Chapter 1

Ten years after the Moretti family cast me out, my older sister, Alessia, found me in the slums.

I stood there in a threadbare coat, three children clustered around me.

To my surprise, Alessia’s eyes reddened.

“Vivienne, didn’t you always hate children? Wasn’t taking over the family the only thing you cared about?”

I took a bite of stale bread, scooped the smallest child up from the muddy ground, and waved the other two inside.

Isabella blocked the doorway, her arm linked through Lucian’s. She spoke as casually as if none of this concerned me.

“Vivienne, I was the one who begged Dad to have the doctor drug your wine. And Lucian was the one who gave a rival family your license plate and your route.”

“If you hadn’t taken my place in that car, I would have been the one killed in the explosion.”

She leaned into Lucian’s arms and smiled sweetly.

“Thank you. Truly.”

Lucian—my former fiancé—looked down at her without a flicker of emotion, as though he had not personally sent me into an ambush ten years ago.

Alessia’s voice turned cold.

“When Isabella first came back, you refused to surrender your place as the Moretti heir. You even ordered the guards to keep her out of a family council meeting. She was shot outside because of you.”

“Taking one hit for her was nothing more than repayment.”

Isabella shrugged.

“I’ve already forgiven you, Vivienne. We came to bring you home to the Moretti estate.”

Her gaze slid past me to the three children.

“But these children are beneath us. Keeping them would only disgrace our family.”

“Get rid of all three.”

I stared at her.

“All three?”

The boy crouched on the steps, playing with a folding knife, was Matteo—the sole heir to the De Luca family, which had ruled Sicily’s underworld for nearly a century.

The silent boy by the door was Ethan, heir to the Kane family, which controlled the East Coast’s ports and arms-trafficking routes.

And the sleepy little girl in my arms was Sofia—the only daughter of Don Valenti, the man every crime family in New York answered to.

“You’ll be better off without them,” Isabella said.

When I finally reacted, she smiled.

Her bodyguards stepped forward, surrounded me and the children, and drew their guns.

I pulled the child farthest away behind me and let out a quiet breath.

Sofia, above all, could not be harmed.

Her father had barely managed to save his only daughter during an internal family revolt.

“What is it? Can’t let go?” Lucian’s eyes were icy. “Vivienne, do you really expect to drag three burdens back to the Moretti estate?”

Matteo’s eyes flashed. He jabbed a finger at Lucian.

“What are you, blind? You think I’m a burden?”

“I wouldn’t join your pathetic family if you begged me.”

I frowned and covered his mouth before he could say anything worse.

That boy had the sharpest tongue of the three.

“Embarrassed?” Isabella’s eyes curved with amusement. “Lucian doesn’t even mind that you had children with another man. He’s still willing to let you come home.”

She made the offer sound like an act of unimaginable mercy.

“I’m not going back.”

They all froze.

Alessia’s face darkened.

“Ten years away, and you’ve forgotten how to behave?”

I nodded.

Ten years was long enough to let go of everything I had once cared about.

“Do it,” Lucian said coldly. “Don’t tell me you’ve actually grown attached to three nameless little bastards.”

He looked at the children as though they were filth in his way.

“They aren’t mine.” I tightened my arms around Sofia. “But you can’t touch them. None of you can afford the consequences.”

What difference would returning to the Moretti family make?

Couldn’t he see that none of these children looked afraid of him?

Lucian sneered and lifted one hand.

One of his guards fired toward the doorway.

The bullet grazed the wall and shattered a metal tag hanging from the frame.

My heart dropped.

Before Alessia could move, I shoved Sofia toward the house, kicked a length of pipe off the ground, and sent it crashing into the nearest man’s wrist.

His gun fell.

I ripped the knife from my sleeve and lunged for Isabella.

She clearly had not expected me to strike first. Her smile froze.

The blade stopped half an inch from her throat when Alessia seized my wrist and slammed me into the crumbling wall.

“How dare you!”

My back hit hard. An old injury tore open, and the taste of blood filled my mouth.

But I did not stop.

I gritted my teeth and came at Isabella again. My blade sliced through her sleeve and forced her to stumble backward.

A second later, Lucian fired at the ground by my feet. Stone exploded upward. My knees gave out, and I dropped hard into the dirt.

“Vivienne!” Alessia shouted furiously. “You dare attack Isabella?”

I braced a hand on the ground and slowly looked up.

“She wants those children dead. Why shouldn’t I come for her?”

The bullet that had shattered the metal tag had scraped Sofia’s waist, exposing a crest set with black obsidian beneath it.

Sofia went pale. Her eyes filled as she threw herself back into my arms, trembling violently.

I held her tight, my heart sinking lower by the second.

“Lucian.” I tore the tag from Sofia’s waist and held it up. “Recognize this?”

Black obsidian. A gold crown entwined with a serpent.

The Valenti family crest.

Isabella’s eyes widened in disbelief.

But Lucian raised his hand again, his expression hardening.

“You think a forged crest is enough to fool me?”

Matteo reached into his boot and pulled out a silver badge.

“My father is Don Marco De Luca. If you want to kill someone, come for me.”

Isabella flicked her hand dismissively. One of the guards knocked the badge away.

“Did Vivienne prepare that story and those props too?”