Chapter 3 - The Visit to the Brooklyn Tenement
Back in our four-story walk-up building in Brooklyn, I was packing our clothes into two worn cardboard boxes, tears blurring my vision.
That morning, my department manager, Thomas Henderson, had summoned me to the 4th-floor office, handed me a severance check for two weeks, and told me that my accounting position had been eliminated due to corporate restructuring.
When I asked for a reason, he sneered: “Be grateful you got two weeks, Anna. Don't make a fuss, or you'll find yourself blacklisted across New York.”
Then I realized Lily wasn't in her bedroom.
Her jacket was gone. Her stuffed rabbit was gone.
Panic seized my chest. I grabbed my coat, ready to sprint into the street to find the police, when heavy, synchronized footsteps echoed up the wooden stairwell.
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
I pulled open the door, my heart in my throat.
Standing in the narrow hallway was a towering man in a charcoal cashmere coat, radiating sovereign, untouchable authority.
Beside him stood Lily, holding a cup of hot chocolate, smiling brightly.
“Mommy!” Lily squealed, running forward and wrapping her arms around my knees. “I found the big boss! I told him you didn't break any rules!”
I pulled Lily into my arms, sinking to my knees on the linoleum, sobbing in breathless relief before looking up in pure, terrified shock.
“Mr... Mr. Moretti...?” I stammered, my voice trembling. “I'm so sorry! Did Lily bother you at the plaza?! I swear I didn't tell her to go there!”
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Dominic stepped inside the apartment, his dark eyes sweeping over the sparse furniture, the leaking radiator, and the half-empty boxes on the floor.
“Your daughter didn't bother me, Anna,” Dominic said softly, closing the door behind him. “She walked into my lobby and did what every executive in my tower was too cowardly to do. She told me the truth.”
