Chapter 3 - The Threat at the GatesThe announcement of our upcoming wedding sent shockwaves through Chicago's financial and criminal circles.
To the public, I was a wealthy widower marrying the woman who helped his traumatized son heal. To the mafia families, I was a king who had snubbed a crucial alliance with the Moretti syndicate in favor of a nobody.
For the next two weeks, the Lake Forest estate transformed. Oliver followed Emma everywhere—helping her bake in the kitchen, reading books with her in the library, and talking nonstop as if making up for two years of silence. Hearing his laughter echo through the halls breathed life back into a house that had been a tomb for two years.
And slowly, without me even realizing it, Emma began to change me, too.
She called me out when I was too harsh with my men. She insisted we sit down for family dinners together. For the first time in years, I found myself coming home early from work just to watch her teach Oliver how to paint in the sunroom.
But the darkness of my world couldn't be kept outside the gates forever.
One rainy Thursday afternoon, while Oliver was upstairs taking a nap, Dominic walked into my study with a grim expression.
"Preston, we have a problem," Dominic said, placing a file on my desk. "Sal Moretti is moving against our harbor shipments. He's claiming that by backing out of the marriage contract with his daughter, you dishonored his family. He’s calling a meeting of the Commission tonight."
"Let him call it," I said coldly, scanning the report. "Moretti doesn't have the leverage to touch my operations."
"It's not just Moretti," Dominic warned, leaning over the desk. "He’s spreading rumors that you've grown soft. He’s telling the other bosses that a man who lets a housemaid run his household isn't fit to rule Chicago. If you show weakness at the Commission meeting tonight, it could trigger a full-scale turf war."
The study door creaked open, and Emma stepped inside holding a stack of Oliver’s drawings. She had heard enough to know something was wrong.
"Preston?" she asked softly. "Is everything okay?"
I closed the file instantly, my expression hardening into the mask I wore for the outside world. "It's fine, Emma. Just business."
She walked over, setting the drawings down, and looked directly into my eyes. "Don't lie to me. If my presence here is putting you and Oliver in danger..."
"You are the safest thing in this house," I interrupted, taking her hand and pulling her close. "Moretti is a parasite trying to bleed me. I'll deal with him tonight."
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Emma looked at me, her eyes filled with concern rather than fear. She reached up and adjusted the collar of my shirt. "Just remember who you're coming home to tonight, Preston. Oliver is waiting for you."
Those words anchored me. For years, I fought because it was all I knew. Tonight, I had something real to protect.
