Chapter 1
I woke up locked inside a cage beneath my own house, injured and with no idea who had betrayed me.
Then a 3-year-old girl appeared carrying a bottle of water and said:
“Sir, you owe me a life.”
That night, she stole a brass key to help me escape.
But neither of us knew who was waiting upstairs.
“Sir, you owe me a life.”
The little girl was only 3 years old. She had a stuffed rabbit pressed against her chest and both hands planted firmly on her hips, as if she had just delivered a final judgment.
I had been trapped inside an iron cage beneath my own house for four days.
My left leg was swollen.
My lips were split.
I was so thirsty that, at first, I thought I was hallucinating.
I stared at her.
She stared back.
And then I laughed.
I couldn't remember the last time I had laughed like that.
“What’s your name?”
“Lyla Everly. Mommy says when someone is hurt, you have to help them.”
My smile vanished when I heard footsteps above us.
I urgently pointed toward the third wine rack.
Lyla understood.
She slipped behind the bottles and pressed her stuffed rabbit, Mimi, against her mouth so she wouldn’t make a sound.
The footsteps came closer.
Then they faded away.
Only then could I breathe again.
Upstairs, more than 100 men were searching for me across New York.
They were checking warehouses, restaurants, garages, and properties belonging to rival families.
No one imagined Dominic Moretti was still inside the Moretti residence.
And certainly no one imagined the man holding me prisoner was my own brother.
Victor had slipped something into my wine during dinner.
When I woke up, I was inside that cage.
Then he spread the rumor that a rival family had kidnapped me.
Every night, he sat at the head of my table, pretended to be worried, and ordered my men to keep searching for me.
Then he came downstairs.
“Give me the account codes and this ends,” he would say.
I knew exactly what “ends” meant.
The moment he got those codes, he would kill me.
Lyla had found me by accident.
Mimi had rolled behind an old shelf, and when Lyla went to retrieve her rabbit, she discovered a hidden door.
I ordered her never to come back.
She returned the next day with a bottle of water hidden beneath her sweater.
Then she brought bread.
After that, cheese.
“My mommy works in the kitchen,” she told me.
“What’s her name?”
“Elena Bennett.”
I knew that name.
For four years, I had watched Elena walk through the hallways carrying trays, organizing the staff, and greeting me every morning.
“Good morning, Mr. Moretti.”
I almost never looked up.
That thought ashamed me more than my injuries did.
One afternoon, Lyla stepped closer to the bars and whispered:
“The night guard falls asleep. He keeps a yellow key in the first drawer.”
I gently took her wrist.
“You are not touching that key.”
“But I can help you.”
“No. If they catch you, they won’t care that you’re only 3 years old.”
Lyla lowered her eyes.
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
I knew immediately that she was lying.
The next day, we heard the hidden door opening.
Lyla disappeared behind the third wine rack.
Victor came downstairs with two men.
This time, there was a small syringe tucked into his shirt pocket.
“Until tomorrow, brother,” he said. “If you still refuse to give me the codes, I won’t have any reason to keep you breathing.”
After he left, Lyla stepped out of hiding.
She had heard everything.
“Is he going to kill you?”
I nodded.
She placed Mimi on the floor and looked at me with a seriousness I can still remember to this day.
“Then I’m getting you out.”
I taught her a secret phrase known only by the oldest men in my family.
“Risotto alla Siciliana.”
And I gave her one name.
Salvatore Corsetti.
“If anything goes wrong, find Salvatore. Tell him those words. No one else.”
At 3:00 that morning, I woke to the sound of metal scraping against metal.
Lyla was kneeling in front of my cage.
In her tiny hands was the brass key.
“Lyla…”
She pushed it into the lock.
Turned it once.
Nothing.
Turned it again.
Then we heard a click.
The cage door opened.
I stepped out.
One step.
Then another.
But before I could take my second full step away from that cage, the basement door began opening again.
May you like
Someone was coming down.
And this time, Lyla had nowhere to hide.
