Chapter 1
Lily was still holding one hand against her reddened cheek when Domenico crouched beside her.
She did not complain about the pain.
She looked at the torn dinosaur instead.
Its stuffing had pushed through the seam.
The tiny camera continued blinking between two pieces of fabric.
Lily reached toward it with trembling fingers.
“Dino didn't do anything bad.”
Domenico’s face changed.
He carefully tucked the stuffing back inside.
“No.”
His voice was low.
“He didn't.”
Genevieve pushed herself upright among the fallen flowers.
She did not apologize.
She did not even look ashamed.
Instead, she brushed a white petal from her gown and slowly straightened one pearl earring.
“Are we really stopping an entire reception because a spoiled child got corrected?”
Several guests lowered their eyes.
Domenico stood.
The room changed with him.
No raised voice.
No threat.
Just the Mafia Boss standing between his daughter and two relatives who had expected blood to protect them.
Adrian shoved a silver tray away with his shoe and rose from beside the overturned trolley.
His lip was split.
His arrogance was intact.
“You're embarrassing yourself.”
Domenico looked at him.
Adrian wiped the corner of his mouth.
“All this over a toy?”
His eyes moved toward Lily.
“She wanders around listening to things she can't understand, then runs to you crying whenever an adult tells her no.”
Lily pressed closer to Domenico’s leg.
Adrian smiled at the reaction.
“There. Look at that.”
He adjusted his cuff.
“You've turned her into a little princess who thinks three tears can stop a room full of grown men.”
Domenico said nothing.
That silence became uncomfortable.
Genevieve recovered first.
“She was warned.”
Domenico’s gaze shifted toward her.
“About what?”
“Questions.”
“What question?”
Genevieve lifted her chin.
“It doesn't matter.”
Domenico’s thumb stopped moving across his signet ring.
“It mattered enough for you to hit a three-year-old.”
Genevieve’s mouth tightened.
Then she smiled.
Cold.
Patronizing.
“You really want to do this in front of your capos?”
“Yes.”
The answer came immediately.
Her smile weakened.
Only slightly.
Adrian stepped forward.
“She asked about things above her place.”
Lily looked up.
Domenico caught the fear in her eyes.
Not fear of Adrian.
Fear of saying the wrong thing again.
He lowered himself until they were eye level.
“No one hits you for telling me something.”
Lily looked toward Genevieve.
The older woman rolled her eyes.
“Oh, for God’s sake.”
She looked at Lily.
“If you're going to perform, at least stop trembling. You weren't nearly this fragile when you were sticking that ugly animal where it didn't belong.”
Domenico slowly stood again.
“Where did it not belong?”
Genevieve’s nostrils flared.
“The council corridor.”
Adrian laughed.
“Under tables.”
“Behind curtains.”
“Beside doors.”
His voice turned mocking.
“Your daughter has the manners of a servant’s child and the access of a don’s.”
Lily’s small fingers closed around Domenico’s trouser leg.
Domenico looked at Adrian.
“You've said enough.”
Adrian’s smile widened.
“That’s the problem with you.”
He stepped closer.
“Everyone says enough the moment the truth becomes inconvenient.”
Domenico lifted the dinosaur.
The camera blinked again.
Adrian’s eyes followed it.
There.
Too fast.
Too interested.
Domenico saw it.
“So let's start with something convenient.”
He held up the toy.
“Who put this inside my daughter’s dinosaur?”
Genevieve crossed her arms.
“Maybe one of your paranoid guards.”
Adrian shrugged.
“Maybe you did.”
Domenico looked toward his security chief, Matteo.
The older bodyguard had been standing beside the council-room doors.
He would not meet Domenico’s eyes.
That was unusual.
“Matteo.”
The man straightened.
“Yes, Boss.”
“Did my security put a camera inside Lily’s toy?”
“No.”
No hesitation.
Domenico looked back at Genevieve.
She gave him a bored smile.
“There. Mystery solved. Nobody knows.”
Lily tugged his sleeve.
Domenico looked down.
Her voice came very quietly.
“I know who opens Dino.”
The room went still.
Genevieve’s expression sharpened.
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
Domenico crouched again.
“Who?”
Lily looked at Adrian.
He stared back at her.
Hard.
A warning in front of everyone.
She immediately looked down.
Genevieve gave a soft laugh.
“See?”
Her voice dripped with contempt.
“She points at whoever she thinks Daddy wants to hate. Clever little thing.”
Lily’s eyes filled.
Domenico did not look at Genevieve.
He kept his attention on his daughter.
“You don't have to look at him.”
Her breathing shook.
“He takes Dino.”
“When?”
“When I'm sleeping.”
Adrian laughed loudly.
“You're listening to bedtime nonsense now?”
He looked around at the capos.
“This is what our family has become? A council interrupted because a toddler dreams badly?”
Domenico slowly rose.
Adrian’s smile stayed.
He genuinely believed the room was still his to mock.
Lily suddenly spoke again.
“I saw him once.”
Adrian stopped smiling.
She pointed toward the stone fireplace.
“He put Dino there.”
Domenico followed her finger.
A narrow alcove sat beside the fireplace.
Usually empty.
Lily continued.
“And he had Grandpa’s ring.”
Domenico’s head turned back toward her.
“What ring?”
She made a circle with her fingers.
“The black one.”
Genevieve’s face changed.
Only for a second.
Domenico saw it.
Adrian did too.
Lily whispered:
“The one in Grandpa’s picture.”
Domenico went completely still.
His father’s black signet ring had been placed on Carlo Ravelli’s hand before the coffin was sealed eleven years earlier.
No copy had ever been made.
Domenico looked at Adrian.
Adrian’s confidence returned through sheer force.
He smirked.
“She's three.”
Domenico’s voice dropped.
“I never told her where that ring was.”
Nobody moved.
Lily pointed toward the fireplace again.
“Uncle Adrian keeps it behind the lion.”
May you like
Domenico slowly turned toward the carved stone lion beside the hearth.
And for the first time that night, Adrian stopped looking amused.
