Chapter 3 - Blood in the Boardroom

The silence in the room was deafening. Adrienne stared at the white envelope as if it contained an explosive device.

"Resigning?" Adrienne’s dark eyes flashed with dangerous fury. He stepped closer, towering over her, his mafia authority bleeding through his corporate façade. "You don't get to just leave, Simone. Not after five years. Not after walking into my house with a man tied to the Vance Syndicate."

Simone’s eyes widened in genuine shock. "What are you talking about?"

"Daniel Hayes," Adrienne hissed, catching her wrist before she could step back. His grip was firm, hot, and possessive. "He works for Vance. Did you think I wouldn't check? Did you think you could bring an enemy operative into my home and then resign the next morning without consequences?"

Simone didn't pull away from his grip, though her heart hammered rapidly against her ribs. "Daniel was my brother's best friend! He was the only person who helped my family when my father died! He has nothing to do with cartels or syndicates!"

"Your father?" Adrienne scoffed bitterly. "Your father was an accountant in Queens."

Simone let out a quiet, painful laugh. The sheer innocence in Adrienne’s assumption was almost tragic.

"My father wasn't an accountant, Adrienne," she whispered, using his first name for the very first time in five years. "My father was Julian Carter. The Iron Ledger."

Adrienne’s blood ran cold. The grip on her wrist loosened slightly.

Julian 'The Iron Ledger' Carter was a legend in the Underworld—the master accountant who held the encrypted financial records of every major crime family across North America. When Julian vanished eight years ago, millions of dollars vanished with him, and every boss in the country had hunted his bloodline.

"You..." Adrienne breathed, the pieces of the puzzle violently smashing together in his mind. "You’re Julian Carter’s daughter."

"I hid in plain sight," Simone said, her voice trembling with five years of suppressed pain. "I hid right under the nose of the most dangerous mafia family in New York. I thought if I made myself indispensable to you, if I served you perfectly, your name would protect me from my father's enemies. But you never even looked at me. You just saw a desk, a schedule, and a cup of coffee."

Before Adrienne could process her confession, his private phone shattered the silence, ringing wildly on his desk.

He snatched it up. "What?"

May you like

The silence in Marius’s penthouse office didn’t just linger; it solidifi...

🔥 “HE BROKE MY RIBS WITH A BRONZE STATUE, BUT WHEN HIS MAFIA FATHER PUL...

“She is your biological daughter,” James whispered, his breath ragged ag...

"Boss!" Marco’s panicked voice blared through the speaker. "The dock house in Brooklyn just got hit! It’s a massacre! Vance’s men knew exact coordinates and key codes! They had our internal schedule!"

Adrienne turned his head, his eyes locking onto Simone with newfound horror and suspicion.