CHAPTER 1 - The First Bite That Changed Everything
The moment the spaghetti touched my tongue, I forgot how to breathe.
Not because it tasted expensive.
Not because the sauce was perfect.
But because, for the first time in forty-two days, I tasted food instead of blood.
Garlic.
Sweet tomatoes.
A little too much black pepper.
And something I hadn't experienced in years.
Comfort.
I slowly chewed.
Swallowed.
Then stared at the woman standing across from me.
Nora Reed.
Twenty-six years old.
Three days into her employment.
And apparently the only person in Chicago who wasn't terrified of Arthur Vale.
"Well?" she asked.
Dominic looked horrified.
"Miss Reed, watch your tone."
I raised one hand.
Everyone fell silent.
I took another bite.
Then another.
My stomach tightened painfully, unused to proper meals.
Nora noticed immediately.
"Slow down."
I stopped.
She pulled out a chair.
"Sit before you fall over."
Chef Pascal made a choking sound.
Nobody ordered me to sit.
Nobody.
Yet somehow, I obeyed.
Nora poured a glass of water and placed it beside the bowl.
"Small bites. You've barely eaten in weeks."
I looked up.
"How do you know?"
She gestured toward my hollow cheeks.
"Because you look like a man who's been arguing with his dinner and losing."
Dominic turned away to hide his expression.
I almost smiled.
Then I took another bite.
Something inside my chest loosened.
For the first time since the warehouse incident, my body remembered what it meant to want to live.
I looked at Nora.
"Who taught you to cook?"
"My grandmother."
"Where?"
"Queens."
I froze.
My mother had grown up in Queens.
She used to make spaghetti exactly like this.
Simple tomato sauce.
Garlic.
Olive oil.
No expensive ingredients.
Just warmth.
I hadn't eaten her cooking since she died twenty-three years earlier.
"What's your grandmother's name?" I asked.
Nora hesitated.
"Evelyn Reed."
The fork slipped from my fingers.
It struck the bowl with a sharp clink.
Dominic stepped forward.
"Boss?"
I barely heard him.
Evelyn Reed.
A name I hadn't spoken in twenty-three years.
My mother had once worked with a woman named Evelyn Reed.
They'd been inseparable.
Then one night, Evelyn disappeared.
And my mother was murdered two days later.
I stared at Nora.
"Is your grandmother still alive?"
Her expression changed.
"No."
"When did she die?"
"Last winter."
I swallowed.
"Did she ever mention the Vale family?"
Nora went completely still.
Then she slowly reached beneath her uniform collar.
A small silver pendant hung around her neck.
My heart stopped.
I recognized it immediately.
My mother's necklace.
The one buried with her.
Nora watched my face turn white.
May you like
Then whispered:
"My grandmother told me that if I ever met Arthur Vale, I should show him this."
