Chapter 2
Part 2: The boy had lived with his allergy since infancy, and Dominic had built much of his private life around one rule.
Ethan survived.
Everything else came second.
That included Dominic himself.
Men outside the estate knew a different version of him.
They knew the Dominic Moretti who could sit through two hours of negotiations without changing expression, then destroy a business relationship with one sentence. They knew the man whose last name still carried the weight of three generations of crime, influence, fear, and loyalty.
Ethan knew the man who knocked before entering his bedroom.
Every night at seven, no matter how complicated Dominic’s day had been, he found his son.
Sometimes Ethan showed him homework.
Sometimes they played chess.
Sometimes Dominic sat on the edge of Ethan’s bed while the boy read aloud from whatever adventure novel currently had him obsessed.
Dominic did not always know how to be gentle.
But he always showed up.
There were two other people Ethan had slowly allowed into that small private world.
The first was Lily Carter.
Sophia had arrived at the estate six years earlier with references from a former employee and very little else. Her husband, a delivery driver, had died before Lily was born. Sophia had been pregnant, behind on rent, and trying desperately not to let grief become an excuse for failure.
Dominic had hired her.
When Lily was born, he did something almost unheard of in his household.
He allowed Sophia to keep her baby at the estate.
A small apartment in the staff wing became their home.
Lily grew up between polished hallways, service corridors, gardens, and the kitchen doorway where Sophia constantly reminded her not to touch anything.
Ethan was five when Lily began following him around.
At first he found her exhausting.
She stole his pencils.
She called every dinosaur a “dragon.”
Once she cried for twenty minutes because Ethan refused to believe the moon followed their car specifically.
Then one Sunday afternoon, Sophia found them together beneath an oak tree.
Ethan was tying Lily’s sneaker.
“You make two bunny ears,” he explained patiently. “Then one goes around the other.”
Lily watched as if he were teaching her surgery.
When he finished, she clapped.
May you like
Ethan took a cookie from his snack bag, broke it in half, examined both pieces, and handed Lily the larger one.
“Why does she get more?” Sophia asked teasingly.
