Chapter 10 – The True Heir

Matteo didn’t look angry.

He looked completely stunned.

He slowly walked into the study, his eyes locked on the letter trembling in my hands.

“You read it,” Matteo said quietly.

I backed up against the desk.

“You knew?” I choked out. “You knew who I was this whole time?”

Matteo shook his head.

“No. I found the second page three days ago, while you were helping Lily settle in.”

He stopped a few feet away from me.

“I didn’t know how to tell you, Maggie. You spent your entire life believing you were a poor orphan. Believing you had to scrape by just to survive.”

He pointed to the letter.

“Your mother, Sofia Cole, ruled the Brooklyn docks before the Morettis took over. She was fierce. She was honorable. When the rival families allied to wipe her out, my father tried to save her. But he was too late.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks.

“She died of pneumonia,” I whispered, repeating the lie I had been told my whole life.

“She died of a gunshot wound protecting you,” Matteo corrected softly. “My father found you in the hospital. He altered the medical records. He changed your last name slightly. He hid you in plain sight.”

I looked down at the tarnished silver bracelet I had brought with me from my room.

Matteo saw it.

“The Cole family crest,” Matteo said, recognizing the interlocking pattern on the metal. “The symbol of the only family that ever rivaled ours in strength.”

My mind was spinning.

I wasn’t a maid. I wasn’t a charity case.

I was the last surviving member of a criminal empire.

“Why didn’t you tell me immediately?” I asked, wiping my tears.

Matteo’s expression darkened.

“Because if I know the truth, so do our enemies.”

Before I could ask what he meant, the deafening sound of a massive explosion shook the entire estate.

The windows in the study shattered inward, spraying glass across the carpet.

Matteo grabbed my waist and tackled me to the floor just as a hail of bullets tore through the mahogany desk where I had been standing.

“Stay down!” Matteo roared over the gunfire.

The estate alarms began screaming.

Matteo crawled to a hidden panel under the desk, pulling out two heavy assault rifles. He shoved one into my hands.

“Do you know how to use this?” he yelled.

I looked at the heavy weapon. My blood was rushing. My mother’s blood.

“I’ll figure it out,” I said firmly.

We crawled out of the study and into the hallway.

The front gates had been blown open.

Looking through the shattered windows, I saw five black SUVs tearing up the driveway. Dozens of heavily armed men poured out, advancing on the mansion.

They weren’t wearing the Moretti colors.

They were wearing dark green.

The Verducci family. The most violent, ruthless syndicate on the East Coast.

“They’ve been hunting the Cole heir for twenty years,” Matteo yelled over the gunfire. “They must have intercepted my father’s old files from Lauren before we arrested her.”

Rose emerged from the master suite, holding a polished antique shotgun.

She looked entirely unfazed by the chaos.

“They picked the wrong house,” Rose said coldly, racking the shotgun.

Anthony came running up the stairs, carrying Lily tightly in his arms.

“Get Lily to the panic room!” Matteo ordered his brother. “Lock the steel door and do not open it!”

Anthony nodded, sprinting down the hall.

Matteo looked at me.

His dark eyes were blazing with adrenaline and something deeper. Something fiercely protective.

“They came for you, Maggie,” Matteo said. “But they have to go through me to get you.”

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