Chapter 1 - The Braid on the Concrete
The scissors closed with a metallic snap, and three-year-old Mila screamed so hard the sound echoed off the concrete walls.
"Hold still," Sabrina Cole hissed. "You want me to cut your ear?"
Mila twisted against the garage bench, kicking her tiny sneakers against the steel frame. Her grandmother, Marjorie, had one hand around the child's wrists and the other pressed across her stomach.
"Stop crying," Marjorie said. "This is what happens when little girls repeat grown-up business."
A thick chestnut braid slid down Mila's shoulder and dropped onto the floor.
Then she looked at the braid as if someone had cut off part of her body.
"Mommy made that," she whispered.
The underground garage door slammed open.
"Put those down."
Nico Ferrante's voice was quiet, which was worse than shouting.
He stood twenty feet away in a charcoal suit, one hand still on the security door. Two members of his estate team were behind him, but Nico barely seemed to notice them. His eyes had locked on Mila.
"Nonno!"
Nico crossed the garage so fast that Sabrina stumbled backward.
"Take your hands off my granddaughter."
"Nico, this looks worse than it is," Marjorie said.
"It looks like three adults dragged a toddler into my underground garage and held her down."
A black SUV sat six feet away. Beside it stood Sienna, Nico's only daughter, nine months pregnant, one arm wrapped around her belly.
Her husband Gavin stood between her and Nico.
"Mila had a tantrum," Gavin said. "My family was helping."
Mila ran the moment Marjorie loosened her grip.
Nico dropped to one knee and caught her.
"Daddy pushed Mommy," she sobbed.
"What did she say?"
Gavin laughed once, too quickly. "She's three. She makes things up."
"Daddy pushed Mommy by the stairs," Mila said. "Mommy cried. Daddy said don't tell Nonno."
"Sienna."
"Dad, please."
"Did he put his hands on you?"
Gavin stepped forward. "Don't interrogate my wife."
"I asked my daughter a question."
His fist caught Nico across the jaw.
Security moved, but Nico stayed upright and shoved Mila safely into the arms of his head guard, Marcus.
"Get her upstairs."
"She's coming with us!"
"You hit my daughter," Nico said, voice low. "You terrorized my granddaughter. And now you hit me in my own house."
"Nobody leaves."
Everyone turned.
She had both hands under her stomach.
A dark wet line spread down the front of her dress.
"Dad," she whispered. "Something's wrong."
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Then Mila screamed from Marcus's arms.
"Nonno! The blue box! Daddy said we have to hide the blue box before the baby comes!"
