Chapter 1
Dominic did not move after the brass manager badge hit the broken emblem.
The tiny metallic sound seemed louder than the crash that had come before it.
Around the lobby, conversations had died.
Club members stared.
Staff members looked at the floor.
Six of Rocco’s bodyguards now stood behind him in a silent line.
Dominic’s breathing became shallow.
“Uncle Rocco…”
Rocco did not answer him.
He crouched in front of Maeve instead.
The little girl still held the paper bakery bag against her chest. Her clothes were dirty enough that several members had moved away from her when she entered.
Rocco noticed that now.
He also noticed how tightly she held the coin he had returned.
“Where are your shoes, sweetheart?”
Maeve looked down.
Her sneakers had holes across both toes.
“My daddy says we buy new ones when the bakery gets paid.”
Rocco’s eyes lifted.
Dominic’s hand slowly closed against the edge of the management desk.
Rocco saw it.
“What bakery?”
Maeve opened the paper bag.
Inside were two flattened dinner rolls and a folded invoice.
“Vance Bakery.”
Rocco knew the name.
Small storefront three blocks from the club.
Old brick oven.
Family-owned.
They supplied breakfast bread to the club several mornings each week.
Maeve held out the invoice.
“Daddy said maybe they forgot again.”
Rocco took it.
His gaze remained on the paper while the silence around him deepened.
The invoice covered six weeks of deliveries.
Amount due: $8,460.
Across the bottom, in blue ink, was a large rectangular stamp.
PAID IN FULL.
Maeve watched him carefully.
Her small shoulders rose with every nervous breath.
Rocco looked at Dominic.
Dominic’s eyes moved away first.
“Who stamped this?”
Dominic swallowed.
“Accounting.”
Rocco’s voice remained quiet.
“Which accountant?”
No answer.
Rocco turned the invoice over.
There was a handwritten approval code on the back.
D.C.-14.
Dominic Castellano.
Rocco’s thumb stopped against the paper.
Maeve tugged gently on his sleeve.
“Mr. Rocco?”
He looked down immediately.
“Daddy says they keep saying we got paid.”
Rocco’s eyes hardened.
“But you didn't.”
Maeve shook her head.
Then she opened her fist.
The coins she had tried to give him came to eighty-seven cents.
“We don't have flour tomorrow.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
For the first time, Rocco understood that the cruelty in the lobby might not have started when Maeve walked through the door.
He slowly stood.
“Lock the accounting office.”
Dominic’s head snapped up.
“Uncle—”
“Now.”
Two bodyguards moved.
Dominic’s confidence cracked.
Rocco looked at the unpaid invoice again.
Then at the little girl who had tried to give away the last money her family possessed.
May you like
A simple act of kindness had just exposed something inside the Castellano Club.
And the first document already carried Dominic’s name.
