CHAPTER 3 – THE SECRET EVERYONE WAS WILLING TO DIE FOR
CHAPTER 3 – THE SECRET EVERYONE WAS WILLING TO DIE FOR
Marcus hit the marble floor on one knee, one hand pressed against his bleeding shoulder.
Blood spread across the charcoal fabric of his suit.
But he never looked at the wound.
His eyes stayed locked on Maya.
"Get behind me!"
She stared at him in disbelief.
"You've been shot!"
"Move!"
The command snapped her out of the shock.
She stumbled backward just as another burst of gunfire ripped through the boutique.
Glass exploded.
Designer cribs splintered into expensive debris.
A crystal chandelier crashed onto the showroom floor, showering sparks across the white marble.
Customers screamed and crawled toward emergency exits.
Charlotte Ashford dropped behind the checkout counter, her immaculate white coat streaked with dust.
For the first time in years, she looked genuinely afraid.
The masked gunmen advanced methodically.
They weren't interested in money.
They ignored the jewelry display.
Ignored the cash registers.
Ignored everyone except Marcus... and Maya.
The leader lowered his rifle and smiled behind his mask.
"You've gotten soft, Valentino."
Marcus slowly stood.
Blood dripped from his fingertips.
"You should've brought more men."
The gunman laughed.
"Still arrogant."
He nodded toward Maya.
"You know why we're here."
Marcus said nothing.
The silence was answer enough.
Maya frowned.
"What is he talking about?"
Another gunman spoke.
"Our boss has spent three months searching for your runaway wife."
Maya's heartbeat stopped.
Three months.
Exactly how long she'd been hiding.
Marcus's expression darkened.
"You touched my network."
"We did more than that."
The leader reached into his pocket and tossed a photograph across the floor.
It slid to Maya's feet.
She picked it up with trembling fingers.
It was a picture of herself.
Taken only four days earlier.
She was leaving her doctor's appointment in Queens.
The timestamp was visible.
Someone had been watching her.
Watching her pregnancy.
Watching every step.
Her knees nearly gave out.
"No..."
The leader chuckled.
"You weren't hiding."
"You were being hunted."
Marcus's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Who leaked her location?"
"No idea."
"But someone inside your organization sold her."
Those words hit harder than the bullet.
Marcus had built his empire on loyalty.
Betrayal was punishable by death.
Yet someone inside his own family had tracked Maya.
Tracked...
His child.
His gray eyes slowly returned to Maya's stomach.
Everything suddenly made sense.
Three months.
Her disappearance.
The timing.
The fear.
The oversized coat.
The way she'd instinctively protected her belly.
He whispered the words almost to himself.
"...The baby is mine."
Maya closed her eyes.
She had never wanted him to learn the truth like this.
Not surrounded by guns.
Not with death standing only a few feet away.
Not after convincing herself he would never be part of their child's life.
The silence became unbearable.
Finally...
She looked directly into his eyes.
"Yes."
One word.
Barely audible.
Yet it changed everything.
Marcus stopped breathing.
For several seconds, the world simply disappeared.
Gunfire.
Screaming.
Broken glass.
Nothing existed except the woman he'd once loved...
And the tiny life growing inside her.
"My child..."
The words sounded foreign on his tongue.
He had imagined many futures.
None of them included fatherhood.
Because he'd believed that chapter had ended the day Maya walked away.
A strange expression crossed his face.
Wonder.
Disbelief.
Hope.
Then rage.
Pure, terrifying rage.
He slowly turned back toward the gunmen.
"You came after my family."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
Even the attackers hesitated.
One whispered nervously,
"He knows..."
The leader raised his rifle again.
"Kill them both."
Before he could pull the trigger—
A deafening explosion echoed from outside.
BOOM!
The boutique's front entrance collapsed inward.
Smoke flooded the showroom.
Black-clad men poured inside carrying assault rifles.
Every one of them wore the silver wolf insignia of the Valentino Organization.
Their leader shouted,
"Protect the Boss!"
May you like
Gunfire erupted from every direction.
The boutique became a battlefield.
