Chapter 1 - The Child Titan Let Through
Nobody moved.
Dr. Reynolds stood twelve feet from Adrian Moretti’s study with his medical bag in one hand and both palms raised.
“I’m serious,” he said. “If that dog attacks me, Mr. Moretti dies while you’re trying to pull Titan off my throat.”
Dante’s face hardened.
“Titan.”
The Cane Corso did not look at him.
“Down.”
Nothing.
The dog remained over Adrian’s body, muscles rigid, teeth showing.
Elena stared at Adrian.
His face had gone strangely gray.
A vein pulsed weakly at his temple.
Whatever had happened, they were running out of time.
Then Elena heard small footsteps behind her.
Her stomach dropped.
“Sophia.”
Her daughter stood at the end of the hallway clutching her yellow crayon.
“I told you to stay—”
Sophia barely seemed to hear her.
She was looking at Titan.
The dog saw her too.
The growl changed.
Not gone.
Different.
“Get her back,” Dante snapped.
Elena hurried toward Sophia.
But the little girl stepped sideways.
“Sophia, no.”
“He’s scared.”
Every adult in the hallway froze.
Dante stared at her.
“That dog is not scared.”
Sophia frowned at him.
“Yes, he is.”
Before Elena could grab her, Sophia slipped beneath Dante’s arm and crossed the doorway.
Titan’s head turned.
Dr. Reynolds whispered something Elena could not hear.
Sophia stopped six feet from the dog.
“Hi.”
Titan’s ears shifted.
His teeth disappeared.
Elena’s heart nearly stopped.
“Sophia,” she said carefully. “Come back.”
The girl ignored her.
She sat down on the carpet.
Not close enough to touch the dog.
Just close enough for him to see she wasn’t afraid.
“You’re keeping him safe, huh?”
Titan stared at her.
Sophia placed the yellow crayon on the floor.
“I keep Mommy safe too.”
The dog took one step.
Dante reached toward his weapon.
Elena caught his wrist.
“Don’t.”
Titan lowered his head.
Sophia held out her hand.
He sniffed her fingers.
Then, unbelievably, the one-hundred-thirty-pound guard dog lowered himself beside her.
The entire hallway went silent.
Sophia touched his head.
“That’s better.”
Titan sighed.
A long, exhausted sound.
Then he moved away from Adrian.
Dr. Reynolds ran.
Dante followed.
Elena grabbed Sophia and pulled her back as the doctor knelt beside Adrian.
“Pulse weak.”
He opened his bag.
“Get oxygen. Call the ambulance. Now.”
Dante shouted orders.
Within seconds, the hallway exploded into controlled chaos.
Sophia twisted in Elena’s arms.
“Mommy.”
“What?”
“Titan wants me to see something.”
Elena almost laughed from terror.
“Sophia, not now.”
But Titan had risen again.
Instead of returning to Adrian, he walked toward the broken water glass.
He sniffed it.
Then backed away sharply.
The hair along his spine lifted.
Dr. Reynolds looked over.
“What is it?”
Dante approached the glass.
“Could be nothing.”
Titan barked once.
Sophia shook her head.
“No.”
Everyone looked at her.
She pointed toward the shattered crystal.
“That made him sick.”
Dante frowned.
“Who?”
“Mr. Adrian.”
Elena’s breath caught.
“How would you know that?”
Sophia pointed toward Titan.
“He keeps smelling it.”
Dr. Reynolds looked at the broken glass again.
Then at Adrian.
His expression changed.
“Bag the pieces.”
Dante stared.
“You think poison?”
“I think Mr. Moretti’s pupils don’t match a normal fainting episode.”
The ambulance arrived seven minutes later.
Titan tried to follow Adrian.
Sophia wrapped both arms around his neck.
“He has to go with the doctors.”
The dog whined.
“You can wait with us.”
And somehow, he did.
Hours later, Adrian was stabilized at Massachusetts General.
A toxicology screen found an uncommon cardiac toxin in his blood.
Not enough to kill immediately.
Enough to make his collapse look natural.
Someone had poisoned the most protected man in Boston inside his own study.
That night, Dante returned to the mansion carrying a sealed evidence bag.
Inside was the silver water pitcher from Adrian’s desk.
“We found fingerprints.”
Elena looked at him.
“Whose?”
Dante’s eyes moved toward the hallway where Sophia slept beside Titan.
“Yours.”
Elena stopped breathing.
“I never touched that pitcher.”
Dante believed her.
That was almost worse.
Because beneath Elena’s fingerprints, forensic technicians had found something else.
A partial print belonging to a woman who had been dead for six years.
May you like
Isabella Moretti.
Adrian’s wife.
