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 6

“Yes.”

“Were they?”

“I don’t believe so.”

Adrian turned to Hannah.

“Why didn’t you tell me when you first noticed the containers?”

“Because suspicion isn’t proof.”

“You thought I wouldn’t believe you.”

“I thought you might believe me too quickly.”

His gaze sharpened.

“If I had accused your cousin without evidence, what would you have done?”

Adrian did not answer.

Hannah already knew.

He would have acted first and discovered the truth later.

She moved closer.

“I’m not protecting Marcus. I’m protecting you from becoming the kind of man he expects you to be.”

“And what kind is that?”

“One who mistakes anger for certainty.”

Nobody else in the office appeared willing to breathe.

Adrian looked at her for a long moment.

Then he turned to Marco.

“Bring Marcus here alive.”

Marcus never reached the estate.

His car was discovered abandoned near the East River. The driver had been shot in the leg and left beside the road. He survived but claimed masked men had attacked them.

Marcus disappeared.

That evening, Adrian ordered Hannah and Luca moved to a fortified guest wing. Every employee was searched. Every delivery was stopped.

Yet Marcus had spent twenty years learning the weaknesses of Valenti security.

At 2:13 the following afternoon, the lights failed.

Backup power activated in six seconds.

It was enough.

Smoke filled the west corridor. An alarm sent guards toward the kitchen. Two men wearing maintenance uniforms entered through a service elevator using authorized badges.

Hannah was carrying Luca back from his medical examination when one of them appeared at the end of the hallway.

She saw the weapon beneath his jacket.

She turned and ran.

“Teresa!” she screamed.

The man caught Hannah before she reached the nursery.

She twisted, holding Luca against her chest.

A second attacker blocked the stairs.

Hannah kicked him in the knee and nearly broke free, but a cloth pressed over her mouth. A chemical odor filled her lungs.

The last thing she remembered was Luca crying as someone tore him from her arms.

—

Adrian was standing in his office overlooking the frozen Hudson River when his private phone vibrated.

The message contained a photograph.

Hannah sat tied to a steel chair inside an abandoned building. A bruise darkened one side of her face, but her eyes remained fixed on the camera with open defiance.

Luca was not visible.

Below the image were five words.

*Your heir or your savior.*

A second message arrived.

*Sign everything over to me, and you may choose which one returns.*

The office became silent.

Marco stood several feet away, his face gray with guilt.

“We found the breach,” he said. “Two internal credentials. Both employees are missing.”

Adrian placed the phone on his desk.

“Where is my son?”

“Victor is tracing the transmission.”

“And Hannah?”

“We’ll find them.”

Adrian looked again at the photograph.

For almost two decades, Marco had watched Adrian walk away from ambushes without changing expression. He had seen him make decisions that ended alliances and destroyed fortunes.

He had never seen Adrian like this.