Chapter 8 - The Housekeeper's DaughterSix months later, Lucas could run again.
Not far.
Not fast.
But he could run.
Emma watched him from the garden.
“Catch me!”
Lucas laughed.
“You're too slow!”
She chased him.
Lorenzo stood on the porch.
Elena Carter, Emma's mother, stood beside him.
“You know,” Elena said, “she still talks about that night.”
“What does she say?”
“That you were scary.”
Lorenzo laughed.
“She wasn't wrong.”
“She also says you became less scary.”
“How?”
“She says you learned to kneel.”
Lorenzo smiled.
He looked at Emma.
The child who had once been too small to reach a door handle had changed the entire Duca household.
She had exposed a conspiracy.
Saved a boy.
Destroyed a corrupt network.
And reminded Lorenzo that children noticed what adults ignored.
Lucas ran toward them.
“Dad!”
“What?”
“Emma says she's my doctor.”
Lorenzo raised an eyebrow.
“She is?”
“Yes.”
“What does Doctor Emma prescribe?”
Lucas grinned.
“Cookies.”
Elena laughed.
Lorenzo shook his head.
“That's terrible medicine.”
Emma crossed her arms.
“Then you're not invited.”
Lorenzo smiled.
“Fair enough.”
The housekeeper's daughter had become part of the family.
Not because of money.
May you like
Not because of blood.
Because she had walked into a dangerous man's bedroom at midnight and trusted him with the truth.
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