But sitting in that little room, watching her care for a man who’d barely remembered her name, I felt ashamed.

“Who can you trust?” she asked.

“Salvatore Corsetti.”

I gave her the phrase.

She listened carefully, then went to the kitchen’s internal phone.

“Mr. Moretti would like risotto alla Siciliana,” she said when Salvatore answered. “The way his father used to have it prepared.”

Silence.

Then I heard Salvatore’s voice.

“Forty minutes. Suppliers’ entrance.”

Elena hung up.

She looked at me.

“We’re getting you out.”

For the first time since Victor had locked me downstairs, I believed I might see daylight again.

PART 2 — THE FAMILY I NEVER SAW COMING

The Vegetable Truck

Exactly forty minutes later, an old produce truck pulled into the service yard.

Elena wrapped a coat around Lily, helped me through the kitchen, and guided us toward the loading entrance.

The driver had cleared space behind several stacks of vegetable crates.

I climbed in with difficulty.

Elena lifted Lily beside me and climbed in after her.

“Stay low,” she whispered.

The truck began moving.

We were approaching the estate’s front gate when I saw Victor’s black sedan coming up the driveway.

My brother was returning early.

Elena drew Lily close.

The truck slowed.

I could hear the tires crunching over the gravel.

Victor’s car passed within a few feet of us.

Nobody spoke until we were several blocks away.

Then Lily looked up at me.

“Did we win?”

I brushed a strand of hair away from her forehead.

“Not yet, sweetheart. But we’re doing better.”

Salvatore met us at a safe house in Brooklyn.

He’d known my father for more than thirty years and had been one of the few men who questioned Victor’s story about my disappearance.

A physician arrived shortly afterward.

My leg required treatment, but I was expected to recover.

When the doctor finished, I found Elena sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea.

Lily was asleep against her shoulder.

I sat across from them.

“You could’ve told Victor where I was,” I said.

Elena looked up.

“I know.”

“He would’ve paid you a great deal of money.”

She set down her cup.

“Your father helped me when nobody else would.”

I waited.

“My husband, Anthony, was convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. He passed away in prison while I was pregnant with Lily. By the time she was born, I’d lost almost everything.”

Her voice remained calm, but she held her daughter a little closer.

“Your father found me sitting in Battery Park one afternoon. He offered me work and a place where I could raise my child.”

I remembered Dad telling me he’d hired someone who needed a fresh start.

I’d never asked for details.

“He didn’t make me feel like I owed him my life,” Elena continued. “He just helped.”

I looked at Lily sleeping against her mother’s chest.

My father had noticed Elena when she needed help.

I’d spent four years walking past her.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

She looked surprised.

“For what?”

“For never really seeing you.”

Elena studied me for a moment.

“You see me now.”

The Man With the Black Glove

Later that morning, Marco Bellini arrived.

Marco had worked with my family for years. I’d trusted him with sensitive information and considered him one of the few people who would never turn against me.

He wore a black leather glove on his left hand.

That wasn’t unusual. He’d injured the hand years earlier and often kept it covered.

But something about his behavior bothered me.

He looked around the room.

“Where are you staying tonight?” he asked.

He didn’t ask about my leg.

He didn’t ask whether I could walk.

He wanted to know where I’d be sleeping.

I gave him a vague answer.

After he left, I told Salvatore.

“Keep an eye on Marco.”

Salvatore frowned.

“You think he’s involved?”

“I think he’s frightened. I want to know why.”

We didn’t find out quickly enough.

Several hours later, men forced their way into the safe house.

Salvatore helped me through the rear entrance, but Elena and Lily were still in the front rooms.

By the time we reached the street, I saw two men pushing them into another vehicle.

Elena struggled to keep Lily close.

I tried to run toward them.

My injured leg buckled.

Salvatore caught me.

“Dominic, you can’t reach them!”

The vehicle sped away.

Lily’s stuffed rabbit lay in the middle of the road.

I picked it up.

Its left ear was bent beneath the wheel of a passing car.

I stood there holding Mimi while Salvatore called our people.

Victor had found the two people who’d saved me.

And now he was using them to make me surrender.

The Reason Marco Betrayed Me

At the second safe house, I placed Mimi on the table.

I couldn’t stop looking at it.

Salvatore received a call shortly before midnight.

He listened, asked two questions, then hung up.

“We found out what happened to Marco’s family.”

I looked up.

“What happened?”

“His wife, Anna, and his seven-year-old son, Nico, disappeared three weeks ago.”

I stared at him.

Marco had told us they were visiting relatives.

“Victor has them?”

Salvatore nodded.

“Every few days, Victor makes Nico speak to his father. Just long enough for Marco to know he’s still alive.”

I looked at the black glove Marco had worn.

He’d been trembling when he came to see me.

I’d thought it was guilt.

Now I understood.

Victor had taken his family.

Marco wasn’t selling information for money.

He was buying a few more days with his son’s voice.

“Bring him here,” I said.

Marco arrived forty minutes later.

He entered the room, saw me, and dropped to his knees.

“Dominic, I don’t deserve to stand in front of you.”

I moved toward him.

“Get up.”

He shook his head.

“I told them where you were. I knew Elena and the little girl were there. I still told them.”

“Marco. Stand up.”

He rose slowly.

His eyes were wet.

“They have my son.”

“I know.”

His face crumpled.

“Every three days, they let me hear him. He keeps asking when I’m coming home.”

I put a hand on his shoulder.

“You should’ve come to me.”

“Victor said he’d find out.”

I couldn’t promise that I would’ve handled the situation perfectly.

But I knew what I wanted to do now.

“You owe me something, Marco.”

He nodded immediately.

“Anything.”

“Help me bring everyone home.”

He looked at me.

“You still trust me?”

“I trust that you want your family back. Right now, that’s enough.”

The Way Back Into My House

Marco told us everything he knew.

Victor had replaced several members of the estate’s security staff with men loyal to him.

He’d also changed access procedures, redirected communications, and moved Elena and Lily to a secured section of the property.

Marco knew which personnel could be trusted and which entrances remained accessible.

Salvatore contacted our attorney and the authorities with the evidence we’d gathered. We arranged for the families to be recovered without putting them at greater risk.

By the time we approached the estate, I was exhausted and barely able to put weight on my injured leg.

Mimi was tucked inside my coat.

I also carried a drawing Lily had made while we were at the Brooklyn safe house.

It showed three people holding hands.

A man.

A woman.

A little girl.

She’d handed it to me with a serious expression.

“That’s us,” she’d said.

I hadn’t known what to say.

Now I kept it close.

We entered through a service entrance with the assistance of people who’d remained loyal to my father.

From somewhere inside the house, I heard a woman calling my name.

“Dominic!”

Elena.

I moved toward the sound.

Salvatore tried to slow me.

“Your leg—”

“I heard her.”

We reached a locked room at the end of the east corridor.

A member of the security team forced the door.

Elena was inside with Lily.

Both were frightened and exhausted, but they were alive.

Lily saw me first.

“Dominic!”

She ran toward me.

I knelt as carefully as I could and held her.

“You took forever,” she complained.

I pressed my cheek against her hair.