Chapter 2 - THE WEDDING RING MY BROTHER HAD HIDDEN FOR FOUR YEARS
“TAKE YOUR HAND OUT OF YOUR JACKET, VINCENT!”
My voice echoed across the Manhattan street.
My younger brother froze.
Twenty feet separated us, but for the first time in our lives, that distance felt like an ocean.
Sophie clung to my tattooed arm.
“Daddy,” she whispered. “Don't let him.”
Those four words did something no enemy had ever managed.
They made me afraid.
Not for myself.
For a little girl who had somehow survived three years without me.
Vincent slowly withdrew his hand.
He wasn't holding a gun.
He was holding a wedding ring.
A delicate gold band with three tiny diamonds.
I recognized it immediately.
I'd slipped that ring onto Isabella's finger during our wedding at Saint Patrick's Cathedral.
Inside were four engraved words.
Always. Even After Forever.
My knees nearly gave way.
“Where did you get that?”
Vincent looked at Sophie before answering.
“Isabella gave it to me.”
“When?”
His silence lasted one terrible second too long.
“Four years ago.”
I stepped toward him.
Sophie tightened her grip.
“Bad Uncle Vin,” she whispered.
Vincent flinched.
Not at my approach.
At her words.
I stopped.
“Why does my daughter call you a bad man?”
His jaw tightened.
“Because I did something unforgivable.”
Behind me, my driver, Mason, was speaking with the emergency dispatcher. A passing woman had brought Sophie a bottle of water.
I had already ordered an ambulance.
I didn't care that Sophie insisted she wasn't hurt.
My car had struck her bicycle.
Nothing mattered until a doctor confirmed she was safe.
“Answer me, Vincent.”
He stared at the ring.
“She remembers the door.”
“What door?”
“The one I wouldn't open.”
Sophie immediately buried her face against my shoulder.
“Mommy cried,” she murmured.
I felt something dangerous rise inside me.
Four years ago, Vincent had sworn Isabella's vehicle had disappeared near the Hudson River during an attack.
He'd told me she'd been taken from him.
He'd helped organize the searches.
He'd stood beside me while I stared at an empty grave marker, unable to accept that I would never see my wife again.
And now he stood before me holding her wedding ring.
“She's alive,” I said.
Vincent looked up.
“Dominic—”
“IS SHE ALIVE?”
“Yes.”
The world became completely silent.
Traffic moved.
People stared.
Somewhere, a siren sounded.
But all I heard was that single word.
Yes.
I turned away because I couldn't bear to let him see what it did to me.
Sophie touched my cheek.
“Daddy sad?”
I swallowed.
“A little, sweetheart.”
She considered that.
Then she carefully pressed her pink bunny bandage against my chest.
“All better.”
My eyes burned.
I kissed her curls.
“I'm trying, princess.”
The ambulance arrived moments later.
I insisted that Vincent stay away while the paramedics examined Sophie.
Fortunately, she had no obvious injuries. The doctor at the hospital would need to confirm that.
One paramedic asked who her legal guardian was.
I opened my mouth.
Then closed it.
I had only just learned she existed.
Vincent answered quietly.
“Her mother is Isabella Moretti.”
The paramedic glanced between us.
“Can you contact her?”
Vincent shook his head.
“She's missing.”
My entire body went cold.
“Missing again?”
He looked toward a dark blue delivery van parked farther down the street.
“Isabella tried to meet you today. She brought Sophie because she knew you'd never turn away from your own child.”
“Then where is she?”
“Someone intercepted her near the flower market.”
“Who?”
Vincent lowered his voice.
“Someone inside your organization.”
I almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because I'd spent twenty-five years building an empire around loyalty.
And apparently, loyalty was the one thing I had never truly possessed.
I handed Sophie to the paramedic.
She protested immediately.
“Daddy comes?”
I touched her little pink shoe.
“Every step, princess.”
Then I looked at Vincent.
“Get into the second car. You're coming with us.”
He didn't argue.
But before he turned away, he caught my sleeve.
“Dominic, there's something else.”
I stared at him.
“Four years ago, Isabella didn't just disappear because someone threatened her.”
Vincent's eyes filled with something that looked terribly like shame.
“She was shown a written order telling our men to remove her from your life.”
“Whose order?”
Vincent held my gaze.
“Yours.”
May you like
And when he saw the confusion on my face, he whispered the words that changed everything.
“Someone made your wife believe you wanted her gone.”
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