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Chapter Ten
publish date:
2026-11-09 04:07:39THE WEDDING OF DAMNED SOULS
The photograph on Gio’s phone was the last thing I wanted to see.
Daniel Pearce was kneeling on a concrete floor, his hands tied behind his back. Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
Behind him stood a man I had spent my entire life believing was dead.
Vittorio Locatelli.
My supposed biological father.
And he was holding a gun against Daniel’s head.
“Midnight,” I whispered.
Gio took back his phone.
“We’re not going to that wedding.”
“He’ll kill Daniel.”
“Then we find him before midnight.”
I stared at Gio.
“Am I your sister?”
He hesitated.
“According to the records, yes. But I don’t trust anything we’ve discovered so far.”
“And if they’re wrong?”
His expression tightened.
“Then we have another problem.”
I looked away. My father was being held hostage, my mother was missing, and I still didn’t know whether the man standing beside me was someone I could love or someone I was related to.
“Let’s find them,” I said.
By nine in the morning, Gio’s estate had become a command centre.
Maps covered the conference room walls, and security footage played across several screens.
Rafael stood beside a large display.
“We traced Daniel Pearce’s photograph to an old property outside Chicago. Blackwood House. It belonged to Vittorio Locatelli.”
Gio studied the map.
“Security?”
“Minimal outside. We don’t know what’s inside.”
I examined the layout.
“What about the service road behind the property?”
Rafael looked at me.
“It connects to an underground entrance.”
“Then that’s where we go.”
Gio glanced at me.
“You’ve been studying the map?”
“While you were busy deciding what I was allowed to know.”
He almost smiled.
“Fair enough.”
He turned to Rafael.
“We leave in an hour. Find Daniel and Amelie’s mother. If Vittorio is there, take him alive.”
Blackwood House stood beyond the city, surrounded by trees and a high stone wall.
Fresh tyre marks crossed the gravel driveway.
Someone was inside.
We approached through the trees and found a rusted metal door near the back of the property.
A narrow staircase led underground.
“Stay close,” Gio whispered.
At the bottom, voices drifted through a door.
“She’ll be here before midnight,” a man said.
“And if she refuses?”
“Then Daniel dies.”
Gio signalled to Rafael.
The door flew open.
A gunshot exploded through the corridor.
Gio pulled me behind a concrete pillar as bullets struck the wall. His men returned fire, and within seconds, the shooting stopped.
“Are you hit?” he demanded.
I shook my head.
He checked my arms and shoulders.
“Don’t ever make me think I’ve lost you.”
For a moment, we stared at each other.
Then I heard a groan.
Daniel.
I rushed into the adjoining room.
He lay beside a metal chair, his wrists tied. His face was bruised, but he was alive.
“Dad!”
He opened his eyes.
“Amelie?”
I threw my arms around him.
He held me tightly before whispering, “You shouldn’t have come.”
I pulled away.
“Why?”
“Vittorio wanted you here.”
“I know.”
“No.” He gripped my wrist. “You don’t understand. This was never about the wedding.”
Gio stepped closer.
“Tell her.”
Daniel looked between us.
Then he spoke.
“Vittorio isn’t your biological father.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
“Your mother was pregnant before she married Vittorio. She never told anyone who the father was.”
“Isabella said—”
“Isabella believed what Vittorio told her. She didn’t know everything.”
I stepped back.
“Then who is my father?”
Daniel’s eyes filled with tears.
“I don’t know his name.”
“Another lie!”
“I loved you, Amelie. I was trying to protect you.”
“From whom?”
He looked at Gio.
“From the man you’re about to marry.”
I turned towards Gio.
He stood silently, his weapon lowered.
Daniel continued.
“Your mother gave birth to you in secret because your biological father was a man neither family could afford to expose. The wedding was never about an alliance. It was about forcing you beside the one person who could destroy the truth.”
“Who is he?”
Daniel opened his mouth.
But before he could answer, slow applause echoed through the corridor.
A tall man stood in the doorway.
He wore a black suit. Silver streaked his dark hair, and a pale scar ran from his temple towards his jaw.
“Daniel,” he said. “You’ve always been good at making a mess of things.”
Gio raised his gun.
“Who are you?”
The stranger ignored him.
He looked directly at me.
“Amelie. I’ve waited a long time to meet you.”
“How do you know my name?”
A faint smile crossed his face.
“Because I was there when you were born.”
Gio moved between us.
“Take another step and I’ll shoot.”
The man laughed.
“You won’t shoot me, Gio.”
“Try me.”
His smile disappeared.
“Ask your father why he ordered your brother’s death.”
Gio froze.
“Which brother?” I whispered.
The stranger reached into his jacket and produced a photograph.
Luca.
Alive.
Standing beside him.
Written across the bottom in red ink were five words:
THE DEAD HEIR WAS NEVER LUCA.
Gio stared at the photograph.
“No.”
“You’ve been looking for the wrong brother, little boy.”
The man turned towards me.
“And you’ve been searching for the wrong father.”
My throat tightened.
“Who are you?”
He stepped into the light.
“My name is Adrian Vale.”
His eyes moved between Gio and me.
“And I’m the man who fathered you both.”
Silence swallowed the room.
Gio’s gun lowered.
I couldn’t breathe.
If Adrian Vale was telling the truth, then the man I had been forced to marry was not my brother.
He was my twin.
The wedding arranged to unite two criminal empires had just become something far more horrifying.
And as I looked at Gio, I realised that someone had spent twenty-four years making sure neither of us would ever discover the truth.
