Chapter 1 – THE ASHES OF THE BURNED LETTER

My father, Antonio DeLuca, had not stood in my way since I was eighteen years old.

He was a man who respected power.

And for the last decade, I had held all of it.

Yet now, he blocked the heavy oak door of my private study, his hands trembling slightly against the wood.

“Michael, be reasonable,” he said.

His voice lacked its usual arrogant command.

It sounded thin.

Desperate.

“Step aside, Dad,” I said.

I didn’t raise my voice.

I didn’t reach for the weapon holstered beneath my tailored jacket.

I just looked at him with the cold, dead expression I reserved for men who owed me money and had run out of time.

My mother, Carmen, clutched the kitchen counter behind me.

“You’re ruining Christmas over a piece of trash!” she shrieked.

I handed Renee to our loyal housekeeper, Maria, who had rushed in from the dining room.

“Take her upstairs. Lock the bedroom door.”

Renee buried her face in Maria’s neck, her little shoulders shaking.

Seeing her cry erased any remaining hesitation I had.

I turned back to my father.

“I won’t ask again.”

He hesitated for one second too long.

I grabbed him by the lapels of his expensive Italian suit and shoved him aside.

He hit the hallway wall hard, gasping for air.

I kicked the study door open.

The room was dark, smelling of expensive cigars and aged leather.

But beneath that, there was a sharper, more acrid scent.

Smoke.

I walked straight to the massive mahogany desk.

The heavy silver letter opener rested in its usual place.

But the envelope from the law firm was gone.

I turned toward the stone fireplace.

The fire had been put out hours ago, but a fresh pile of black ash rested on the grate.

They had burned it.

My parents had actually walked into the private sanctuary of a Chicago Mafia boss and burned his legal correspondence.

I knelt by the fireplace, my jaw clenching so hard my teeth ached.

I picked up the iron poker and sifted through the ashes.

Most of the paper was completely destroyed.

But near the back, tucked beneath a charred log, a small, unburned corner remained.

I pulled it out.

It wasn’t paper from a legal document.

It was a piece of heavy, vintage cardstock.

A photograph.

The edges were singed, but the image was clear.

It showed a woman holding a baby wrapped in a hospital blanket.

I didn’t recognize the woman.

But I recognized the delicate, braided silver bracelet around her wrist.

My stomach plummeted.

I stood up and turned around.

My parents had followed me into the study.

My father was rubbing his shoulder, looking at the floor.

My mother was staring at the charred photograph in my hand.

“Who is this?” I asked, my voice deadly quiet.

“Nobody,” my mother snapped, though her eyes betrayed her panic. “Just some junkie who didn’t want her kid.”

“You’re lying.”

I walked toward her, holding up the photograph.

“I adopted Renee through a closed agency. The records were sealed. There shouldn’t be a photograph. And there definitely shouldn’t be a photograph of a woman wearing this specific silver bracelet.”

My father stepped forward.

“Michael, we were protecting the family name.”

“From what?”

My mother folded her arms, trying to regain her composure.

“From the truth. That girl isn’t just an orphan you picked up off the street. She’s a liability.”

“She is my daughter.”

“She’s a Rossi!” my mother screamed.

The name echoed off the study walls.

The room went completely silent.

The Rossi family.

The most vicious, unpredictable rival syndicate in Chicago.

We had been at war with them for three generations.

I stared at the photograph again.

The woman’s face was young, exhausted, but unmistakable now that I knew what to look for.

Isabella Rossi.

The youngest daughter of the Rossi boss.

She had disappeared six years ago. Rumor said she’d run away to Europe.

“Renee is Isabella’s child?” I whispered.

My father nodded slowly.

“The law firm found a discrepancy in the adoption filing. They discovered the biological mother’s true identity. The letter was a warning. If the Rossis find out you have the heir to their empire playing with dolls in your house, the streets will run with blood.”

I looked at my parents.

For a moment, I actually believed they were just trying to protect me from a mob war.

But then, I looked closer at the silver bracelet in the photograph.

The braided silver chain with a small, distinct sapphire charm.

My blood turned to ice.

“You’re lying again,” I said.

My mother bristled.

“We just told you the truth!”

“You told me half a truth.”

I held the photograph inches from my mother’s face.

“Isabella Rossi is wearing a silver and sapphire bracelet in this picture. A custom piece.”

I lowered my voice to a lethal whisper.

“I know it’s a custom piece, Mother, because I commissioned it myself ten years ago.”

My father’s face went chalk white.

“I didn’t give it to Isabella Rossi,” I continued, the horrific reality crashing down on me.

“I gave it to my younger brother. Leo.”

My parents froze.

Leo had been killed in a drive-by shooting six years ago.

The murder was unsolved.

“Leo gave Isabella this bracelet,” I realized aloud. “He was the father.”

I stared at the two people who raised me.

“Renee isn’t just a Rossi. She is a DeLuca. She is your own granddaughter. And you just made her wash dishes on Christmas while her cousins opened presents.”

My mother’s lip trembled.

Before she could speak, the heavy study doors swung open.

My underboss, Marcus, stood in the doorway.

He was bleeding from a cut above his eye.

In his hands, he held a torn, blood-stained winter coat.

“Boss,” Marcus gasped. “We have a massive problem.”

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