chuckled.

“Such a protective little man you’ve become.”

“If you touch her—”

“Careful, Dante. That little girl has something I need.”

“What?”

His voice dropped.

“The truth about your father’s death.”

I gripped the phone.

“My father died in a car accident.”

There was a long silence.

Then my grandfather delivered the words that shattered everything I believed.

“Your father wasn’t killed in an accident, Dante.”

I stopped breathing.

“He was murdered by someone who still eats at your table.”

The call ended.

I slowly turned toward Victor.

He was no longer sitting in the chair.

The office door stood open.

And the man who had served my family for twenty years had disappeared.

On my desk, beneath the pH๏τograph, was a final handwritten note.

TRUST NO ONE. NOT EVEN THE MAN WHO CALLS YOU FAMILY.

I looked at Lily’s yellow ribbon in my hand.

That little girl had saved my life twice.

Now I had one chance to save hers.

And whoever had taken her was about to discover that Dante Moretti did not negotiate when it came to protecting the innocent.

END OF PART 2 — PART 3: THE SECRET BEHIND THE MORETTI FAMILY.