Chapter 10 - THE UNBREAKABLE VOW
When I pushed open the door to the master suite, Hannah was pacing near the bed, still holding Leo, who had finally fallen back asleep despite the chaos outside.
As soon as she saw me walk in—my suit jacket dusty, my knuckles scraped from the drive—she rushed forward, her eyes wide with frantic relief.
"Lorenzo! Are you alright? I heard the gunshots, I heard glass breaking—"
"I'm fine, Hannah," I interrupted, closing the door behind me and taking her by the shoulders, pulling her gently against my chest, carefully shielding our son between us. "It's over. The threat has been neutralized."
Hannah let out a long, ragged sob, burying her face against my shoulder. "I was so scared... not for me, but for Leo. If anything had happened to him..."
"Nothing happened to him," I whispered, resting my chin on top of her soft brown hair. "Because you are here. Because you protect him, and I protect both of you."
Ten minutes later, while Hannah settled Leo back into his crib, my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was Augusto calling from Manhattan.
"Boss," Augusto’s voice came through. "We picked up your cousin, Victor, as he was leaving the board meeting. He’s in the back of the SUV."
"Bring him to the estate," I commanded. "Bring him to the rose garden. We’re going to finish this once and for all."
Ten minutes later, standing among Sophia’s favorite blooming red roses under the moonlight, Victor was shoved onto his knees by two armed guards, shivering in his expensive suit.
I stood over him, my face carved from stone, adjusting the cuffs of my shirt.
"Lorenzo, please!" Victor cried out, looking up at me with sheer terror. "It was just a warning! We didn't mean to hurt the baby!"
"You crossed a line, Victor," I said quietly, drawing my hunting knife from my belt. "You brought war to my nursery."
When I walked back inside the mansion an hour later, the rose garden was quiet once more. The loose ends of my empire had been permanently tied up.
I climbed the stairs to the master wing, quietly pushing open the door to the nursery.
Hannah was sitting in the rocking chair, reading a book by the amber light of the lamp. When she looked up and saw me standing in the doorway, a soft, beautiful smile touched her lips—a smile that chased away every shadow, every ghost, and every memory of the car bomb that had tried to destroy my soul.
May you like
I walked across the room, sat down on the floor beside her chair, and gently placed my hand over hers.
For the first time since Sophia died, I felt completely at home.
