Chapter 1 - The Screen Went Live
“Mom… can you hear me?”
The little voice came through the ballroom speakers in the middle of a champagne toast.
Valeria Romano turned toward the eighty-inch television mounted beside the bandstand. The screen switched from family photos to darkness, carpet, and one dirty brown paw.
Noah’s bear.
Her heart stopped.
“Noah?”
A shaky breath crackled through the speakers.
“Mom?”
Valeria ran.
Behind her, two hundred guests erupted into confused whispers. Capos pushed away from white-clothed tables. Bodyguards reached inside their jackets. At the center of it all, Gregory Romano went completely pale.
Before Noah said another word. Valeria saw it even as she sprinted upstairs.
“Noah!”
His crying led her to the dressing room. She shoved gowns off a rack, knocked over a chair, then heard a faint thump behind the enormous antique mirror.
She pulled it aside.
A concealed metal door stared back at her.
“What the hell?”
She yanked it open.
Noah collapsed into her arms so hard they both hit the floor.
“Dad said Mom would never find me.”
Valeria held him against her chest. His wrists were red, his cheeks wet.
“Did he hurt you?”
Noah shook his head, then whispered, “He locked me in because I heard him talking.”
Footsteps thundered in the hall.
Valeria lifted Noah and carried him downstairs.
The live feed was still on. Everyone had heard.
Gregory walked forward with a calm expression that did not reach his eyes.
“Valeria, give him to me.”
She stopped.
“What?”
“Put the boy back where he was.”
Valeria handed Noah to two trusted bodyguards, crossed the marble floor, grabbed Gregory by the tuxedo, and drove him into the coat rack. Wood snapped and coats crashed over him.
“You locked my son in a wall.”
“Our son,” Gregory snapped.
Valeria slowly removed her wedding ring and dropped it onto the television stand.
“You lost the right to say that.”
Gregory pushed himself upright.
“You don’t understand what he heard.”
Noah’s small voice came from behind the bodyguards.
“I heard Uncle Luca say Mom had to be gone before midnight.”
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Valeria turned toward her brother.
Across the ballroom, Luca Romano was no longer there.
