Chapter 1 - The Boy Who Was Afraid to Tell His Father
“Daddy, please don't fire Miss Grace. She's only helping because Madeline said she'd hurt me if I told you what I found in Mommy's room.”
Those words stopped Vincent Castellano cold.
At 4:07 a.m., the feared forty-three-year-old Mafia boss discovered his eight-year-old son, Oliver, barefoot on the kitchen floor, polishing expensive leather shoes.
His pajamas were wet. His fingers were stained black. Twenty-four pairs of shoes were scattered around him.
Beside him, the family maid, Grace Bennett, worked desperately to finish the punishment.
Vincent's fiancée, Madeline Ashford, stood watching.
“He needs to learn responsibility,” she explained.
But Oliver's trembling hands told a different story.
Three years earlier, Vincent's wife, Caroline, had died unexpectedly. Her bedroom remained locked, and Oliver had been forbidden from entering.
Now the little boy claimed he'd found something inside.
Vincent sent Oliver upstairs with Grace and ordered his security chief, Ethan, to investigate.
Security footage revealed that Madeline had entered Vincent's private dressing room at 12:46 a.m. using an unauthorized keycard.
She had opened a hidden compartment containing Caroline's belongings, including a sealed letter addressed to Oliver.
Later, she'd forced the frightened boy and Grace downstairs.
Oliver had been polishing shoes for nearly three hours.
When Vincent confronted Grace privately, she admitted Madeline had threatened her livelihood and her daughter.
Then Grace handed him something she'd recovered.
Caroline's broken gold locket.
Inside was a photograph of Caroline holding baby Oliver. Hidden behind it was a note written in Caroline's handwriting.
SHE KNOWS ABOUT THE BASEMENT.
The west-wing basement had been sealed five years earlier following a mysterious fire.
Before Vincent could understand the warning, Ethan discovered a pharmacy receipt hidden behind Caroline's bedroom mirror.
The name on it was Madeline Ashford.
It was dated three days before Caroline's death, during a week Madeline claimed she'd spent in California.
Then an unknown number sent Vincent a photograph.
Oliver was asleep in his bedroom.
The picture had been taken less than a minute earlier.
Beneath it were six terrifying words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THE MAID ALONE.
Vincent stared at the photograph.
May you like
Somebody was inside his home.
And whoever it was had just threatened his son.
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