The guards outside shifted.
I crossed the room slowly until only a few feet separated us.
Men had begged for their lives in front of me with less tension in the room than this.
“You entered the home of a mafia boss under false pretenses,” I said. “Now you’re secretly teaching his blind daughter how to fight.”
“She asked me to.”
“She’s a child.”
“She’s your heir.”
That word changed everything.
My blood went cold.
“Grace has nothing to do with my organization.”
Evelyn stared directly into my eyes.
“Your enemies don’t agree.”
My hand curled into a fist.
“Say that again.”
Evelyn slowly reached beneath her sweater and pulled out the thin silver chain she always wore.
Something metallic hung from it.
The second I saw the symbol engraved there, every instinct I had screamed that Evelyn Shaw was not her real name.
And whoever she truly was had just brought a secret into my house that could destroy everything I had built.
The symbol was an eight-pointed star divided by a single black line.
I had seen it once before.
Seven years ago.
In my wife Sofia’s jewelry box.
I stared at it long enough for Grace to notice the silence.