🐾 The Little Girl Who Calmed the Mafia Boss’s Guard Dog

Chapter 05 - The Woman With the Folder

Celeste Vale had arrived at the Romano estate six months earlier wrapped in old money, winter perfume, and a smile that made staff lower their eyes.

She was not married to Matteo yet, but she behaved as though the house had been waiting for her. She changed flowers without asking. She corrected menus. She sent back laundry if sheets were folded the wrong way. She once told a footman that poverty was not an excuse for bad posture.

I had hated her quietly, the way working women hated women they could not afford to offend.

Now she was on camera near Damen’s tea with my daughter’s stolen folder in her hand.

Paul replayed the footage twice.

Celeste never looked toward the camera. She did not need to. She knew where it was. That bothered Damen more than the poison.

“She had access to security plans,” he said.

Paul’s jaw tightened. “Through Matteo.”

No one said what we all understood.

Either Matteo had been careless with a woman, or Matteo was part of it.

Damen closed the laptop with one hand. “Where is she now?”

“Blue room. With Matteo.”

“Bring them.”

Paul hesitated. “Together?”

“Yes.”

The word had barely left Damen’s mouth before Ellie slipped her hand into mine.

“Mommy, can we go home?”

I looked down at her and felt something inside me break.

I wanted to say yes. I wanted to carry her out of that house, put her in her small bed with the chipped white headboard, and pretend men like Damen Romano and Matteo and women like Celeste existed only in newspaper photographs.

But our apartment had been searched. Our names had been pulled into some old wound. My father’s ghost had entered a mafia estate wearing the face of a child’s stolen school folder.

“No, baby,” I said softly. “Not yet.”

Damen heard.

His expression shifted, not pity exactly. Pity from men like him would have insulted us both. It was something more deliberate.

“You are not prisoners here,” he said.

“Then what are we?”

“Under my protection.”

“That sounds prettier.”

“It is not meant to sound pretty.”

“At least you’re honest.”

For the first time, he looked almost amused.

Then the doors opened.

Matteo entered first, angry and polished. Celeste followed behind him in emerald silk, her pale blond hair pinned high, diamonds at her throat. She glanced once at me, once at Ellie, and dismissed us both.

“You summoned us?” Matteo said.

Damen placed the laptop on the table and opened it.

The frozen image filled the screen.

Celeste did not move.

That told me everything.

Matteo looked at her. “What is that?”

“A hallway,” she said lightly.

“With you in it,” Damen replied. “Near my tea.”

“I was looking for powder room.”

“In the service corridor?”

“Your house is enormous.”

Damen clicked something. The image enlarged. The blue folder became clear.

Ellie whispered, “That’s mine.”

Celeste’s gaze flicked to her.

Damen saw it.

“Why do you have a child’s school folder?”

“I don’t.”

“It is in your hand.”

“Then perhaps she dropped it.”

“My daughter’s backpack was stolen from our apartment,” I said.

Celeste looked at me then, really looked, and the temperature of her eyes changed.

“Your daughter should take better care of her things.”

Damen moved so quickly I barely saw it.

One second he stood near the fireplace. The next he was directly in front of Celeste. He did not touch her. He did not raise his voice.

That made it worse.

“You will not speak to the child again.”

Matteo stepped forward. “Back away from my fiancée.”

Damen did not look at him. “Ask her why she had the folder.”

“I don’t have to ask anything.”

“You should.”

Celeste laughed softly. “This is absurd. Damen nearly collapses from whatever bad habit finally caught up with him, and suddenly everyone is hunting shadows.”

Atlas rose from the sofa.

The growl began low in his chest.

Celeste’s eyes moved to the dog.

Fear, quick and genuine, cut across her face.

Damen noticed.

“So,” he said. “Atlas knows you too.”

Celeste recovered. “All dogs dislike me.”

“No,” Ellie said.

Every adult turned.

Ellie hugged her bunny tighter. “He dislikes people who smell like the bad tea.”

Celeste went white.

Matteo stared at the child as if she had slapped him.