CHAPTER 7 – THE MAFIA BOSS WHO DECLARED WAR
CHAPTER 7 – THE MAFIA BOSS WHO DECLARED WAR
"Jenny!"
Marco dropped to his knees beside her.
Blood soaked through her sweater, staining the floor beneath her.
His hands trembled for the first time in over a decade.
"No..."
Jenny's eyelids fluttered.
She was still breathing.
Barely.
"Marco..."
It was the first time she had ever said his name.
"You stay with me."
She tried to smile.
"Is... Noah..."
Marco looked down.
The little boy was crying, wrapped beneath his mother's body.
"I'm okay..." Noah whispered.
"I'm okay, Mom..."
Marco carefully lifted Noah away as paramedics stormed into the apartment.
One medic immediately checked Jenny's pulse.
"She's alive!"
Another shouted,
"Single gunshot wound to the shoulder! Massive blood loss!"
Marco froze.
Shoulder.
Not the heart.
She had survived.
Then—
A laser sight appeared on the living room wall.
Red.
Steady.
Moving toward Marco's chest.
"DOWN!"
Dante tackled Marco to the floor just as a sniper round exploded through the apartment window.
Glass showered across the room.
The assassin fired again.
Then again.
Marco rolled behind a concrete support column.
"Find him!"
His bodyguards rushed outside.
The sniper fled across neighboring rooftops.
Within seconds, black SUVs poured into the streets.
The hunt had begun.
Three hours later...
Jenny was rushed into emergency surgery.
Noah sat quietly in the hospital waiting room wrapped in a blanket.
Marco sat beside him.
Neither of them spoke.
Finally, Noah looked up.
"Is Mom going to die?"
Marco swallowed.
"No."
"How do you know?"
"Because..."
He paused.
"...she promised you she'd always come home."
Noah nodded.
"My mom never breaks promises."
Marco smiled faintly.
Neither did the woman he had once loved.
Neither did the mother he had lost.
Jenny reminded him of both.
The operating room doors finally opened.
The surgeon removed his mask.
"She's stable."
Marco closed his eyes.
The entire waiting room seemed to breathe again.
"But..."
The surgeon continued,
"The bullet missed her heart by less than an inch."
Noah ran into Marco's arms.
Without thinking, Marco hugged him tightly.
For the first time...
The lonely boy who had lost everything...
And the lonely man who believed he deserved nothing...
Found comfort in each other.
Meanwhile...
Richard Ashford watched the news from his mansion.
The assassination had failed.
His lawyer was missing.
Harold Benson had disappeared.
Reporters were beginning to ask questions.
His campaign manager entered the office.
"We have a problem."
"I know."
"No..."
She turned on the television.
Breaking News flashed across every channel.
A reporter held up court documents.
"New evidence suggests gubernatorial candidate Richard Ashford concealed the existence of a biological son..."
Ashford's face turned white.
"Who leaked that?"
No one answered.
Because everyone already knew.
Marco Vitelli.
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The man Richard had tried to erase...
Had just destroyed the image he had spent twenty years building.
