New Queen
New Queen
Lucy sat at the small wooden dining table in the house she had once shared with her mother and stepfather. The evening light coming through the window was soft and slightly dusty. Silas had made her tea—simple, strong, the way she remembered it from childhood.
The ceramic cup warmed her hands. She looked tired and a little disheveled, hair still damp from a quick shower, clothes plain and borrowed, but she was unharmed. No burns. No serious injuries. Only the lingering exhaustion of someone who had walked a long way on pure adrenaline.
Silas sat across from her, watching every small movement as if she might disappear again. “I was certain you were dead,” he said, voice low and rough. “The news said the truck exploded on the bridge and went into the river. They were already talking like there were no survivors. How did you get out of that?”
Lucy wrapped both hands around the cup and stared at the surface of the tea for a moment before answering.
“Before the truck ever reached the bridge, the driver stopped at a little sandwich shop outside of town. I was still underneath it at that point. When she went inside, I crawled out. I was going to hide in the cargo area, but at the last second—right before she came back—I changed my mind. Something felt wrong. I got off the truck completely and started walking toward the city on my own. I don’t know why the instinct hit me so hard. I’m just glad I listened to it. It saved my life.”
Silas let out a long, shaky breath and rubbed a hand over his face. “Thank God for that.”
Lucy looked up at him directly. “If that truck caught fire and exploded the way the news says, it wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t a coincidence. Cimaro planned it. He wanted me gone for good so I could never come after him. Are you still working with him?”
“No,” Silas said immediately, the word firm. “Not anymore. Whatever partnership we had ended the moment I believed you were dead. We’re finished.”
Lucy closed her eyes briefly, the relief visible. “Good. I can’t wait to make him pay for everything—Garret, the frame-up, trying to kill me. All of it.”
Silas reached across the table and covered one of her hands with his.
“You’re still a fugitive, Lucy. Until we can prove your innocence the right way, you have to stay hidden. Going after the Red Cobras right now would only put a bigger target on your back and give them exactly what they need to put you back in a cell—or worse. One day, justice will come for Andreas Cimaro. Just not today. Not while you’re still listed as an escaped convict.”
Lucy didn’t argue. She only nodded, the fight in her eyes banked but not extinguished, and wrapped both hands around the warm cup again.
.
.
.
At the Rossi estate, the black vehicles rolled through the main gates under the fading evening light and stopped in a tight formation in the central courtyard. The air smelled of cut grass and the faint residual heat of the day. Gabriella stepped out of the lead car first. The Knights followed in disciplined silence. Carolina remained inside one of the vehicles, still bound, head lowered.
Gabriella turned to Lancelot. Her voice was calm and absolute. “Assemble everyone. Workers, soldiers, every single member of the King’s Gold who is on the grounds. Bring them to the front yard. I want them all present.”
The Knights moved at once. Within a short time the wide courtyard filled with the full strength of the clan—men and women in work clothes and tactical gear, faces uncertain, low voices trading rapid questions.
The murmur of the crowd rose and fell like a restless tide. When Gabriella walked to the front of the gathering and faced them fully, a collective gasp moved through the ranks. Many recognized her immediately. Most had been told she was dead.
She raised her voice so it carried cleanly across the open space.
“I know that most of you are shocked to see me alive. My mother ordered my assassination. She sent men—her own Knights—to kill me because I refused to be the heir she wanted. I survived because the Red Cobras pulled me out of the grave she planned for me. The era of Carolina Rossi ends tonight. The King’s Gold enters a new chapter. I am taking my place as Capo of this family.”
A soldier near the front called out, voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “What happened to Carolina? Where is she?”
Gabriella glanced toward the waiting car. One of the Knights opened the rear door, brought Carolina forward, and set her on her feet in full view of the clan. The ropes had been removed, but her strength was clearly spent. She stood unsteadily, the weight of hundreds of eyes pressing down on her.
Gabriella addressed the crowd again, her tone steady and deliberate. “Who do you choose to rule you? A woman so ruthless she ordered the execution of her only child—or the last living heir of Francisco Rossi, the founder of this family and the reason any of us stand here?”
The murmuring grew louder as people weighed the choice, some shifting their weight, others exchanging uneasy glances. In that moment of divided attention, Carolina moved with sudden, desperate speed. She lunged, snatched a weapon from the nearest Knight, and swung it up to point directly at Gabriella’s chest.
“You should never have been born,” Carolina spat, voice raw with hatred. “I should have ended you myself years ago.”
"You never loved me, mother. But even if you tried a thousand times, you cannot kill me," Gabriella said, fearlessly standing her ground despite having a gun being pointed at her.
"Oh yeah? You die tonight, dear daughter."
Her finger tightened on the trigger but Lancelot fired first. Multiple rounds struck Carolina right in the torso. She staggered, the weapon slipping from her hand, and she fell to the ground... Dead!
Silence held for a single heartbeat. Then the Knights turned as one and dropped to one knee in front of Gabriella.
“Our Queen,” Lancelot said, voice clear.
One after another, the rest of the King’s Gold followed, bowing their heads and acknowledging the new order under the darkening sky.