The Little Princess and the Mafia Boss

PART 3 — The Mafia Boss’s Promise

At 6:00 a.m., Chicago was still asleep.

But inside Romano headquarters, every light was on.

I stood in front of a wall covered with photographs, security footage, and financial records.

My uncle wanted my father’s inheritance documents.

But he wasn’t getting them.

Not before I understood what he was hiding.

Emily sat on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket. A doctor had treated her injuries, but she refused to sleep.

“Dominic,” she said softly, “you need to know what happened after I disappeared.”

I turned toward her.

“Tell me everything.”

She looked down at her hands.

“Five years ago, I discovered that Richard had been stealing money from our father’s companies. Millions of dollars were transferred through fake businesses.”

“And Marcus helped him?”

She nodded.

“I confronted Richard. He told me that if I ever spoke about it, you would die. I was pregnant with Daisy, and I was terrified.”

I stared at her.

“You were pregnant?”

Emily nodded, tears filling her eyes.

“I gave birth to her in a small clinic outside Chicago. Richard knew about the baby. He wanted to use her to control me.”

My jaw tightened.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I believed he would kill you.”

I turned away, struggling to control my anger.

For five years, I had believed my sister had abandoned me.

Meanwhile, she had been fighting to keep her daughter alive.

I looked at the photograph of Daisy on my desk.

She was smiling, holding a stuffed rabbit almost as big as her body.

“I’m going to bring her home,” I said.

Emily reached for my hand.

“Please don’t become a monster because of us.”

I looked at her.

“I’m already a monster, Emily.”

Then I paused.

“But Daisy doesn’t have to grow up afraid of me.”

At 8:30 a.m., I arrived at the Romano family estate.

I carried a black briefcase.

Four of my men followed at a distance, disguised as delivery workers and maintenance staff.

Richard was waiting in the library.

He wore an expensive gray suit and held a glass of whiskey.

“Dominic. You came.”

“Where is the little girl?”

He smiled.

“Always straight to business. You really are your father’s son.”

“Where is Daisy?”

Richard placed his glass on the table.

“She is perfectly fine. For now.”

I set the briefcase down.

“Open it.”

He looked suspiciously at me.

Inside were several documents.

But they weren’t the inheritance papers.

They were copies of the financial records Emily had discovered five years earlier.

Richard’s smile disappeared.

“Where did you get these?”

“From the woman you failed to silence.”

His expression hardened.

“Your sister should have stayed out of family business.”

“She is family.”

Richard laughed.

“Family? Your father built an empire and left everything to you. I spent thirty years helping him, and what did I receive? Nothing!”

“So you kidnapped my sister?”

“I protected what should have been mine!”

“You imprisoned a pregnant woman.”

Richard slammed his hand against the desk.

“She was supposed to disappear quietly!”

I stared at him.

For the first time, I understood how deeply hatred had twisted the man.

Then he reached into his jacket and pulled out a phone.

“Bring the child.”

A side door opened.

Two men entered.

And between them stood Daisy.

She wore a little pink cardigan over her yellow dress. Her pigtails were slightly messy, and she was clutching her teddy bear.

The moment she saw me, her eyes brightened.

“UNCLE TEDDY!”

She tried to run toward me.

One of the men held her back.

I felt something inside me snap.

“Let her go.”

Richard smiled.

“Not so fast.”

He crouched beside Daisy.

“Tell your uncle to give me the papers.”

Daisy looked at him.

Then she shook her head.

“No.”

Richard frowned.

“Excuse me?”

Daisy hugged her teddy bear.

“Mommy says don’t talk to bad men.”

For one brief second, I almost smiled.

Richard stood up angrily.

“Enough!”

He raised his hand.

Before he could move, the library doors burst open.

My security team rushed inside.

The two men holding Daisy immediately surrendered.

I crossed the room and lifted her into my arms.

“Princess.”

She wrapped both arms around my neck.

“Teddy! I find you!”

I held her tightly.

“You did, sweetheart.”

She touched my cheek.

“You sad again?”

I looked into her enormous brown eyes.

“Not anymore.”

Behind us, Richard was being restrained by my men.

But he was still smiling.

“You think you’ve won, Dominic?”

I turned.

“What else is there?”

He laughed.

“Those documents are nothing. Your father left something else. Something that could destroy the entire Romano family.”

My expression darkened.

“What?”

Richard leaned closer.

“Ask your mother what happened the night your father died.”

Before I could respond, he was dragged away.

I stood motionless.

My father had died when I was seventeen.

Everyone had told me it was a heart attack.

But Richard’s words planted a terrible question in my mind.

Had my father’s death really been natural?

That evening, I returned to my mansion with Daisy in my arms.

Emily was waiting in the living room.

The moment Daisy saw her mother, she squealed.

“MOMMYYYY!”

Emily dropped to her knees and caught her daughter in a tight embrace.

I stood nearby, watching them cry and laugh.

For five years, I had imagined finding my sister again.

I had never imagined that she would bring me a tiny princess who could command an entire ballroom with one sentence.

Daisy suddenly pulled away from her mother.

She looked at me.

“Uncle Teddy?”

“Yes, princess?”

“Can I stay here?”

I glanced at Emily.

She smiled through her tears.

“If you want us here, Dominic…”

I looked around the enormous mansion.

For years, it had been filled with guards, weapons, expensive furniture, and silence.

Now there was a little girl standing in the middle of it, wearing pink shoes and holding a teddy bear.

“Of course,” I said.

Daisy clapped.

“YAY! I LIVE WITH TEDDY!”

Then she pointed at my face.

“But you gotta smile more.”

Emily laughed.

I shook my head.

“That’s going to be difficult.”

Daisy considered this very seriously.

Then she leaned forward and kissed my cheek.

“Practice, Uncle Teddy.”

And somehow, I found myself smiling.

But the happiness didn’t last long.

At 11:47 p.m., my private investigator sent me an encrypted message.

There was a photograph attached.

It showed my father standing outside a hospital five years before his death.

Beside him was a woman I recognized immediately.

My mother.

But the date on the photograph was impossible.

My mother had supposedly died twelve years ago.

Beneath the photograph was one sentence:

Your mother is alive, Dominic. And she knows who ordered your father’s murder.

I stared at the screen.

Then another message arrived.

She has been watching Daisy.

My smile disappeared.

Because suddenly, I realized that Richard might not have been the mastermind after all.

And the little princess sleeping upstairs had become the center of a much bigger secret.