Chapter 13
Dominic took Mia.
Not from the house.
From the garden.
She had slipped outside to look for her bracelet while everyone assumed she was upstairs with Leo.
Children do ordinary things in the middle of adult disasters.
That is what makes them vulnerable.
By the time the guard saw the empty side gate, Dominic had six minutes.
Enough.
I did not shout.
Could not.
Leo stood in the foyer staring at me.
“Dad?”
I looked at him.
He already knew.
“Mia?”
I nodded.
His face changed.
“This is because of me.”
“No.”
“He wanted the key.”
“No.”
I crouched.
“This is because adults made choices. Not you.”
He started crying.
I pulled him into me.
Then Victor Romano entered.
My hidden brother.
Leo looked at him.
Confused.
No time.
Victor held out a phone.
“Dominic called me.”
I stood.
“What?”
“He wants me at the old convent property.”
Of course.
Old Romano training ground.
Closed twenty years.
“Why?”
“He says Mia needs a family woman and a legitimate Romano man present.”
My vision narrowed.
Rosa.
She went white.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“The convent was where girls were trained.”
Mia.
Seven.
My stomach turned.
Dominic wasn’t threatening to hurt her physically.
He wanted ceremony.
Proof.
Victor as male blood.
Rosa as senior woman.
Mia being “placed” under old family instruction.
A symbolic transfer.
Something he could show captains and say even Dante’s daughter had been taken back into tradition.
I looked at Victor.
“You coming?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He held my gaze.
“Because nobody got me out when I was a child.”
That was enough.
Rosa stood.
“I’m coming too.”
I stared.
She looked ashamed.
“I helped build the idea.”
Pause.
“I can help kill it.”
I did not forgive her.
I let her come.
Different things.
At the convent, Dominic waited in the old dining hall.
Mia sat at a long wooden table.
Not tied.
Not crying.
Angry.
Good girl.
Dominic stood behind her.
“You came.”
I looked at Mia.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
“He took my bracelet.”
Dominic frowned.
“She needs to learn possessions are privileges.”
There it was.
Five minutes into kidnapping and already a lesson.
I looked at him.
“No.”
His expression hardened.
“Mia, stand up.”
She did.
“Come here.”
Dominic grabbed her shoulder.
Victor stepped forward.
“Take your hand off her.”
Dominic froze.
May you like
Not because of me.
Because his chosen blood claimant had finally chosen a side.
