Chapter 1 - The Pink Backpack
The high-floor luxury office was an enclave of absolute, terrifying power. Large glass windows offered a panoramic view of the Chicago skyline, but the atmosphere inside the room was completely suffocating.
Standing in the dead center of the massive office was a five-year-old girl.
She wore a simple pink dress, white sneakers, and her hair was tied into pigtails with pink bows. Clinging to her shoulders was a light pink sparkly backpack. She looked entirely out of place in the dark, imposing room.
Sitting behind a massive dark wood desk was Vincent Moretti. The forty-year-old mafia boss was breathtakingly handsome, with slicked-back dark hair, wearing a perfectly tailored dark navy blue suit. Standing rigidly behind his leather chair were two towering, heavily armed bodyguards in black suits.
The little girl didn't cry. She didn't cower. She looked directly at the apex predator of the city.
"Are you Vincent Moretti?" the little girl asked, her clear, innocent voice echoing off the glass windows.
Vincent slowly rested his chin on his hand. He wasn't used to children bypassing his heavily guarded lobby. He looked at the girl with a curious but deadly serious expression.
"Mommy told me to give this to the big scary man," the little girl stated matter-of-factly.
She reached her small hand behind her back, unzipping her pink sparkly backpack to retrieve something.
Vincent’s bodyguards instantly tensed, their hands dropping toward their concealed weapons. Vincent raised a single finger, silently commanding them to stand down.
The little girl pulled out a faded, crinkled photograph and held it carefully in her tiny hands.
"Mommy said only you can have this," the little girl said seriously.
She reached her arm out across the massive desk. Vincent frowned, a flicker of genuine confusion crossing his sharp features. He slowly took the photograph from her hand.
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"Mommy said when you read the note, you will know who my daddy is," the little girl whispered.
👉 Vincent looked down at the photograph, entirely unaware that the image he was about to see would completely shatter his universe.
