Chapter 5 - THE UNSEEN MASTERMIND“The truth doesn’t set you free. It burns everything you’ve ever built.”My breath seized in my throat. “What did you say?”

Harland’s eyes bulged with sick satisfaction. “Your father didn't die of an illness before you were born, Luca! Your father was Victor Scarlatti! You are the bastard son of the syndicate chief! Your mother fled with you because she wanted to save you from that dark life!”

The world felt like it was spinning off its axis. My entire identity—everything I had constructed to avenge my mother—was built on a lie. I wasn't just an orphan who fought his way up from the gutter. I was the blood of the enemy I had been fighting my entire life.

“Arthur Miller—Elena’s father—was trying to help your mother escape that night!” Harland wheezed, his breath growing shallow. “He didn't lock the doors! My employer did! My real boss… the man who runs the Scarlattis from the shadows!”

“Who is he?!” I screamed, pressing my gun barrel directly into Harland’s forehead. “GIVE ME A NAME!”

Before Harland could utter another word, a high-powered sniper rifle round tore through the mansion’s stained-glass ceiling, punching straight through Harland’s chest.

He stiffened, his eyes rolling back as he slumped dead at my feet.

“SNIPER!” Marcus yelled, pulling me behind a stone pillar as a second heavy round ricocheted off the marble floor right where my head had been a second ago.

Red laser sights danced across the walls of the estate. A fleet of black SUVs tore through the front lawn, surrounding the mansion. Heavy infantry units dressed in tactical gear stepped out, armed with military-grade rifles.

Over the vehicles' external loudspeakers, a cold, aristocratic voice echoed across the rain-drenched estate:

“Luca Vance. Or should I call you Luca Scarlatti? Step out with your hands up, and I might spare the maid and her little child. Refuse… and I will burn this entire estate to ashes, just like I burned your mother twenty years ago.”

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I recognized that voice instantly.

It belonged to Julian Vance—my mother’s brother. The uncle who had taken me in after the fire and raised me to be a killer.