I looked down at my lap, my mind racing through the last half-year of silence and isolation.

“He scrubbed your name from every account linked to the family business,” Luca said. “Every paper, every shell company. He spent months making sure you were legally invisible to the grand jury.”

“He could have told me,” I whispered. “He could have given me a sign.”

“If you knew, you would have acted differently,” Luca said. “The feds would have seen the act. They are watching every move, Elena.”

I leaned back against the dusty chair, my breath forming a faint mist in the chilly air.

“He did it to keep you clean,” Luca said. “To keep the baby clean.”

The generator hummed beneath our feet, a steady, mechanical heartbeat in the floorboards.

I touched my stomach, feeling a slight, anxious flutter inside.

“Then why am I running?” I asked. “Why did you help me get out tonight?”

Luca looked away, his jaw tightening as he stared at the dark kitchen.

“Because the underground doesn’t care about federal indictments,” Luca said. “Marcus’s rivals saw the weakness. They saw him pushing you away, and they thought you were an easy target.”