Latest chapter
The Devil’s Only Weakness Chapter Ten
THE WEDDING OF DAMNED SOULSThe photograph on Gio’s phone was the last thing I wanted to see.Daniel Pearce was kneeling on a concrete floor, his hands tied behind his back. Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.Behind him stood a man I had spent my entire life believing was dead.Vittorio Locatelli.My supposed biological father.And he was holding a gun against Daniel’s head.“Midnight,” I whispered.Gio took back his phone.“We’re not going to that wedding.”“He’ll kill Daniel.”“Then we find him before midnight.”I stared at Gio.“Am I your sister?”He hesitated.“According to the records, yes. But I don’t trust anything we’ve discovered so far.”“And if they’re wrong?”His expression tightened.“Then we have another problem.”I looked away. My father was being held hostage, my mother was missing, and I still didn’t know whether the man standing beside me was someone I could love or someone I was related to.“Let’s find them,” I said.By nine in the morning, Gio’s estate had bec
The Devil’s Only Weakness Chapter nine
THE NAME BURIED WITH THE DEAD“Ask him why he named you Amelie.”The message remained on Gio’s phone.I couldn’t stop staring at it.My name had always felt like the one thing nobody could take from me. Now even that seemed to belong to someone else.“Play the video again,” I whispered.Gio did.My mother’s frightened face appeared on the screen. Daniel sat behind her, tied to a metal chair.Then her voice returned.“Vittorio Locatelli isn’t the man who stole you. Your biological father has been dead for twenty-four years.”The recording ended.“Tell me she’s lying,” I said.Gio looked at me.“I can’t.”“Then take me to the place where I was born.”He studied my face before nodding.“We leave in twenty minutes.”St. Catherine’s Maternity Clinic stood behind a row of old oak trees in Chicago. Its white walls were peeling, the windows boarded, and the rusted sign above the entrance barely readable.I stepped out of the car.“This is where I was born?”“According to the records,” Gio rep
The Devil’s Only Weakness Chapter eight
THE PRICE OF HIS RETURNThe message remained on Gio’s phone.THE WEDDING IS BACK ON. THREE DAYS. NO EXCEPTIONS.Beneath it was a photograph of Daniel Pearce being forced into a black vehicle. His hands were tied, and blood marked his forehead.I zoomed in on the photograph.“Wait. That watch.”Gio looked at me. “What about it?”“I’ve seen it before. At my father’s birthday dinner six months ago.”The man wearing it had congratulated me that evening and told me my mother would have been proud of me.Gio immediately called his security chief.“Rafael, I want every photograph and guest record from Daniel Pearce’s birthday dinner. Every name. Every face. Find the man wearing a silver watch with a red line around its edge.”He ended the call.“Your father may have been watched for months.”“By Vittorio?”“Possibly.”I folded my arms. “You really need to find another answer.”“When people keep lying, certainty becomes expensive.”I looked at Daniel’s photograph.“Why does Vittorio want this
The Devil’s Only Weakness Chapter seven
THE GIRL WHO STOLE A LOCATELLI’S HEART“She’s standing in your bedroom, Gio.”Isabella Locatelli’s voice trembled through the phone.“Your sister is alive.”Gio went completely still.I watched his face, waiting for him to deny it. Instead, his expression changed into something I had never seen before.Pain.“Mother, what are you saying?”“Twenty-four years, Gio. Your father told me my daughter died during childbirth. He showed me a death certificate. But I found the original hospital records tonight. She was born alive.”My fingers tightened around the doorframe.“She had dark hair,” Isabella continued, crying now. “And a small crescent-shaped birthmark beneath her left shoulder.”My hand flew to my shoulder.The mark was there.The same one my mother used to kiss whenever I complained about it as a child.Gio noticed.His eyes moved from my shoulder to my face.“Mother…” His voice cracked. “Are you saying Amelie is—”“She’s my daughter.”The room seemed to tilt.“No,” I whispered.G
The Devil’s Only Weakness Chapter six
A BRIDE FOR THE DEVIL“If my brother has your mother, then this wedding isn’t an alliance.”Gio stared at the photograph.“It’s a ransom.”I wanted to believe him wrong. I wanted an explanation that didn’t involve dead men, missing children and families built on twenty-four years of lies.But my mother was alive, and she was standing beside a man everyone believed was dead.“Call him back.”“Amelie—”“Call your brother!”“He used an untraceable number.”I laughed bitterly.“Your family has money, weapons and enough influence to frighten half of New York, but apparently finding one missing man is impossible.”His jaw tightened.“We’re leaving.”Back at the Locatelli estate, Gio led me into his father’s study.Something was missing.The photograph of his father and my mother had disappeared, along with the black folder we’d discovered earlier.Beneath the bookshelf, I noticed a gold locket.Inside was a photograph of me as a little girl.On its reverse were six words.TO MY DAUGHTER, WH
The Devil’s Only Weakness Chapter five
THE HEIR WHO NEVER DIEDFor several seconds, I forgot how to breathe.Gio stood beside me, his phone pressed against his ear, while the corridor filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood.His brother was alive.The boy who had supposedly died in a fire. The child whose funeral had taken place without a body. The man who had apparently been waiting eight years to meet me.“What was his name?” I whispered.Gio lowered his phone.“Luca.”“Did you love him?”His eyes shifted towards the dead man.“He was my brother.”“That wasn’t my question.”Silence.“Yes, Amelie. I loved him.”Something in his voice made my chest tighten. For the first time, I understood that beneath the ruthless reputation of Gio Locatelli was a man who had spent years grieving someone who might never have died.“Where is he?”Gio’s phone rang again.“They found a body outside the city. The identification papers say it’s Luca.”“Then let’s go.”“Amelie, you’re staying here.”I folded my arms.“You really need to le
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