Chapter 1 - The Little Girl Who Asked a Mafia Boss to Be Her Boyfriend
A three-year-old girl stood in front of the most dangerous man in the city, holding a crayon drawing and whispering:
“Mr. Moretti… my mommy needs a boyfriend.”
Dominic Moretti stopped beside the marble staircase, staring at the child who had just challenged everything he believed about fear. In her small hands was a drawing of three people holding hands. But there was someone else behind them—a dark figure drawn in black crayon.
Dominic slowly turned the paper over and saw four words written in a child’s uneven handwriting: “HE WATCHES US.” He suddenly realized my daughter was not playing.
I wanted the floor to open and swallow me. I had spent three years teaching my daughter one simple rule: Be polite. Be quiet. Never bother important people. Especially not Dominic Moretti.
The man standing in front of us was not someone ordinary people walked up to. His name was spoken in lowered voices. His business empire stretched across the city. People respected him because they had to. People feared him because they knew better. And somehow, my little girl had just walked across his mansion lobby and asked him to become my boyfriend.
I rushed forward so quickly that I almost dropped the tray in my hands. “Lily,” I whispered, kneeling beside her, “what did you say?”
My daughter looked up at me with her innocent blue eyes. The same eyes that had belonged to her father. The same eyes that reminded me every day of everything I had lost. “I told him,” she said proudly, holding up the drawing again, “that you need someone.”
My face burned. “Lily, honey, Mr. Moretti is a very busy man.”
Dominic did not move. He simply looked down at my daughter. Then he looked at me. For years, I had cleaned rooms, served dinners, and stayed invisible inside houses where people like Dominic Moretti lived. I knew my place. Or at least I thought I did.
“I apologize, Mr. Moretti,” I said quickly. “She’s young. She doesn’t understand—”
“She understands more than most adults.” His voice was calm. Too calm. I stopped talking.
Dominic slowly lowered himself until he was at Lily’s eye level. The terrifying businessman everyone warned me about was now kneeling on the marble floor, looking at a little girl holding a box of crayons. “Who drew this?” he asked.
Lily smiled. “I did.”
“And who is this?”
She pointed at the first figure. “That’s mommy.” Then she pointed at the second. “That’s me.” Then her small finger moved toward Dominic. “And that’s you.”
My heart stopped. Dominic looked at the drawing again. A woman. A child. A tall man. All holding hands. A normal family picture. Except for the fourth figure. The one behind them. The one Lily had drawn with heavy black lines.
Dominic’s expression changed. Only slightly. But I noticed. I had learned to notice small things. Working around powerful people taught me that. A pause before speaking. A sudden change in breathing. A look that disappeared too quickly.
Dominic tapped the black figure with his finger. “Who is this?”
Lily’s smile faded. She looked toward me. Then back at him. “He follows us.”
The room became silent. I felt my stomach drop. “Lily,” I said softly, forcing a smile, “don’t say things like that.”
But she shook her head. “No, Mommy. The man from outside.”
Dominic stood slowly. “What man?”
I hated the fear that entered my own voice. Because I knew exactly what she meant. For the past few weeks, I had noticed things. A car parked across the street from our apartment. Footsteps behind us when we walked home. A shadow disappearing whenever I looked through the window. I told myself I was imagining it. I told myself I was tired. A single mother working two jobs while raising a toddler could make anyone paranoid. At least that was what I wanted to believe.
“Mr. Moretti,” I said quietly, “it’s probably nothing.”
Dominic looked at me. “No.” The single word carried more weight than an entire conversation. “It isn’t.”
I looked away. Because deep down, I knew. I just didn’t want to admit it.
Three days earlier, I had never imagined Dominic Moretti would know my name. I was only a maid. A woman who cleaned rooms in his mansion. A woman who kept her head down and finished her work. I had started working for the Moretti family because I needed money. My mother’s medical bills were growing. My daughter needed stability. And I had no one else.
The job was supposed to be simple. Clean the upstairs rooms. Prepare the afternoon tea. Stay away from the private areas. Never ask questions. Dominic was rarely home. When he was, the entire mansion changed. Employees became quieter. Security doubled. Conversations stopped when he entered a room.
But there was one person who never seemed afraid of him. Lily. She would wave at him from across the hallway. She would smile when he walked past. Once, she even told me, “The scary man looks lonely.” I laughed when she said it. I should not have. Because she was right.
Dominic Moretti had everything. Money. Power. Influence. But when Lily looked at him, she didn’t see any of that. She saw a man standing alone. And somehow, she had decided he needed us.
I wanted to apologize again. I wanted to take Lily upstairs. I wanted to pretend this moment never happened. But Dominic was still holding the drawing. “Your daughter made this today?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Has she drawn this person before?”
My fingers tightened around the tray. “No.” That was a lie. A small one. But a lie. Because Lily had drawn the same black figure four times. The first time, I thought it was a monster. The second time, I thought it was imagination. The third time, I stopped sleeping properly. And the fourth time… I knew something was wrong.
Dominic noticed my hesitation. “You’re hiding something.”
I swallowed. “I’m not.”
He looked at me for several seconds. Then he handed the drawing back to Lily. “Tell me something,” he said gently.
The little girl hugged the paper. “What?”
“When did you first see him?”
I froze. Lily looked at me. Then she whispered: “The day before Grandma went to the hospital.”
My heart sank. Because that was impossible. Nobody outside our family knew about my mother. Nobody except one person. Someone who had been watching us. Someone who knew exactly where we were going.
Dominic’s face became colder. “Your mother’s hospital?”
I nodded slowly. “Yes.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
He looked toward the security team standing near the entrance. “Cancel my schedule.”
I immediately shook my head. “No, Mr. Moretti. You don’t need to do that.”
He ignored me. “Find every camera around Elena’s apartment. Every street camera. Every vehicle that was near her building.”
My eyes widened. “You don’t have to protect us.”
Dominic turned back toward me. His expression was unreadable. “Someone has been following a child.” His voice became quieter. “That makes it my problem.”
I didn’t know what to say. Nobody had ever spoken like that about us. Not since Lily’s father disappeared. Not since my mother became sick. Not since I learned how alone I truly was.
Lily walked closer to Dominic and gently grabbed his hand. The entire room froze. Nobody touched Dominic Moretti. Nobody. But he didn’t pull away. Instead, he looked down at her tiny fingers wrapped around his.
“See?” Lily said.
I frowned. “See what?”
She smiled. “You’re already helping mommy.”
For the first time, I saw something different in Dominic’s eyes. Not fear. Not anger. Something I never expected. Warmth.
But that moment disappeared when one of his guards rushed into the room holding a phone.
“Mr. Moretti.”
Dominic turned. The guard looked nervous. “We checked the security footage.”
Dominic’s expression hardened. “And?”
The guard hesitated. Then he held out the phone. “There was someone outside Elena’s apartment.”
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I felt cold. Dominic stared at the screen. Then the guard said the words that made my blood run empty:
“We found the same person in the footage from inside this mansion three weeks ago…”
