Page 79 of Broken Vows

"Sir?" A nurse appears at my elbow. "Your wife is asking for you."

Melinda is sitting up in the recovery room, still pale but her eyes sharp with determination. "How is she?"

"Fighting," I tell her, settling into the chair beside her bed. "Like her mother."

"I want to see her."

"The doctors said?—"

"I don't give a fuck what the doctors said." Fire flashes in her amber eyes. "That's my daughter in there. I'm seeing her."

Before I can argue, my phone erupts with incoming calls. Dad's name flashes on the screen, followed immediately by messages from three different captains. The war is escalating.

"Take it," Melinda says quietly. "I know that look. Something's happening."

I step into the hallway, finally accepting my father's call.

"Vincent." His voice is cold steel. "Where the hell are you?"

"Handling family business."

"Your family business is here, with me, planning our response to Mastroni aggression." Each word drips venom. "They tried to kill your brother. They violated our home. There will be consequences."

"Marco brought that on himself?—"

"Marco is blood," Antonio cuts me off. "Russo blood. And Russo blood demands justice." A pause. "I've given the order. By dawn, the Mastroni name will be nothing but a memory."

My blood turns to ice. "What order?"

"Total elimination. Max, Maya, the girl you've been fucking—all of them. Their entire organization, down to the lowest street soldier." His voice carries the satisfaction of a man announcing victory. "The only way to deal with traitors is complete annihilation."

The hallway spins around me. He's talking about murdering my wife, the mother of my child who's fighting for life fifty feet away.

"You can't," I say, my voice barely above a whisper.

"I can and I will. Family comes first, Vincent. Always." His tone sharpens. "Unless you're telling me you've forgotten what that means?"

The line goes dead, leaving me staring at the phone like it might explode. Through the windows, I can see the first hints of dawn touching the skyline—the same skyline where my father plans to paint Mastroni blood before the sun fully rises.

I find myself walking, my feet carrying me through corridors I barely see. When I stop, I'm standing in the clinic's chapel—a small, nonsectarian space designed to offer comfort to families facing impossible choices.

I haven't prayed since my mother's funeral. Haven't believed in anything beyond bullets and bank accounts since I watched her bleed out on our kitchen floor. But now I'm staring at a simple wooden cross, my hands shaking for the first time in years.

"I don't know if you're listening," I say to the empty room, my voice echoing off cold walls. "I don't know if I deserve to ask. But that little girl in there—she's innocent. Whatever sins her parents carry, she doesn't deserve to pay for them."

The words feel foreign in my mouth, but I continue. "My father wants to destroy everything. Her mother's family, her future, her chance at something better than this endless cycle of blood." I close my eyes. "I know what I have to do. I know what it makes me. But if there's any justice in this fucked-up world, let her live. Let her have a chance."

My phone buzzes. Tony's voice is urgent. "Boss, we've got movement. Twelve-car convoy heading toward Mastroni compound. ETA twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes until my father starts a war that will consume everyone I love.

I walk back toward the NICU, each step feeling like I'm crossing a bridge that will burn behind me. In the nursery, my daughter continues her fight, tiny chest rising and falling with mechanical assistance. In the recovery room, Melinda sleeps fitfully, exhaustion finally claiming her.

Both of them counting on me to keep them safe.

I pull out my encrypted phone, scrolling to a contact I never thought I'd use. Salvatore Benedetto—my most loyal captain, the one man who's followed me into every dark corner of this life without question.

"Sal, it's me."

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