Mafia Boss’s Son Screamed in Pain at Midnight

The basement clinic beneath the Costello mansion looked more like a modern surgical suite than a private home facility. Dominic had built it after his first wife died of cancer, a desperate attempt to ensure his family would never be far from life-saving technology.

Now, that technology was saving his son.

Arthur lay on the central examination table, an IV line running into his small arm, a heart monitor clear and steady in the quiet room. The estate's primary physician, an older man loyal only to Dominic, had administered the correct broad-spectrum antidote after Fiona had told him the specific symptoms of the toxin before she collapsed.

Fiona was in the bed next to Arthur, an oxygen mask over her face, her left arm wrapped in sterile bandages where she had cut herself to relieve the poison. The color was slowly returning to her cheeks, the IV fluids clearing the remaining toxins from her bloodstream.

Dominic stood between the two beds, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes moving between his son and the nurse. He hadn't changed out of his wet clothes.

The heavy steel door of the clinic opened, and Marco walked in, followed by two guards dragging Dr. Harrison Reed. The doctor’s face was bruised where Fiona had hit him with the lamp, and his expensive suit was torn and covered in dirt.

Behind them came Victoria. She was still wearing her diamond necklace, but her hands were bound in front of her with plastic zip-ties. Her expression was no longer arrogant; it was the look of a woman who knew she was standing on the edge of a grave.

Dominic didn't look at Reed. His eyes stayed fixed on Victoria.

"Why?" he asked. The word was quiet, almost a whisper, but it carried a weight that made Reed drop to his knees in terror.

"He isn't my son, Dominic!" Victoria spat, her voice shrill with a desperate, defensive venom. "Your empire... everything you built, it belongs to the family. My family helped you build this city! And you were going to leave all of it to a weak, sickly boy who looks like that dead street-girl you married first?"

Dominic stepped toward her, his movements slow, deliberate, and terrifying. He stopped six inches from her face.

"I gave you my name, Victoria. I gave you a life that most people in this city can only dream of. But you forgot one thing." He reached out, his large fingers gently catching the diamond necklace around her throat. "Everything I built, I built for my son. You are nothing to me but a contract."

With a sudden, violent jerk, he snapped the necklace from her neck, the silver links clattering onto the tile floor.

"Take them to the warehouse," Dominic said to Marco, not looking back as he turned away. "Let Reed experience the same chemical progression he gave my son. As for my wife... her family can buy her back after they sign over every single dock and warehouse they own on the north side. If they refuse, she goes into the river."