"My three-year-old maid’s daughter secretly led me upstairs and showed me the woman I planned to marry threatening her mother and implying she could make the little girl disappear. Vivien thought no one important was listening, but she had made one mistake: the child knew exactly which man in that house everyone feared.

I could have walked inside right then. Men had suffered unimaginable agony in my basement for threatening my family with far less than what Vivien had just implied. The urge to kick the heavy oak door off its hinges and wrap my hands around her throat was overwhelming.

But I stopped.

If I confronted Vivien now, she would cry. She would drop to her knees, deny everything, and twist the narrative. She would claim Elena was extorting her, and before the night was over, she would systematically destroy any evidence of her true intentions.

So I didn't move toward the door. I reached down, picked Mia up in my arms, and carried her silently down the corridor to my private study.

Once the heavy soundproof doors clicked shut, I set her gently on the edge of my mahogany desk. The room smelled of old leather, expensive bourbon, and cigar smoke, but the little girl didn't seem intimidated.

"How long has Vivien been frightening your mommy?" I asked, keeping my voice as soft and steady as possible.

Mia looked at me with solemn, unblinking gray eyes. She raised three tiny fingers.

"Three days?" I asked gently.

She shook her head, her dark curls bouncing against her cheeks.

"Three weeks?"

Another slow shake.

Then she leaned forward and pressed those three tiny fingers directly against my chest, right over my heart.

My stomach dropped into a bottomless abyss.

"Three months?" I whispered.

She nodded firmly. Then she leaned into my chest, resting her head against my suit jacket as if she had finally put down something far too heavy for a child to carry.

I held her for a long moment, staring blindly at the wall, processing the sheer magnitude of the betrayal. I reached for the encrypted phone on my desk with my free hand.

"Rocco. My study. Now."

My oldest and most lethal lieutenant arrived less than two minutes later, stepping into the room with his hand resting near his holstered weapon.

"I want every employee, contractor, visitor, bank transfer, and reference connected to this house from the last four months investigated," I commanded without preamble.