PART 2 — The Mafia King Crossed America for the Woman He Had Already Lost
The Gulfstream jet landed in Boston before sunrise.
Dominic Valente had not slept once during the two-hour flight.
The blurry traffic-camera photograph lay on the table in front of him, illuminated by the cabin lights.
A woman in a gray wool coat.
Her face half-hidden beneath a knitted scarf.
To anyone else, she was another anonymous pedestrian walking through a New England snowstorm.
To Dominic...
She was the woman he had spent three months trying to find.
His thumb brushed across the screen.
"The ring," he murmured.
Silas nodded from the opposite seat.
"Your forensic team enhanced the image. The silver wedding band belonged to Meline's mother. She never took it off."
Dominic's expression hardened.
"She wants to disappear."
Silas looked away.
"She disappeared because she believed you abandoned her."
For several seconds, neither man spoke.
Finally Dominic answered quietly.
"I know."
Boston...
Meline woke before dawn, just as she always did.
Routine kept fear under control.
She checked the street through the basement window.
No unfamiliar cars.
No men lingering outside.
No black SUVs.
Safe.
She placed a kettle on the stove while absentmindedly rubbing the growing curve beneath her sweater.
Twenty weeks.
Halfway.
The baby had become stronger every day.
Sometimes he kicked whenever she listened to classical music.
Sometimes whenever she laughed.
Sometimes when she cried.
"You've got your father's stubbornness," she whispered with a sad smile.
A powerful kick answered immediately.
She laughed.
"Okay... definitely your father."
She had promised herself never to say Dominic's name aloud again.
Yet every movement reminded her of him.
The baby's dark hair on the latest ultrasound.
The strong heartbeat.
The long fingers visible during one examination.
Every tiny detail belonged to Dominic Valente.
No matter how far she ran...
She carried him with her.
Across the city...
Dominic's security convoy rolled silently through Boston's narrow streets.
He refused to involve local law enforcement.
No police.
No federal agencies.
Only his most trusted men.
Carlo Rossi leaned forward.
"Boss, if she sees us first, she'll run again."
"I know."
"So what's the plan?"
Dominic stared through the window.
"I talk."
Carlo nearly laughed.
"You've threatened senators more gently than you've ever talked."
Dominic didn't respond.
Because Carlo wasn't wrong.
Dominic had negotiated million-dollar deals.
Ended gang wars.
Ordered executions without raising his voice.
Yet somehow...
He had never learned how to tell the woman he loved the truth.
By noon...
Silas located another clue.
Cash withdrawals.
Always under five hundred dollars.
Always from different neighborhoods.
Never a pattern.
"She's still thinking like she's being hunted," Silas explained.
Dominic clenched his jaw.
"Because she is."
Silas looked confused.
Dominic's voice became colder.
"The Duca family knows she disappeared."
Silas slowly understood.
"If Seraphina discovers Meline was pregnant..."
"They won't come after Meline."
Dominic interrupted.
"They'll come after my son."
Meanwhile...
Seraphina Duca sat inside her Manhattan penthouse staring at a confidential report.
One photograph rested on top.
Meline Hayes.
Pregnant.
Estimated twenty weeks.
Seraphina smiled.
"So..."
She whispered.
"There really is an heir."
Her father entered the room.
"The Chicago informant finally talked?"
She nodded.
"He sold Dominic's secret for five million dollars."
"And Dominic?"
"He just boarded a private jet."
Her father's eyes narrowed.
"Boston."
Seraphina smiled wider.
"So he found her."
She slowly closed the file.
"Good."
"Because now..."
"They'll both die together."
Back in Boston...
Meline spent the afternoon cataloging eighteenth-century manuscripts inside Professor Aldridge's library.
The old historian smiled kindly.
"You should go home early."
"You look tired."
"I'm fine."
"No."
He adjusted his glasses.
"You're becoming a mother."
"You should rest."
The words warmed her heart.
Nobody here knew her past.
Nobody feared Dominic.
Nobody treated her like property.
For the first time in months...
She almost believed she deserved peace.
Outside the library...
A black SUV slowly passed the building.
Then another.
Then another.
Dominic stepped out onto the snowy sidewalk.
His heartbeat accelerated.
Three months.
Ninety-three days.
He had imagined this moment thousands of times.
Would she cry?
Would she slap him?
Would she run?
Would she even look at him?
He entered the building alone.
No guards.
No weapons visible.
Just a man searching for the family he had destroyed.
Meline packed her papers into a canvas bag.
She thanked Professor Aldridge and climbed the old wooden staircase toward the exit.
The front door opened.
Heavy footsteps echoed inside.
She looked up.
The world stopped.
Dominic.
He stood only twenty feet away.
Older.
Thinner.
Dark circles beneath his eyes.
His expensive coat still carried melting snow.
Neither of them moved.
Neither breathed.
Her bag slipped from her hand.
Books scattered across the floor.
Dominic took one cautious step forward.
"Meline..."
His voice cracked.
It was the first time she had ever heard weakness in him.
She instinctively stepped backward.
"No."
Another step.
"No..."
"Meline..."
"Don't."
Her breathing became frantic.
"You lied to me."
"I know."
"You chose her."
"No."
"I heard you."
"I know what you heard."
"You called me a problem."
"I lied."
"You were getting married!"
"I never married her."
Silence.
Snow drifted through the still-open doorway.
Students walked outside without realizing history was changing inside the old library.
Dominic's eyes slowly lowered.
Toward her stomach.
The oversized sweater could no longer hide it.
His child.
His son.
Or daughter.
Alive.
Healthy.
Growing.
Emotion hit him so violently that his knees nearly gave out.
His eyes filled.
For years people believed Dominic Valente couldn't cry.
They were wrong.
Very slowly...
He whispered...
"Our baby..."
Meline immediately wrapped both arms around her stomach.
Pure instinct.
Pure fear.
Dominic noticed.
The gesture pierced him deeper than any bullet ever could.
She wasn't protecting herself.
She was protecting their child...
From him.
Before either of them could speak again...
A deafening explosion shattered every window in the library.
Glass erupted across the room.
People screamed.
Bookshelves collapsed.
Dominic spun instantly.
Three masked gunmen stormed through the smoke carrying assault rifles.
One shouted...
"Kill the mother!"
Everything happened in less than two seconds.
Dominic threw himself toward Meline.
The first burst of bullets ripped through the doorway behind them.
As he wrapped his body around her pregnant stomach...
He looked up...
And froze.
Standing outside across the street...
Watching the attack from the back seat of a limousine...
Seraphina Duca slowly lowered her sunglasses...
Smiled directly at Dominic...
And mouthed four chilling words.
"The baby dies today."