**“STOP WAVING YOUR HANDS! YOU'RE EMBARRASSING ME!” THE MAFIA BOSS'S FIANCÉE WHISPERED TO HIS DEAF NINE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER DURING THEIR ENGAGEMENT DINNER

A deafening CRACK shattered the silence of the garden.

I flinched, throwing myself over Isabella, waiting for the burning impact of a bullet.

But the pain never came.

Instead, the massive man with the hawk tattoo groaned, dropping his weapon as he collapsed to his knees. A dark red stain bloomed across the shoulder of his trench coat.

From the shadows of the hedge maze, Luca emerged.

His gun was raised, smoke curling from the barrel. His eyes were completely devoid of mercy.

He didn't say a word. He stepped forward and kicked the man’s gun into the bushes, then pressed the barrel of his own weapon against the man’s forehead.

"Who else is on my property?" Luca demanded softly.

The man spat blood onto the gravel and grinned, revealing stained teeth. "You think you can stop Falcone? We have the custody papers. We have the housekeeper's brother. You have nothing."

Luca didn't blink. He shifted his aim down and pulled the trigger.

The man screamed as the bullet shattered his kneecap.

"I asked you a question," Luca whispered.

"No one else!" the man gasped, writhing in the dirt. "Just me! I came over the east wall while Vanessa distracted you."

Luca signaled to Marco, who had just run up the path. "Take him to the basement. Keep him alive until we get the boy back."

As the guards dragged the bleeding man away, Luca dropped his gun and immediately knelt in the dirt beside me and Isabella.

He reached for her, his face softening completely.

But Isabella shrank back.

She pressed herself against the stone bench, her eyes wide with terror. Not from the gunfire. She had seen violence before.

She was looking at Luca differently.

Luca froze, his hands hovering in the air. He looked at me, confused and hurt.

I swallowed hard. "Mr. Moretti... she knows."

Luca looked back at Isabella.

Peanut? he signed slowly. Why are you hiding from me?

Isabella’s trembling hands rose.

Are you a thief? she signed.

Luca closed his eyes. The breath shuddered out of him like he had been stabbed.

Did you steal me from the bird man? she asked, her signs small and broken. Am I a Falcone?

Luca sat back on his heels in the wet dirt. The ruthless mafia boss who had just shot a man without hesitation looked suddenly completely broken.

He raised his hands.

You are a Moretti, he signed fiercely. You are my daughter.

Vanessa said you lied, Isabella signed.

Luca looked at me. "I need you to translate exactly what I say. She needs to know the truth, but my signing isn't fast enough for this."

I nodded, raising my hands to sign for him as he spoke.

"Nine years ago," Luca began, his voice raspy, "your mother, Elena, was married to Victor Falcone."

I signed the words, my own heart breaking as Isabella’s eyes widened.

"Victor was a monster," Luca continued. "He hurt her. Constantly. When she found out she was pregnant with you, she knew she had to run. She knew if you were raised by a Falcone, you would never be safe."

Isabella watched my hands, entranced, tears sliding down her face.

"Elena came to me," Luca said softly. "We had been friends when we were kids. I helped her disappear. I forged the documents. When you were born, I put my name on the birth certificate."

You lied? Isabella signed.

"To the world, yes," Luca said, stepping closer, ignoring the dirt ruining his trousers. "But never in my heart. From the minute I held you in the hospital, you were mine."

But the crash, she signed.

Luca’s face hardened with grief. "Victor found out. He ran her car off the road. I got there too late to save Elena... but I pulled you out of the wreckage."

He reached out and finally took her small hands in his.

I am not your father by blood, he signed himself, his hands steady and sure. But I am your Daddy. Always.

Isabella launched herself into his arms, burying her face in his chest, sobbing uncontrollably. Luca held her tight, burying his face in her dark hair.

For a moment, they were just a father and daughter.

But the moment was shattered by the shrill ring of my cell phone.

I pulled it from my pocket. It was an unknown number.