CHAPTER 2 — THE MAID WHO WOKE THE WOLF

The intensive care unit remained silent except for the rhythmic beeping of monitors.

Lily Sinclair had been unconscious for three days.

Three days during which Vincent Moretti never left the hospital.

He ignored board meetings.

Ignored business partners.

Ignored every call from the underworld except those related to finding the people responsible for the attack.

The newspapers reported that billionaire Vincent Moretti had vanished from public view.

No one knew he spent every hour beside a hospital bed, holding the hand of the woman who had saved his son.

On the fourth morning...

Lily's fingers moved.

Vincent looked up instantly.

Her eyelids fluttered.

The room slowly came into focus.

White ceiling.

Machines.

Bandages.

Then...

Vincent.

He hadn't shaved in days.

Dark circles framed his exhausted eyes.

For the first time in years...

Someone had made the Iron Wolf look human.

"You stayed..."

Her voice barely escaped her lips.

"I promised I would."

His answer came without hesitation.

"You almost died."

She smiled weakly.

"But Matteo didn't."

Before Vincent could reply, the hospital room burst open.

A tiny figure sprinted inside.

"Miss Lily!"

Matteo threw himself toward the bed before Marco caught him just in time.

"Careful, young master."

The little boy froze beside the mattress, tears filling his eyes.

"You really came back."

Lily reached out with trembling fingers.

He grabbed them with both hands.

"I told Daddy if you died..." Matteo whispered.

"...I'd never forgive him."

Vincent lowered his head.

"I almost couldn't keep my promise."

Lily noticed the guilt in his face.

"It wasn't your fault."

"No."

His eyes became cold.

"But it was someone's."

That afternoon, Marco entered with disturbing news.

"The assassin who escaped..."

Vincent slowly stood.

"What about him?"

"We found him."

Marco hesitated.

"He confessed before dying."

"The attack wasn't ordered by a rival family."

Silence.

"It came from inside."

Vincent's expression hardened.

"Someone betrayed us."

Marco nodded.

"There was only one person who knew Matteo would be in that room at that exact hour."

Vincent already knew the answer before Marco spoke the name.

"Leon."

His cousin.

His second-in-command.

The man he had trusted for fifteen years.

The betrayal cut deeper than any bullet.

Because Leon hadn't only tried to kill Vincent.

He had ordered the murder of a child.

And an innocent woman had nearly paid the price.