Chapter 5 - The War Begins
The room fell into a cold, suffocating silence.
My blood ran cold. The tiny bit of warmth I had felt holding my daughters evaporated instantly, replaced by a suffocating, familiar terror that gripped my throat like a vice.
"He's lying," I gasped, clutching my daughters closer to my chest, my knuckles turning white. "He's lying! He threw us out! He didn't want them!"
"Of course he's lying," Elias said smoothly, stepping between my bed and the door as if forming a physical wall between me and the world outside. "He realized that if your body is found under that overpass, an autopsy will reveal the surgical birth. The hospital records will show he forced your discharge. His pristine reputation, his corporate empire, his political ambitions—all of it will crumble under a capital murder investigation."
"He wants to eliminate us," I whispered, the horrifying realization hitting me. "He doesn't want the babies back to love them. He wants to destroy the evidence."
Marcus stepped forward, his expression grave. "Boss, the Russo family controls the docks in Brooklyn. They have three hundred armed men on the streets right now. If they find out you're harboring Miller’s wife, it will break the 2012 peace treaty. It means full-scale war between the Syndicate and the Russos."
I looked up at Elias, tears blurring my vision. I saw the massive weight resting on his shoulders. He didn't know me. I was a stranger he had pulled out of a snowbank three days ago. Protecting me meant risking his empire, his men, and his life against a coalition of dirty billionaires and ruthless mobsters.
"Mr. Vance..." I choked out, fighting through the pain in my throat. "Please... take my babies to a safe place. A church, an orphanage... anywhere far away from here. You don't have to ruin your life for us. Leave me. I'll turn myself in... I'll tell them the truth—"
"Quiet," Elias commanded.
The word wasn't spoken in anger, but with an authority so absolute that my mouth snapped shut instantly.
Elias slowly turned around to face me. He looked down at my pale, terrified face, then at the two tiny, innocent girls sleeping peacefully in my weak arms.
He walked to the side of the bed, knelt down so his eyes were level with mine, and reached out. His warm, rough thumb gently wiped a stray tear from my cheek.
"Ava," he said, his voice deep, resonance vibrating through the mattress. "When I picked you up off that icy pavement, I made a silent vow to the universe. I do not break my word. And I do not surrender what is mine to protect."
"I am not a soldier in your war, Mr. Vance," I whispered.
"No," Elias replied, his icy gray eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that burned straight through my soul. "You are a mother who bled for her children. In my world, that makes you sacred."
He stood up, turning his back on me to face Marcus.
"Tell the Russo family that if one of their men steps foot past 14th Street, I will personally hang Anthony Russo from the Brooklyn Bridge," Elias ordered, his voice cold, flat, and devoid of any hesitation. "Issue a mandate to all four boroughs: Ava Miller and her daughters are under the personal protection of the Vance Syndicate. Anyone who seeks them, speaks of them, or looks at them with hostile intent will be erased."
Marcus’s jaw tightened, but he bowed his head respectfully. "Understood, Boss. What about Julian Miller?"
Elias picked up his gold lighter from the table, tossing it casually in his hand.
"Send a message to Mr. Miller," Elias said, a dark, terrifying smile touching his lips. "Tell him his wife and daughters are dead to him. But if he wants to verify the bodies... he can come try to take them from my home."
Marcus bowed again and quickly retreated from the room, pulling the heavy double doors shut behind him.
Elias walked back over to the large windows, watching the gray rain wash over the glass.
"You can't stay in the primary bedroom," he said softly, without turning around. "The south wing of the penthouse is fortified with three-inch ballistic glass and reinforced steel plating. You and the girls will live there from now on."
"Elias..." I breathed, using his first name for the first time. "Why are you doing this for us? You don't even know me."
Elias turned his head slightly, his profile carved against the grey light of the city.
"Thirty years ago," he said, his voice dropping into a quiet, painful register, "my mother was thrown out into the cold by a powerful man who didn't want a weak child. There was no one there to pick her up out of the snow. She died on a sidewalk in Queens while I was six years old."
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He fully turned around, his dark eyes fixing on me with a quiet, fierce devotion.
"I built this empire so that no mother in this city would ever have to die like mine did," Elias said. "You'll live with me now, Ava. And as long as I draw breath, no one will ever hurt you or your daughters again."
