Chapter 8 - Rain-Slicked Reunion
Matteo’s small sneakers splashed through the murky puddles of Queens as the five-year-old clutched his worn-out backpack to his chest.
He had memorized the subway line from watching his father’s security maps, escaping during a shift change in the guard rotation.
Shivering in his soaked velvet coat, he banged his tiny fists against Hannah Cooper’s apartment door with desperate energy.
Inside, Hannah had just finished reading the threatening note when the frantic knocking echoed through her hallway.
She swung the door open, expecting mob enforcers or debt collectors, and gasped in absolute shock.
Matteo stood on the doormat, shivering violently, his dark curls plastered to his forehead by the relentless autumn rain.
Without a single word, Hannah dropped to her knees and pulled the freezing child into her arms, pressing him against her chest.
Matteo sobbed into her sweater, whispering that his father had sent her away and he didn't want anyone else.
Hannah's heart broke all over again, her anger at Lucas momentarily eclipsed by the fragile life trembling in her care.
She rushed him inside, stripped off his wet designer jacket, and wrapped him in her thickest wool blanket.
While heating a mug of hot cocoa on her old stove, a sharp knock rattled the apartment door once more.
Hannah froze, clutching a kitchen knife behind her back as she cautiously approached the entryway.
She unlocked the deadbolt and pulled the door open, expecting Moresco's killers to finish what they started.
Instead, Lucas Ravalini stood in the doorway, soaked to the bone, his charcoal suit ruined by the torrential downpour.
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The formidable mafia boss looked completely unraveled, his usual aura of terrifying control replaced by raw, desperate paternal panic.
His dark eyes locked onto Hannah, and for the first time since she met him, she saw a crack in his impenetrable armor.
