Chapter 3 - THE SHADOW IN THE HALLWAYThe sound was deafening in the small apartment.
A sharp, violent crack that echoed off the bare walls.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I braced for the burning pain.
For the darkness.
It never came.
Instead, the man lunged backward with a sharp grunt.
Glass shattered again as someone crashed through the side window.
“Clear!” a familiar deep voice roared.
Daniel.
The heavy man from the DeLuca estate tackled the intruder to the floor.
A flurry of thuds, grunts, and breaking furniture filled the room.
I stood frozen against the front door, gasping for air.
“Hannah!”
Gabriel’s voice cut through the chaos.
He stepped through the shattered window, gun in hand, his tuxedo jacket discarded, his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows.
He scanned the room in a fraction of a second.
His eyes locked onto me.
“Are you hit?” he demanded, rushing over.
“N-No,” I stammered, my knees shaking.
“I’m okay.”
Daniel pinned the intruder against the coffee table with a knee to his spine.
“Got him, Boss,” Daniel grunted.
Gabriel didn't look back at the struggling man.
He kept his hands on my shoulders, checking for injuries.
His touch was surprisingly gentle for a man who ruled the Chicago underworld.
“Look at me, Hannah,” he said softly.
“I’m fine, Mr. DeLuca. Really.”
He let out a slow, ragged breath.
He turned toward Daniel.
“Take him to the basement. Don't let him speak to anyone.”
“Understood,” Daniel hauled the man up effortlessly.
The intruder glared at me with dead, empty eyes as they dragged him out.
Gabriel picked up my shattered phone from the floor.
The screen was completely destroyed.
“You’re not staying here tonight,” he said.
“Mr. DeLuca, I can't just leave—”
“You can, and you will,” he interrupted, taking off his black vest and draping it over my shoulders.
It was still warm from his body.
“My estate is the safest place in Chicago right now. And Sophie is asking for you.”
That argument worked.
I couldn't say no to Sophie.
The ride back to the DeLuca estate was silent.
Gabriel drove his black Mercedes himself, gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were stark white.
“Who was that man?” I asked as we turned into the gated driveway.
“A professional,” Gabriel answered without looking at me.
“Clean record. No digital footprint. Hired muscle.”
“From Isabella?”
“Indirectly,” Gabriel said darkly.
“She doesn't have the stomach to hire killers herself. She uses her family's old connections.”
We walked through the grand double doors of the mansion.
Sophie was waiting in the foyer.
She wasn't wearing her hearing aids.
She sat on the bottom step of the grand staircase in her pink pajamas.
When she saw us walk in, she sprang up.
She ran across the marble floor and threw her arms around my waist.
I knelt down and hugged her tightly.
Are you hurt? she signed rapidly, her small hands trembling.
I’m okay, sweetheart, I signed back, forcing a reassuring smile.
Bad man?
He’s gone now. Your father took care of it.
Sophie looked up at Gabriel.
She walked over to him and touched his hand.
Gabriel knelt beside her.
He didn't look like a feared mafia boss in that moment.
He looked like a father who had almost lost everything.
Thank you, Daddy, Sophie signed slowly.
Gabriel swallowed hard.
He pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her dark curls.
“Go back to bed, sweetheart,” he said aloud, knowing she could read his lips.
“Hannah will stay right here with you.”
Sophie nodded sleepily.
She grabbed my hand and led me toward the guest wing upstairs.
Sitting on the edge of the guest bed an hour later, I watched Sophie finally fall asleep.
The purple-butterfly hearing aids sat on the nightstand.
The room was completely silent.
My phone was destroyed, and my apartment was a crime scene.
My life had completely derailed in less than twenty-four hours.
The door clicked open softly.
Gabriel stepped inside.
He held a cup of steaming black coffee in one hand.
He handed it to me quietly.
“You should drink that,” he said in a low voice.
“Thank you.”
I took a sip.
It was bitter, but it helped steady my nerves.
“You can't go back to your old life, Hannah,” Gabriel said, leaning against the doorframe.
“Isabella knows where you live. Her associates know.”
“And my mother?” I asked, panic rising in my chest.
“Daniel moved her tonight,” Gabriel said calmly.
“She’s at a secure medical facility downtown. Private guards. Top security.”
I stared at him.
“You moved my mother without asking?”
“I saved her life,” Gabriel corrected quietly.
“If I had waited to ask permission, that man in your apartment would have paid her a visit next.”
I knew he was right.
That realization terrified me more than the intruder.
I was tied to Gabriel DeLuca now.
There was no turning back.
“What happens tomorrow?” I asked.
“Tomorrow, we go to court,” Gabriel said.
“I’m filing for a complete restraining order against Isabella. And I’m opening a formal police investigation into my wife’s death.”
He pushed off the doorframe and walked closer.
“And you, Hannah?”
“I’ll stay,” I said.
“I’ll stay and help Sophie.”
Gabriel nodded once.
“Good.”
He turned to leave, then paused at the door.
May you like
“Get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day.”
[CLIFFHANGER: THE NEXT MORNING, AS GABRIEL’S CAR APPROACHES THE COURTHOUSE, A TRUCK SUDDENLY SWERVES ACROSS THREE LANES DIRECTLY AT THEIR VEHICLE.]
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