A maid hid her baby in a billionaire’s penthouse for three months, until the infant crawled into his office and grabbed his tie.

By midnight, the penthouse was silent. Armed guards stood posted at every elevator lobby and stairwell entrance below, while Marco personally monitored the primary security console inside the foyer.

Elena lay awake in the massive king-sized bed inside the master suite. Mia was fast asleep beside her, tucked safely inside a plush wooden crib that had been delivered and assembled by security officers three hours prior.

Unable to sleep, Elena quietly slipped out of bed, pulled on a dark robe, and stepped out into the quiet marble hallway.

She walked toward the service alcove near the kitchen where her old laundry basket still rested—the same wicker basket she had dropped in terror when Mia had grabbed Alessandro’s black silk tie earlier that day.

The white linens she had been carrying were still scattered across the marble floor.

Elena dropped to her knees, gathering the crisp white towels and folding them neatly back into the wicker basket. As she picked up the last folded sheet from the bottom of the basket, her fingers brushed against a small, stiff leather envelope hidden beneath the fabric.

Her hand froze.

It was Lorenzo’s private journal—a small, weather-worn notebook bound in dark leather that he had pressed into her hands during their final night together in Boston. She had hidden it in the lining of her laundry basket three months ago, terrified that if estate guards searched her quarters, they would find it.

A shadow fell over the marble floor behind her.

"What is that?"

Alessandro’s low, commanding voice startled her. Elena spun around on her knees, looking up to see the syndicate leader standing at the entrance of the service alcove. He was wearing an unbuttoned black silk shirt over dark trousers, his bare chest showing dark tattoo ink that extended down toward his belt line.

Elena held the leather envelope against her chest, her eyes wide with sudden apprehension.

"It... it belonged to Lorenzo," Elena confessed, her voice trembling softly. "He gave it to me before he disappeared. He told me never to read it unless I was in absolute safety."

Alessandro’s eyes locked onto the dark leather cover. The symbol of the Duca family crest was stamped into the corner of the leather.