Chapter 1 - THE GARAGE
“Start over.”
“If you clean badly, you go hungry.”
Helena Bellucci kicked the gray bucket across the polished garage floor.
Dirty water splashed over three-year-old Leo Bellucci’s bare feet.
The little boy flinched but did not cry.
He had learned that crying only made Helena angrier.
“Pick it up.”
Leo bent down with both hands shaking.
His faded blue shirt was torn near the shoulder.
His small knees were red from kneeling on the concrete.
Helena pointed toward the black luxury coupe parked beneath the bright ceiling lights.
“You scratched my car.”
Leo shook his head.
“No.”
Helena’s expression hardened.
“What did you say?”
Leo immediately lowered his eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
Helena grabbed the filthy cleaning cloth and pushed it back into his tiny hands.
“You should be sorry.”
“You owe me.”
Leo did not understand what debt meant.
He only understood hunger.
He understood locked doors.
He understood that Helena smiled differently whenever his father was home.
When Carmine Bellucci was present, Helena hugged Leo.
She brought him juice.
She called him sweetheart.
She told Carmine that she loved raising his son.
When Carmine left for business, the house changed.
And so did Helena.
That afternoon, Helena believed Carmine was still in New York.
His private jet had been scheduled to land the following morning.
She had no idea the flight had returned early.
She had no idea Carmine’s armored SUV had entered through the rear gate twenty minutes earlier.
She had no idea he was standing in the shadowed doorway of the garage.
Carmine Bellucci was fifty-two years old.
Men twice Leo’s size were afraid to look him in the eyes.
He had built an empire from shipping companies, construction contracts, private security firms, restaurants, and businesses that people in Chicago preferred not to ask questions about.
But the man who had frightened politicians, businessmen, and criminals alike suddenly could not move.
His son was kneeling on the floor.
His son was cleaning Helena’s car.
His son looked thin.
Too thin.
Carmine noticed the bruising around Leo’s wrist.
He noticed the torn clothing.
He noticed the small plastic plate sitting beside the wall with nothing but a piece of dry bread on it.
Something inside him became completely still.
Helena kicked the bucket again.
“You missed a spot.”
Leo reached toward the wheel.
His fingers could barely hold the cloth.
Carmine finally stepped into the light.
“She didn’t miss anything.”
Helena froze.
The cloth slipped from Leo’s hand.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Helena slowly turned.
Her face lost its color.
“Carmine.”
Leo looked toward his father.
At first, the little boy did not move.
Then his lip trembled.
“Daddy?”
Carmine walked across the garage.
He removed his coat.
He knelt beside his son.
“Come here.”
Leo hesitated.
That hesitation hurt Carmine more than anything else.
His own child was afraid to move without permission.
Carmine opened his arms.
Leo finally threw himself against his chest.
The boy felt frighteningly light.
Carmine held him carefully.
Then he looked at Helena.
“What happened to his clothes?”
Helena recovered enough to straighten her shoulders.
“He was playing.”
Carmine looked at the bucket.
Then the cloth.
Then his son’s scraped knees.
“Playing.”
Helena folded her arms.
“He scratched my car.”
“He needed to learn consequences.”
Carmine stood with Leo still in his arms.
“He is three.”
“He needs discipline.”
“He needs food.”
Helena’s jaw tightened.
“I was teaching him responsibility.”
Carmine’s eyes moved toward the empty plate.
Leo buried his face against his father’s neck.
Carmine whispered one question.
“Did she tell you that you couldn’t eat?”
Leo became rigid.
Helena stepped forward.
“Carmine, don’t confuse him.”
Leo whispered against his father’s shoulder.
“I cleaned bad.”
Carmine closed his eyes for one second.
When he opened them again, something had changed.
Helena saw it.
For the first time since marrying Carmine Bellucci, she looked genuinely frightened.
“He is manipulating you.”
“He is three years old.”
“He lies.”
Carmine slowly set Leo down behind him.
Helena reached for the car keys lying on a workbench.
Carmine reached them first.
He picked up the key fob.
Helena stared at him.
“What are you doing?”
Carmine pressed the button.
The car lights flashed.
Then he quietly placed the keys inside his pocket.
“You said the boy owed you for the car.”
Helena swallowed.
“So?”
Carmine looked directly at her.
“Now it’s not your car anymore.”
Her eyes widened.
“You can’t be serious.”
Carmine turned toward the doorway.
“Marco.”
One of Carmine’s security men entered immediately.
Helena stepped backward.
Carmine had not raised his voice.
That frightened her even more.
“Take Leo upstairs.”
“Call Dr. Russo.”
“And lock every exterior gate.”
Helena stared at him.
“Why are you locking the gates?”
Carmine looked at her again.
“Because nobody leaves this property until I know exactly what happened to my son.”
Helena’s fear deepened.
But there was something Carmine still did not know.
Something hidden inside the Bellucci mansion.
May you like
Something Helena had spent nearly eleven months preparing.
And if Carmine discovered it, losing a luxury car would become the smallest problem she had left.
