Chapter 5
Maya turned her back on them both, walking smoothly to the examination table. She scooped Lucy into her arms, wrapping the pastel blanket carefully around the little girl's shoulders, shielding the shorn head from the cold air. Lucy buried her face into Maya’s neck, her small arms locking around her mother’s collarbone in a desperate, shivering hold.
"Hold on to Mommy, little bird," Maya murmured, her voice transforming into warm, protective velvet. "Nobody will ever touch you again."
Maya turned toward the door.
Andrew moved to block the threshold, his chest heaving, his fists clenched in a pathetic display of masculine authority. "You aren't taking her anywhere, Maya. She's my daughter too! You don't walk out of here after attacking my mother!"
Maya stopped two inches from his chest. She was tall in her evening heels, her eyes level with his.
"Andrew," she said, her voice dropping to an intimate, lethal hum. "If you do not move your feet in three seconds, I will have Frank break your knees in this hallway."
Andrew’s breath hitched. "Frank? Who the hell is Frank?"
Maya didn't answer. She simply reached out with her free hand, pushed past Andrew’s shoulder with enough force to send him staggering against the doorframe, and stepped out into the bright pediatric corridor.
The private clinic hallway was usually quiet, staffed by nurses in pastel scrubs. But today, the corridor was flanked by four towering men dressed in bespoke charcoal suits, their hands folded formally in front of them, earpieces glinting beneath the clinical lights. At their head stood Frank—a man of fifty-five with a scarred jaw, a broken nose, and the unmistakable posture of a veteran mob enforcer.
The moment Maya stepped into the hall, all four men snapped their heads downward in deep, absolute deference.
"Boss," Frank murmured, his American accent flat and gravelly. "The cars are idling in the underground bay. We secured the exits three minutes ago."
Andrew stumbled out of the exam room, stopping dead in his tracks as he saw the small army waiting in the hall. "What... what is this? Who are these people?"
"These are the people who actually protect this city, Andrew," Maya said without looking back. "While your father plays golf and launders money through municipal bonds, my family runs the ports, the unions, and the streets you drive on."
May you like
Elaine appeared in the doorway, clutching a paper towel over her ruined hair, her eyes wide with mounting terror. "Andrew... who are they?"
"Pack your bags, Elaine," Maya said, her voice echoing down the pristine hallway as she walked toward the elevators. "By sundown, the Whitaker estate will be audited. Every penny of my family's capital will be pulled from your husband's firm. And you will learn what it feels like to sit in the cold."
