"I had an engagement ring in my pocket when I heard the voice of the woman I lost six years ago—and then I saw the four children standing beside her.

Dr. David Chen arrived at dawn, flanked by two armed guards who escorted him directly to the private study on the ground floor.

Chen had been the Moretti family physician for thirty years. He knew where every body was buried, which wounds came from stray bullets, and how to keep his mouth shut under threat of federal subpoena.

When the four boys were brought down, scrubbed clean and dressed in oversized cashmere sweaters Maria had retrieved from the guest closets, they eyed the sterile swabs in Chen’s hands with intense suspicion.

“Is that a needle?” Julian demanded, immediately retreating behind my legs.

“It’s not a needle, kiddo,” Dr. Chen said with a warm, grandfatherly smile. “Just a little cotton q-tip to tickle your cheek.”

“I don't like tickles,” Matteo muttered, crossing his arms.

I looked down at the four boys clinging to my legs and Elena’s coat. A strange, unfamiliar warmth expanded in my chest—an overwhelming urge to build a fortress around them and burn the rest of the world to ash.

I crouched down beside Julian. “Hey.”

Julian peered at me from behind my trousers. “Are you gonna let him hurt us?”

“No one hurts you,” I said, holding his gaze. “Not in this house. Not anywhere in this city. If I say it’s just a cotton swab, it’s just a cotton swab. Do you trust me?”

Julian hesitated, his dark eyes flickering to his mother. Elena gave a subtle, encouraging nod.

Julian stepped forward, jutted his small chin out bravely, and opened his mouth wide. “Fine. But I want two pancakes after.”

“Four,” I countered with a smirk. “One for every minute you stand still.”

Dr. Chen took the buccal swabs efficiently—first Julian, then Leo, Lucas, and Matteo. As Chen sealed the vials, he looked up at me over his half-moon glasses, his expression carrying a mix of reverence and disbelief.

“I don't need the lab in Cambridge to tell you the results, Dominic,” the old doctor whispered as the boys ran off toward the kitchen, lured by the scent of bacon. “They have your earlobes, your hairline, and that damned stubborn tilt of the chin your grandfather had. But I will rush the markers through the private sequencer. You’ll have official legal documentation by noon.”

“Good,” I said. “Anthony.”

My brother stepped forward from the shadow of the doorway. “Boss?”

“Take five men to the South Boston apartment Elena was renting. Pack everything of sentimental value—their drawings, their baby clothes, family photos. Clear the lease. Buy the entire brownstone through a shell corporation and put private security on the block to monitor whoever comes sniffing around.”

“Already on it,” Anthony nodded. Then he paused, his expression darkening. “Dominic... Senator Barrett just called an emergency press conference for eleven o'clock at the State House.”

Elena, who was standing by the window sipping black coffee, turned sharply. “What kind of press conference?”

“He’s calling for a special task force to investigate the Moretti logistics network,” Anthony said, his jaw tight. “He claims there are ‘disturbing irregularities’ in our maritime imports. Sloane is playing the betrayed victim on social media. The Barretts are going to war.”

I didn't blink. I walked over to the mahogany desk, picked up my gold fountain pen, and looked at the stack of estate documents Marco had delivered ten minutes earlier.

“Let him call his press conference,” I said calmly. “Marco.”

“Yes, Don Dominic?” Marco stepped into the study.

“Send an invitation to all five family heads—the Marcones, the Rossis, the Falcones, and our capos. Tell them dinner is at eight tonight at the Moretti Estate.”

Anthony’s eyes widened. “You’re bringing the Commission here? Into the house where the children are?”

“The children will be asleep on the third floor with Elena and twenty guards,” I said, my voice hardening like tempered steel. “I am not going to hide in the shadows like a cornered beast. The families think I am weak because I broke the Barrett alliance. Tonight, I will introduce them to the future of the Moretti dynasty.”

I turned to Elena. Her hazel eyes were wide with apprehension, but there was an electric tension between us, an unspoken current that had survived six years of separation.