Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE SNOW
Four months changed everything.
Winter arrived violently in Chicago.
Snow buried sidewalks.
Lake Michigan became a sheet of steel.
And Layla Bennett disappeared.
She rented a tiny apartment on the South Side, found part-time work at a neighborhood bakery, and survived on almost nothing.
Her pregnancy became impossible to hide.
Her belly grew.
Her exhaustion worsened.
But every time she felt one of the babies move, she smiled.
“Mommy's here,” she whispered one night.
She placed both hands over her stomach.
“I promise I'll keep you safe.”
She had no idea someone else was already looking for her.
Dominic Gallo.
For four months, he had become increasingly obsessed with the woman from the masquerade.
He remembered her voice.
Her hands.
The way she had looked at him without fear.
But he had no name.
No photograph.
No identity.
Only a small silver locket.
The locket had been left behind in his library.
A tiny bird-shaped pendant.
Dominic kept it inside his desk drawer.
Matteo, his underboss, had noticed.
“You're still searching for her?”
Dominic closed the drawer.
“No.”
“You've had three private investigators searching Chicago.”
“I told you to stop asking questions.”
Matteo smiled.
“That means yes.”
Dominic ignored him.
Then one night, a security report arrived.
A former employee from the penthouse had been spotted working at a bakery.
Name:
Layla Bennett.
Dominic stared at the report.
Something tightened inside his chest.
“Bring her to me.”
Matteo hesitated.
“Alive?”
Dominic looked up.
His expression could have frozen water.
“Obviously.”
But before his men could reach the bakery, Layla collapsed.
She woke inside a hospital room.
A doctor stood beside her.
“You're twenty-two weeks pregnant.”
Layla swallowed.
“Are they okay?”
“The babies are stable.”
Relief flooded her.
Then the doctor became serious.
“You're severely anemic.”
“I'll manage.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You've been working too hard.”
Layla looked toward the window.
Snow fell outside.
“I don't have a choice.”
The doctor studied her.
“You do now.”
Layla smiled sadly.
“I wish that were true.”
At that exact moment, a black SUV stopped outside.
Dominic stepped out.
He had finally found her.
May you like
But he didn't know she was pregnant.
Not yet.
