A Mafia Boss Walked Into A Dying Bakery With A Starving Baby — Then The Poor Baker He Hired Became The Only Person Who Could Save His Family.
PART 5
“Adrian doesn’t tell people much of anything.”
Marcus’s smile widened.
“You know him well already.”
“I know when his baby needs to be fed.”
He stepped closer, though Luca was not in the crib. His green eyes traveled over Hannah with the practiced assessment of a man who valued leverage.
“I’m told Adrian paid your debts.”
“He offered.”
“And you refused?”
“I accepted a loan for the bakery. Nothing else.”
“How noble.”
Hannah disliked the way he said it.
Marcus looked at the baby.
“Children change the balance of a family. People become emotional. Careless.”
“Luca made this family less careless.”
His eyes shifted to her.
“You should remember that you’re an employee.”
“I’m not.”
“Then what are you?”
Hannah looked down at Luca’s sleeping face.
“Someone who was here when he needed me.”
Marcus’s smile remained, but the warmth left it.
After he departed, Hannah checked the camera records.
The footage had stopped for four minutes during his visit.
Victor later recovered fragments of deleted metadata. Marcus’s credentials had been used repeatedly to authorize restricted access.
The laboratory report arrived the following morning.
Dr. Bennett brought it directly to Hannah and Marco.
One of the substituted containers contained traces of a substance capable of causing severe intestinal illness in an infant. The dosage was low enough that symptoms could have appeared gradually, resembling complications from Luca’s difficult birth.
Someone did not want the baby to die suddenly.
Someone wanted him to weaken until his death looked natural.
Hannah sat at the small table in the medical office, gripping the report.
“We tell Adrian now.”
Marco nodded. “I’ll bring him home.”
But Adrian was already dealing with a crisis at the downtown headquarters. Two shipping contracts had been sabotaged, and a warehouse manager had disappeared.
Hannah called his private number.
He answered on the first ring.
“What happened?”
She could hear voices in the background.
“I need you to come home.”
“Is Luca sick?”
“No. He’s safe with Teresa.”
Adrian’s silence lasted half a second.
“What did you find?”
Hannah looked at Marco.
“We believe someone replaced his formula.”
The background voices stopped.
“Who?”
“I don’t want to accuse anyone until you see the evidence.”
“Give the phone to Marco.”
Marco took it.
“Yes, sir.”
Adrian spoke for less than a minute.
Marco’s expression became colder with every sentence.
When the call ended, he summoned additional guards and ordered the gates locked.
Adrian arrived forty minutes later.
He entered the medical office still wearing his coat, followed by Victor and two senior security officers.
Hannah gave him the report.
He read every page.
When he finished, he placed it carefully on the table.
“Marcus?”
“The camera deletions match his visits,” Victor said. “The access came from his credentials.”
“Could they have been stolen?”