Chapter 5 - The Drawing on the Headboard
By late afternoon, the atmosphere inside the Duca estate had shifted from a solemn hospice into a coiled spring ready to snap.
In the master bedroom, Emma was busy adding a blue tail to her dragon drawing while Lorenzo sat propped up against the pillows, reviewing financial ledgers that Bruno had secretly retrieved from Julian Sterling’s private study downstairs.
Sophia stood by the window, watching the snow continue to blanket the iron gates outside. Her hands were no longer shaking. The terror that had gripped her since her husband’s death was slowly being replaced by something sharper—clarity.
“Mr. Duca,” Sophia said quietly, not turning around. “If Julian and Dr. Sterling have been poisoning you, what happens when Julian realizes the doctor hasn’t reported back?”
“Julian thinks I’m a corpse waiting for a shroud,” Lorenzo replied, his eyes scanning a column of offshore wire transfers routed through shell companies in the Cayman Islands. “He called a full meeting of the syndicate captains for eight o'clock tonight. He intends to announce my ‘peaceful passing’ and take control of the waterfront shipping lanes before the snow melts.”
“And you?”
“I plan to RSVP.”
Emma looked up from her crayons, her big eyes blinking innocently. “Can I come to the meeting? I have a new drawing for the table.”
Lorenzo’s stern expression melted into a genuine, warm smile. He reached out and gently patted the little girl’s dark hair. “Not this meeting, sweetheart. This one involves grown-ups playing very dangerous games. But I promise you, after tonight, nobody in Graybridge will ever threaten your mother or you again.”
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Sophia turned around, her heart catching in her throat. For a year, she had seen Lorenzo Duca as a monster—a ruthless underworld king whose very name caused grown men to tremble. But looking at him now, framed by the winter light and protected by a three-year-old girl in mismatched socks, she realized the truth.
Monsters didn't protect children. Kings did.
