Chapter 23

Blood doesn’t lie, but it burns.

The council room was silent. The seven heads of global syndicates sat around the long obsidian table, but none spoke.

They all stared at the playing card I dropped before them.

“The next queen falls.”

I remained standing. I was dressed in crisp black tailored, sharp, and deliberate. My fingers didn’t tremble, and my voice didn’t falter.

I want Sebastian Moretti declared a global threat.

One of the older councilmen leaned forward.

“You want to authorize an international kill on a man presumed dead for thirteen years, based on a card and hanging?”

I want to prevent a war. I snapped out. Because if you wait for him to come knocking, there won’t be a door left to open.

“Even Lucien couldn’t control him,” another man muttered. “And you think you can destroy him?”

My gaze went icy. I don’t intend to control him. I intend to bury him.

Back at the estate, the war room lit up with digital heat signatures and surveillance patches.

A satellite feed from Marrakech, a voice intercept from Prague, a blood trail in Marseille.

None of it led to Sebastian. He was like a phantom moving like smoke.

Until….

“Ma’am,” Nico called out from across the room, “We found something.”

I quickly approached the screen.

A security footage. A shadow entering a church in Palermo. Three hours before my envoy was murdered. The man’s face was obscured, but the walk…the build…

Damian leaned in. “That’s him.”

Next to the church’s ledger was a name scratched hastily in the visitor log.

S. M.

Not Sebastian Merotti. S. Marco.

I froze.

That’s my name.

“Not your’s,” Vera murmured behind me. “It was your mother’s too.”

Hours later, I sat alone in my mother’s private vault. The biometric lock scanned my iris, then opened with a soft hiss.

The room smelled like paper and dust. Like memories and regret.

I pulled down the heavy archive box labeled “x83.”

Sebastian’s file.

But at the very bottom was a sealed letter. Addressed in my mother's name.

“To my daughter if he ever comes back.”

I stared at it for a while, then opened it.

“My Claire.

If you’re reading this, Sebastian has resurfaced. And I’ve failed to keep him buried.

There’s so much I never told you. So much I hoped you’d never have to carry. But daughters of devils are never spared in the fire.

Sebastian Moretti is not just Lucien’s brother.

He’s mine.

Your uncle.”

The words hit me like gunshots. I dropped the letter. Damian is standing behind me, and he quickly caught me before I could collapse.

No…no that’s not possible. I gasped. Damian that’s not possible. He quickly picked up the letter and read silently. My breath grew ragged.

She lied all my life she lied. She said I had no family.

“She was protecting you.”

From him? From her brother?

“Sebastian was part of her rise. He helped eliminate rivals. He was her executioner.”

She used him. I whispered. And when he was no longer useful, she turned him into a ghost.

And now, the ghost is coming for me.

That night, Damian placed a file on my desk. “He was seen in Madrid. He left someone alive this time.”

I looked up sharply. On purpose?

“Most likely.”

Inside the file was a name. Dante Marco.

I narrowed my eyes. I don’t know him.

“He’s one of your mother’s old lieutenants. Thought was dead years ago. But Sebastian…left him breathing. Said he had a message for the bloodline.”

I quickly grabbed my coat. Let’s go hear it.

Dante Marco lay in a hospital bed, half-conscious, ribs cracked, left eye swollen shut.

He smiled the moment he saw me.

“You’ve got her fire,” he rasped.

Save the sentiment, I said coldly. Tell me what he said.

Marco coughed, then forced the words. “He said…the kingdom was never hers to give.”

Damian stiffened beside me.

And then?

His lips tremblingly, “he said…the Marco line ends with her.”

Back at the car, I gripped the edge of my seat, like my face carved from stone.

I need to know what my mother did to him. The real reason he wants me dead.

Damian reached into his inner jacket pocket and handed me a flash drive.

“She knew this day would come. She left me a file. Said to only give it to you. When you are strong enough to see the truth.”

At first, I hesitated. Then plugged it into a dashboard screen. A video is loaded.

My mother, sitting in a black velvet chair, was older, tired, and even glassy.

“If you’re watching this, I’m gone. And Sebastian has returned. He’ll come with fire and blood, and he’ll want vengeance. But it’s not just about me.

It’s about what I took from him.

Sebastian had a child. A daughter. I faked her death to save her from becoming what he was.”

My breath caught.

“You were raised believing you were mine by birth. But the truth is…

You’re his daughter too.

Sebastian Moretti is your father.”

The screen went blank.

The car was filled with silence. I sat frozen, my body shaking. Damian couldn’t speak. Everything changed in seconds.

I wasn’t Elena’s daughter. I was Sebastian’s. The daughter of the knife. The heir to his blood.

My hand gripped the dagger at my thigh. Like it might anchor me to life that wasn’t real anymore.

And outside the window, the night crawled closer.