Chapter 2 - THE STRANGER WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
“Don’t.”
Elena Russo slapped the printed notice onto her husband’s walnut desk.
Damian looked at the paper, then at his wife.
“Elena, lower your voice.”
That was the wrong thing to say.
“Lower my voice? You just ordered my community center to close, and you're worried about how loudly I'm speaking?”
Damian leaned back in his chair.
“The building has structural problems.”
“Then why does this notice say the property is being transferred to Riverside Fleet Holdings?”
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
But Elena had been married to Damian Russo for seven years. She knew every expression he tried to hide.
“Where did you get that?”
“It was delivered to the center this morning.”
Damian reached for the notice.
Elena pulled it away.
“Fourteen days, Damian. That's how long you're giving thirty women to find somewhere else to receive job training, counseling, and childcare.”
“I didn't authorize anyone to throw those women onto the street.”
“Your signature is on the bottom.”
Damian stood.
“There's something going on with that property that you don't understand.”
“Then explain it.”
He remained silent.
Elena laughed bitterly.
“There it is. The great Damian Russo deciding what his wife deserves to know.”
“Elena—”
“You promised me the Lantern House would always be mine to run.”
“And it is.”
“Until it becomes inconvenient for you?”
His jaw tightened.
“I'm trying to protect you.”
“From what? Having a life that doesn't revolve around you?”
That question struck harder than she intended.
For a moment, she almost apologized.
Then she remembered the women waiting for her at the center.
She picked up her purse.
“I'm leaving.”
Damian moved toward her.
“Let me have someone drive you.”
“No.”
“Elena, you can't just wander around Chicago without—”
“Watch me.”
She walked out.
Twenty minutes later, Damian Russo was doing something he had never imagined himself doing.
He was driving a yellow taxi.
The taxi belonged to Russo Transportation, one of his legitimate businesses.
Damian had arranged to take a cab from the fleet after instructing dispatch to send Elena a car.
He told himself he wanted to make sure she reached her destination safely.
But the ridiculous disguise told a different story.
He wanted to hear what his wife said when she believed he wasn't listening.
Now, beneath a faded baseball cap, sunglasses, and a fake mustache, he wished he had stayed home.
“My husband is a jerk,” Elena announced from the back seat.
Damian gripped the wheel.
“Sounds like he made you angry.”
“He makes everyone angry. They just don't have the courage to tell him.”
“And you do?”
“I used to.”
Damian glanced at the rearview mirror.
Elena was looking out the window.
“He wasn't always like this,” she continued.
“What was he like before?”
She smiled sadly.
“He used to bring me coffee in bed. Terrible coffee. He'd put so much sugar in it that I could barely drink the stuff.”
Damian remembered.
He had bought an expensive espresso machine because Elena once mentioned liking cappuccino.
He never learned how to use it properly.
“He used to ask me what I thought,” she said. “Not because he needed permission. Because he actually cared.”
“What changed?”
“Power, maybe. Fear. His father taught him that loving someone means controlling everything around them.”
Damian said nothing.
Elena reached into her purse and removed a small white envelope.
“But that's not the worst thing.”
His stomach tightened.
“What's the worst thing, ma'am?”
She stared at the envelope.
“Last November, I lost our baby.”
The taxi seemed to grow terribly quiet.
Damian remembered that night.
Every minute of it.
“I was at St. Anne's Hospital,” Elena whispered. “I called my husband because I was scared.”
Damian swallowed.
“He sent two security guards.”
The light changed.
Someone behind the taxi honked.
Damian barely noticed.
“I kept thinking he'd come through the door,” Elena continued. “I waited until morning.”
“Maybe something happened.”
“Something always happens in his world.”
Her voice broke.
“He came home the next afternoon. He bought me flowers. He arranged for a private doctor. He told the staff not to bother me.”
She wiped her cheek.
“But he never asked if I wanted him to hold me.”
Damian tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
He had been afraid of that conversation.
Afraid of saying something wrong.
Afraid of admitting that his power couldn't save their child.
So he had done what he always did.
He arranged things.
And left his wife alone.
“I still love him,” Elena whispered. “That's what makes it so difficult.”
Damian wanted to remove the disguise.
He wanted to apologize.
Instead, he heard himself ask, “Have you told him?”
“Every time I try, he turns my feelings into another problem he has to solve.”
She slipped the envelope back into her purse.
“Tomorrow I'm meeting someone about a job in Milwaukee. If it works out, I'm leaving Chicago.”
Damian's heart dropped.
Then Elena leaned forward.
“Driver, could you turn here?”
As Damian reached for the indicator, his sleeve slipped back.
A silver wristwatch caught the afternoon sunlight.
Its glass had a thin crack near the number seven.
Elena stopped breathing.
She knew that watch.
It had belonged to her father.
She had given it to Damian on their first wedding anniversary.
Her voice became dangerously quiet.
“Driver.”
May you like
Damian froze.
“Where did you get that watch?”
