She Was Forced to Marry an Infertile Mafia Boss — Months Later, Her Morning Sickness Shocked All
Chapter 10
Elena grabbed the fireplace poker.
The footsteps grew louder.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Then Sofia appeared.
“Mrs. DeLuca!”
Elena nearly screamed.
Sofia shut the door behind her.
“We have to move.”
“Where’s Vincent?”
“He’s at the cemetery.”
“He left me here?”
“He thought you were safe.”
Elena shook her head.
“He was wrong.”
Sofia pulled a hidden key from her pocket.
“There is another passage.”
They moved through a narrow corridor behind the library.
Elena had never seen it before.
It led beneath the mansion.
At the end was a reinforced bunker.
Inside, Luca was waiting.
“Where is Vincent?” Elena demanded.
“Still at the cemetery.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because someone compromised the security network.”
A phone rang.
Luca answered.
His face changed.
“Boss?”
Silence.
Then he said,
“Yes.”
Elena watched.
“What happened?”
“Vincent has Adrian.”
Relief rushed through her.
Then Luca’s expression darkened.
“But Marco is dead.”
Elena covered her mouth.
“No.”
Luca lowered the phone.
“They’re bringing Vincent back.”
Thirty minutes later, the gates opened.
Vincent walked into the bunker covered in rain.
Elena ran to him.
He held her tightly.
“I thought I lost you.”
“I thought I lost you.”
They stood together.
Then Vincent looked at Luca.
“Adrian?”
“Dead?”
Vincent shook his head.
“Alive.”
Everyone froze.
“Why?” Elena asked.
“Because he wasn’t the one who gave the order.”
“What?”
Vincent placed a file on the table.
Adrian had confessed.
He hadn’t ordered the attacks.
He had been trying to scare Vincent into abandoning Chicago.
Someone else had been paying him.
Someone inside the DeLuca organization.
Vincent opened the final page.
A name.
Carlo DeLuca.
The old adviser.
The man who had first revealed the infertility lie.
Elena stared.
“But Carlo helped us.”
“He helped me discover the truth,” Vincent said.
“Then why would he betray you?”
“Because he wasn’t protecting me.”
Vincent looked toward the door.
“He was protecting my father.”
Elena remembered the old medical records.
Her father-in-law had wanted Vincent childless.
But Vincent’s father had supposedly died years ago.
Unless…
A cold realization hit her.
“Vincent.”
He looked at her.
“Your father didn’t die naturally, did he?”
Vincent’s expression became still.
“No.”
“He was murdered.”
“Yes.”
“By Carlo?”
“That’s what I think.”
Suddenly the bunker doors slammed shut.
Lights flickered.
A voice came through the speaker.
“Vincent.”
Carlo.
“You should have remained infertile.”
Vincent stared at the ceiling.
Carlo continued.
“Your father built this empire believing blood was everything.”
A pause.
“And now your child threatens everything we’ve protected.”
Elena held Vincent’s hand.
Vincent raised his weapon.
“Open the door.”
Carlo laughed.
“You still don’t understand.”
Then the speaker went silent.
A timer appeared on the security monitor.
05:00
Five minutes.
The bunker doors were locked.
And the air filtration system had just been shut down.
