Chapter 1 - The Spoon She Stopped
# THE 22-YEAR-OLD WAITRESS STOPPED THE MAFIA QUEEN FROM EATING HER SOUP — THEN THE DAUGHTER WHO HAD BEEN DEAD FOR 12 YEARS WALKED INTO THE RESTAURANT
The silver spoon was already halfway to Eleanor Bellandi's lips when the waitress grabbed her wrist.
""""Don't eat that.""""
The entire private dining room went silent.
Eleanor, sixty-seven, was not a woman people interrupted. For forty years, she had ruled the Bellandi crime family from behind the doors of Manhattan's most exclusive restaurants. Politicians shook her hand. Judges returned her calls. Men twice her size lowered their eyes when she entered a room.
And now a twenty-two-year-old waitress was standing between her and a bowl of lobster bisque.
""""Get your hands off my mother!"""" shouted Richard Bellandi, Eleanor's only surviving son.
The waitress didn't move.
""""Madam, that soup contains shellfish stock. You're severely allergic to shellfish.""""
Eleanor slowly lowered her spoon.
""""How would you know that?""""
The young woman swallowed.
""""Because my mother worked for you. She was your personal secretary for eighteen years. She taught me everything about your medical history.""""
Eleanor's expression changed.
""""What was your mother's name?""""
""""Margaret Hayes.""""
The old woman's spoon slipped from her fingers.
Margaret had been dead for eighteen years.
Or so Eleanor had been told.
Richard stepped forward, his face turning red.
""""Mother, this is ridiculous. She's a waitress. Have security remove her.""""
But Eleanor raised one hand.
""""Nobody touches that girl.""""
Across the table, Richard's wife, Vanessa, adjusted her diamond necklace. Her burgundy silk gown shimmered beneath the chandeliers.
""""Perhaps we should call this celebration off,"""" Vanessa said sweetly. """"You're becoming confused, Eleanor.""""
That was when the first gunshot shattered the champagne glasses.
The restaurant's enormous windows exploded inward.
Guests screamed and dropped beneath the white tablecloths. Two armed men entered through the kitchen. The lights flickered, then died.
Eleanor's head of security, Frank, was nowhere to be found.
The waitress pulled Eleanor beneath the table just as another bullet struck the wall above them.
""""Stay down!"""" she whispered.
Eleanor stared at her.
""""Who are you?""""
""""Emily Hayes. And my mother didn't die of cancer.""""
Before Eleanor could respond, a voice came through the restaurant's emergency speaker.
""""Good evening, Mother.""""
Richard.
But he was standing less than ten feet away.
Eleanor looked up.
Her son was holding a gun.
""""Twenty years of waiting,"""" he said coldly. """"And you still refuse to give me what belongs to me.""""
Eleanor's face hardened.
""""You poisoned my food. You opened the doors to assassins. You would kill your own mother for a throne?""""
Richard smiled.
""""No. I would kill you because you took something from me.""""
Suddenly, the private wine cellar door opened.
A woman stepped into the dining room.
Black dress. Short dark hair. A long scar running from her jaw to her neck.
Eleanor stopped breathing.
""""Isabella?""""
Her youngest daughter had supposedly died in a yacht explosion twelve years earlier.
The woman looked directly at her.
""""Hello, Mother.""""
Eleanor began to cry.
Richard's gun lowered.
""""You're supposed to be dead.""""
Isabella smiled without warmth.
""""You should have made sure.""""
She placed a thick envelope on the table.
""""Mother, I didn't come here to save you from Richard. I came to show you who ordered the yacht explosion.""""
Eleanor opened the envelope.
Inside was a photograph taken eighteen years earlier.
Margaret Hayes stood beside a much younger Eleanor.
Behind them was a man Eleanor recognized immediately.
Her late husband.
But there was something written across the photograph.
THE ORIGINAL HEIR WAS NEVER YOUR SON.
Eleanor looked up slowly.
Richard began laughing.
""""She finally told you?""""
Before anyone could move, the wine cellar door slammed shut.
A heavy lock clicked from the other side.
Then came three slow knocks.
A man's voice followed.
""""Mrs. Bellandi, forgive the interruption. I believe you have something that belongs to me.""""
Eleanor went completely pale.
She knew that voice.
May you like
Her husband had been buried fifteen years ago.
And he was supposed to be dead.
