Chapter 1 - The Boy Who Couldn’t Hear His Father
The little boy screamed until even the armed men looked afraid.
“Matteo!”
Silas Costello’s voice cracked across the private jet.
His six-year-old son didn’t react.
Not even a blink.
“Matteo, look at me!”
Nothing.
The child kept kicking against the cream leather seat, tears streaking down his face as the Bombardier Global 7500 climbed through violent storm clouds over New Jersey.
A glass rolled off the walnut table and shattered.
One of Silas’s security men reached toward the boy.
“Don’t touch him,” Silas snapped.
The man froze.
Silas crouched in front of his son.
“Matteo. Enough.”
The boy screamed harder.
Silas’s face tightened.
Men had obeyed that face in warehouses, courtrooms, boardrooms, and dark parking garages across Chicago.
His son only looked terrified.
From the galley, Khloe Gallagher watched for three seconds.
Then five.
Then ten.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
She stepped into the cabin.
Victor Sterling, Silas’s head of security, immediately moved between them.
“Stay back.”
Khloe ignored him.
“Mr. Costello, stop shouting.”
The cabin went silent except for Matteo’s sobbing.
Silas slowly stood.
“What did you say?”
“I said stop shouting at him.”
Victor’s hand moved beneath his jacket.
Khloe noticed.
She also noticed Matteo didn’t.
No reaction to Silas’s voice.
No reaction to the glass breaking.
No reaction when thunder had exploded outside the aircraft thirty seconds earlier.
But when the overhead lights flickered, Matteo flinched.
Khloe’s stomach dropped.
She knew that pattern.
She had seen it hundreds of times growing up with her younger sister.
Khloe moved around Victor.
“Ma’am.”
“Move.”
“You don’t give me orders.”
“No,” Khloe said. “But I know what’s happening to that child.”
Silas’s eyes sharpened.
“What’s happening?”
Khloe slowly lowered herself to Matteo’s level.
She didn’t speak.
She raised both hands.
Matteo’s screaming weakened.
His wet eyes locked onto her fingers.
Khloe signed slowly.
My name is Khloe. You are safe.
Matteo stopped kicking.
Every man in the cabin froze.
Khloe signed again.
Can you understand me?
Matteo stared at her.
Then his small shaking hands rose.
His fingers moved clumsily.
Yes.
Silas stopped breathing.
Khloe swallowed.
Why are you scared?
Matteo looked toward his father.
Then toward Victor.
Then back to Khloe.
His next signs came faster.
Desperate.
Dad keeps yelling.
Khloe’s heart broke.
Then Matteo signed something that made the blood drain from her face.
He doesn’t know I can’t hear anymore.
Khloe looked up.
Silas had gone completely still.
“What did he say?”
Khloe stood slowly.
“Mr. Costello…”
“What did my son say?”
Her eyes moved from Silas to Victor.
Victor was watching Matteo with an expression she didn’t like.
Not surprise.
Fear.
Khloe turned back to Silas.
“He said he can’t hear.”
Silas stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
Matteo began signing again.
Khloe watched.
Then she wished she hadn’t.
Because the boy wasn’t finished.
The doctor told Uncle Victor not to tell Dad.
Khloe looked directly at the man standing beside Silas.
And for the first time that night—
May you like
Victor Sterling reached for his gun.
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