PART 3 — "That Baby Is Mine."
The first burst of gunfire shattered every window in the library.
Students screamed.
Books exploded from the shelves as bullets ripped through centuries-old wood.
Without thinking, Dominic threw himself over Meline, wrapping his arms around her pregnant body before either of them hit the marble floor.
A second volley tore across the room.
Glass rained over their backs.
"Meline!" Dominic shouted.
"Cover your head!"
She couldn't move.
Everything happened too fast.
The baby kicked violently beneath her ribs.
Dominic felt it.
For one impossible second...
His child had kicked against his chest.
The realization hit him harder than the bullets.
His son...
Or daughter...
Was alive beneath the woman he had failed.
Outside, Seraphina's black limousine slowly disappeared into traffic.
She had never intended to watch the ending.
Only the beginning.
Dominic's men stormed into the building less than thirty seconds later.
The gunmen were already retreating.
One escaped through the rear alley.
Another died in the lobby during a firefight.
The third...
Dominic caught himself.
The masked assassin barely managed to raise his rifle before Dominic tackled him through a display case.
Years of rage exploded at once.
Punch after punch landed across the assassin's face.
Carlo grabbed Dominic's shoulders.
"Boss!"
No response.
"Boss!"
Dominic finally stopped.
The gunman coughed blood onto the marble floor.
Dominic crouched beside him.
"Who sent you?"
Silence.
Dominic calmly pulled the man's mask away.
He froze.
Not because he recognized him.
Because tattooed beneath the assassin's ear...
Was the symbol of the Valente organization.
One of his own soldiers.
Two hours later...
The captured assassin finally spoke.
"I wasn't working for Seraphina."
Dominic stared across the interrogation room.
"Then who?"
The man laughed weakly.
"You've been hunting the wrong enemy."
He looked directly into Dominic's eyes.
"The person who sold Meline..."
"...has been standing beside you for years."
Carlo's expression changed.
Dominic slowly turned toward him.
Carlo immediately shook his head.
"It wasn't me."
The assassin smiled through broken teeth.
"No..."
"Not Carlo."
"Silas."
The room became completely silent.
Dominic's heartbeat slowed.
Impossible.
Silas had been with him for almost a decade.
He had found Meline.
Recovered the ultrasound.
Tracked the Boston photo.
Then Dominic understood.
Silas hadn't found Meline.
He had delivered her location.
At that exact moment...
Silas boarded a private helicopter outside Boston.
Across from him sat Seraphina Duca.
She poured two glasses of champagne.
"You've earned this."
Silas accepted the glass.
"I never liked working for Dominic."
"You liked his money."
"I like surviving."
Seraphina smiled.
"When Dominic dies today..."
"...the Valente empire becomes mine."
Silas raised his glass.
"And the baby?"
Seraphina's smile vanished.
"No heir."
"No witnesses."
"No loose ends."
Meanwhile...
Meline sat inside Boston General Hospital.
Doctors confirmed the baby was unharmed.
Twenty weeks.
Strong heartbeat.
Healthy movement.
She placed trembling fingers against her stomach.
The door opened.
Dominic entered alone.
No bodyguards.
No weapons.
He quietly placed something on the bedside table.
A small glass jar.
Inside...
Gray ashes.
Meline stared at it.
"What is that?"
Dominic swallowed.
"My men reconstructed what was left inside your apartment drain."
She looked at him in disbelief.
"The ashes..."
"...from the ultrasound."
Tears filled her eyes.
"I couldn't save the picture."
"I know."
"I thought destroying it would protect our baby."
Dominic slowly sat beside the bed.
"You were trying to save our child."
"I was trying to save him from becoming you."
The words cut deeply.
Dominic accepted them.
"You were right."
She looked at him.
"What?"
"I built an empire where fear became normal."
"I made you believe loving me was more dangerous than leaving me."
Silence filled the room.
"I failed you."
"I failed our child."
"For that..."
"I'll spend the rest of my life earning forgiveness."
He reached into his coat pocket.
Not for a gun.
Not for handcuffs.
For a folded document.
"The engagement contract."
He placed it on the bed.
Then struck a lighter.
Orange flames slowly consumed every page.
The signatures disappeared.
The alliance vanished.
The contract turned into ash.
When the fire died...
Dominic gently poured the ashes into the same glass jar beside the burned ultrasound remains.
"Now they belong together."
Meline stared silently.
"The lie that separated us..."
"...and the picture that proved we were already a family."
Three days later...
Federal agents surrounded Valente Shipping.
Silas had copied years of financial records before betraying Dominic.
But he never expected Dominic to discover another secret.
Dominic had secretly been working with a federal anti-corruption task force for almost two years.
Not as an informant.
As a businessman trying to dismantle the criminal empire his own father had built.
Every document Silas stole...
Had already been given to prosecutors.
Every transaction.
Every offshore account.
Every murder tied to the Duca organization.
Seraphina walked into what she believed was her greatest victory.
Instead...
She walked into the largest organized crime sting in Chicago history.
More than one hundred arrests followed before sunset.
Silas was captured trying to cross the Canadian border.
Carlo personally placed the handcuffs on him.
"You sold a pregnant woman."
Silas lowered his head.
"You sold your family."
Eight months later...
Snow once again covered Chicago.
Inside a private hospital room, a tiny cry echoed through the air.
Dominic stood speechless.
The nurse carefully placed a baby boy into Meline's arms.
Dark hair.
Gray eyes.
Long fingers.
Just like his father.
Dominic hesitated.
"May I?"
Meline smiled through exhausted tears.
She carefully handed him the baby.
The feared Mafia King—whose name had once terrified an entire city—held his son with shaking hands.
The infant wrapped tiny fingers around Dominic's thumb.
Dominic broke down.
Completely.
No power.
No empire.
No money.
None of it mattered anymore.
Only this little boy.
Meline watched silently before reaching into her hospital bag.
She handed Dominic the same glass jar.
Inside rested two layers of ash.
The burned ultrasound.
The burned engagement contract.
Dominic looked at her in confusion.
She smiled softly.
"Keep it."
"So you never forget what almost destroyed us..."
"...and what was worth burning everything else to save."
Dominic kissed his son's forehead.
Then looked at Meline.
"I once promised that nothing would ever touch you while you were mine."
He shook his head.
"I was wrong."
"I don't want you to belong to me."
He reached for her hand.
"I want to spend the rest of my life proving that I belong to you."
For the first time since the night she burned the ultrasound...
Meline believed him.