Chapter 1 - THE BLOODLINE BREACHThe shockwave from the shattered French doors slammed into my chest, knocking the breath from my lungs. Plaster rained down from the hand-painted ceiling, mixing with the acrid stench of cordite and burning wood.
"Stay down!" Victor roared over the deafening rattle of automatic gunfire echoing from the front courtyard.
Despite his terrifying reputation, Victor Moretti didn't cower. In a fluid, practiced motion, he drew a sleek, suppressed SIG Sauer from beneath his tailored jacket. With his free hand, he shoved me and Lily behind a massive, solid-oak mahogany desk that dominated his private study.
"Victor!" I screamed, clutching Lily tighter to my chest. The baby let out a piercing, terror-stricken cry, her feverish skin burning against my palms. "What is happening? Who are they?!"
"Men who want your daughter," Victor snapped, his eyes wild with a mixture of grief and fierce, protective rage. He checked the magazine of his weapon with a sharp clack. "Elena... your mother. She hid you away for twenty-two years. She made sure nobody knew about the second bloodline. But they found the trail through the estate registry."
"My mother died of cancer when I was ten!" I cried, tears blinding me. "What does she have to do with this?"
"She wasn't just my sister's friend, Hannah. She was my twin sister," Victor whispered, his voice cracking as glass rained down from a second-story window. "And that locket? It’s the crest of the inner council of the syndicate. Your daughter isn't just an innocent baby. By blood, she is the sole rightful heir to the entire Moretti empire—and every rival faction in the underworld wants her dead or under their control."
Before I could process the insanity of his words, heavy boots thudded against the marble floor outside the study. Heavy, systematic pacing.
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Click. Reload.
"They're breaching the corridor," Victor said grimly. He looked down at Lily, who had stopped crying, her small hand reaching out toward the silver locket on her chest as if responding to a phantom call. Victor’s jaw tightened. "No one touches my blood."
