Chapter 7 - Beneath the Floorboards
I crossed the linoleum floor in three long strides and dropped to my knees, ignoring the damp filth staining my trousers.
I peered into the dark cavity beneath the wooden stage. It was a low, crawl space meant for old theatrical props and dust bunnies, closed off by a rotting wooden lattice door that had been pushed slightly ajar.
“Lily?” I whispered, my voice cracking—a sound I hadn't made since the night the world burned nineteen years ago.
Silence.
Then, a small, trembling intake of breath from the absolute darkest corner of the crawl space.
“Go away,” a tiny, tear-choked voice whispered back. “I’m not in the house anymore. I’m gone. So Mommy can stay.”
My heart shattered completely. Into a thousand jagged pieces that could never be put back together.
I didn't care about the splintered wood, the nails, or the dirt. I shoved my upper body into the low crawl space, scraping my shoulders against the floor joists as I crawled toward the sound.
In the corner, huddled against a stack of discarded cardboard boxes, sat Lily.
She was shivering so violently her teeth were chattering audibly. Her thin yellow duck nightgown was soaked through with muddy water, clinging to her fragile frame. Her bare feet were caked in grime and purple with cold. She didn't have Poppy—she had left her only comfort behind on the stone step like an offering to appease the monster.
She had her knees pulled up to her chest, her little arms wrapped around her shins, and her big brown eyes stared at me out of the darkness, wide with terror and heartbreak.
“Mister Alessandro... please don't be mad,” she whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut as if bracing for a blow. “I didn't mean to be bad. I just didn't want Mommy to have to leave the big house.”
I didn't answer with words.
I reached out, my large, scarred hands trembling as I slid them gently beneath her arms and lifted her out of the dirt, pulling her straight against my chest.
She let out a small, broken cry, flinching as if expecting punishment.
Instead, I wrapped my expensive, ruined wool coat entirely around her, cocooning her shivering body against my heart, pressing her face into my neck. I buried my face in her tangled, damp curls, and right there in the dark, filthy crawl space of an abandoned community center, the most feared crime boss in the city broke down and wept.
“You weren't bad, angel,” I choked out, my voice thick with tears, rocking her back and forth as the rain hammered against the roof above us. “You were the bravest little girl in the world. But you are never, ever leaving again. Do you hear me?”
Lily opened her eyes, sniffing loudly, her small hands hesitantly reaching up to touch my wet lapel.
“Mommy doesn't have to go?” she whispered, her voice barely audible.
“Nobody is going anywhere,” I promised, kissing the top of her cold head. “Your home is safe. Your mother is safe. And you... you are never leaving my sight again.”
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She let out a long, shuddering sigh, relaxing her tense little muscles for the first time all day. She buried her face against my collarbone, her breathing evening out into a soft, exhausted rhythm.
I picked her up in my arms, backed out of the crawl space, and carried her out into the light.
