All Chapters of The Don's Forbidden Claim: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

54 Chapters

The Rossi Estate 2

"You don't know what I am." His voice cracked, and for the first time, I saw the grief beneath the rage. "I was raised to inherit an empire that was never mine. I was trained to be a Don for a family I don't even belong to. Everyone I've ever trusted has lied to me.""I'm not lying to you. I only found out we share a mother four hours ago. But I'm standing here anyway, telling you the truth. That folder isn't power—it's poison. The moment you release it, you're not bringing Dante down. You're proving you were just as much a pawn as the rest of us."He stared at me, and for a single breath, I thought he might hand the folder over. Then Isabella lunged for the fireplace—a hidden panel, a recessed button I hadn't seen—and an alarm shrieked through the mansion. The lights cut out. In the chaos of darkness and shouting, I heard Marco's voice screaming in my ear."Essa, move! There's a secondary exit in the study—she's running!"The emergency lights flickered on, casting everything in a blo

The Surrender

The text glowed on my phone, and Dante's silence was the only answer I needed. The muscle in his jaw twitched, a tiny betrayal of the calm he was fighting to keep. I stepped closer, my boots crunching on frozen grass, and held the screen up so he couldn't look away."What did my mother bury?""I don't know." His voice was raw, stripped of the Don's command. "I swear to you, Essa. The garden, the evidence Alessio mentioned—I have no idea what's buried there. But the night Isabella died…" He paused, and his throat moved as he swallowed. "I told you I thought she was dead. I believed it for eight years. But I never saw her die. The paramedics worked on her, then suddenly she was gone. Official report said she passed in the ambulance. My father handled everything. If she was alive all along, it was hidden from me too.""You're telling me you had no idea she might have survived?""I'm telling you I've replayed that night a thousand times, and I've never been sure of anything except the gui

Disappeared again???

The cottage looked smaller than it had two hours ago, crouched low against the trees like an animal waiting to be shot. Marco's team had set up floodlights in my mother's garden, their harsh white glow turning the rose bushes into jagged silhouettes. The hole Lila had dug gaped near the back fence, a dark mouth in the earth, and the smell hit me before I reached the gate—damp soil and rot and something metallic that my brain refused to name.Dante's hand pressed against my lower back, steadying me. "You don't have to look. I can identify the body myself.""It's my mother's garden. Whatever she buried, I need to see it." My voice came out stronger than I felt. The knot in my stomach had been tightening since Lila's call dropped, and every step toward that hole made it worse.Lila sat on the back porch with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and dirt caked under her fingernails. Her face was pale, her eyes red from crying. When she saw me, she stood up so fast the blanket fell. "Es

The woman he loved

I read the line again, my pulse roaring in my ears. Trust no one. Especially not the woman Dante used to love.The words conjured Isabella's face immediately—her hollow eyes in the Rossi estate study, her trembling hands clutching the false testimony folder, her cold laugh when she'd called me the mistress. My mother's letter wasn't warning me about Sophia Rossi, the jealous ex-lover who'd been sitting in a detention cell since the warehouse raid. It was warning me about Isabella Moretti. The wife Dante had mourned for eight years. The woman who was right now sitting in a secure room under Marco's guard, waiting to be interrogated."Your mother says Isabella helped bury Vincent Hale." Lila's voice was barely a whisper. "But she was supposed to be dead when that body went into the ground.""She wasn't dead. She was Alessio's prisoner. And if she helped him bury the medical examiner, she's not just a victim." Dante's jaw was granite, his eyes fixed on the letter. "She's an accomplice."

At the mansion

The old Moretti mansion loomed at the end of the winding drive, its windows dark except for a single light flickering in the east wing. Marco killed the headlights and the convoy rolled to a silent stop behind the iron gates, which stood wide open. That open gate was wrong. It meant Greta wanted us to follow, or she didn't care if we did."I count one heat signature." Marco's voice crackled through my earpiece. "East wing, second floor. That was Lorenzo's private study. Whatever she's looking for, it's in there."Dante stared at the mansion, and I saw the weight of memory pressing down on him. This was the house where he'd grown up, where his mother had died, where his father had ruled with iron fists and cold silences. The house where Greta had tucked him into bed and whispered stories and pretended to love him while feeding secrets to his brother."She knows we're coming." He checked his weapon, his movements sharp and precise. "She left the gate open for a reason.""Then we don't g

My freaking brother

Enzo's message glowed on my screen, and the fragile peace I'd felt seconds ago shattered. My mother hadn't run. She'd been taken. I read the words three times, my thumb hovering over the reply button while my mind raced through every possible enemy who'd want Sarah Kane silenced.Dante leaned over my shoulder, his jaw tightening as he scanned the text. "He says he knows who took her. Ask him where he is."I typed the question with shaking fingers. The reply came almost instantly, as if Enzo had been waiting with his phone already in his hand. The old boathouse on Pier 14. Come alone, Essa. I'm serious this time. They're watching me too."He's been saying 'come alone' since the Rossi estate." Dante's voice was flat, but I caught the undercurrent of frustration. "Every time you do, you end up with a gun pointed at your head.""He also dropped the folder and walked away when he could have destroyed you." I turned to face him, the phone still clutched in my grip. "He's trying. After every

The Devil Unchained

Alessio Moretti stood on the warehouse roof like he'd been invited to a party. His silver hair caught the dawn light, and his smile was the same one he'd worn in the penthouse lobby—amused, patient, utterly certain of his own victory.Dante's weapon was already aimed at his brother's chest. "How did you get out?""The same way I've done everything for the past twenty years. Planning." Alessio spread his hands, showing he was unarmed. "You found Greta. Congratulations. But did you really think a woman who spent thirty years as my eyes and ears was my only asset? I have people in the federal transfer system. People in the guard rotation. People who owe me favors you can't even imagine."Marco's men fanned out across the roof, their weapons raised. My mother was still behind me, her breath ragged, her hands shaking. Enzo stood frozen near the ventilation shaft, his knuckles white around the pipe he'd used to save us."You're outnumbered and unarmed." Dante's voice was ice. "Whatever you'

Armed with bombs

"Armed with what?" Dante's voice cut through the chaos on the roof, and every man within earshot went still.Marco's response crackled through my earpiece, grim and urgent. "Explosives. Enough to bring down the whole east wing. She's barricaded herself in the basement control room and she's asking for you, boss. Says she'll detonate if anyone else comes down."The weight of those words pressed against my chest. Isabella had followed us from the compound. She'd watched us rescue my mother, watched Enzo fight for us, watched Alessio get captured on this roof. And now she was in the basement with a bomb, demanding an audience with the husband she'd betrayed."I'm going down there." Dante holstered his weapon, his face unreadable."She tried to frame you for murder. She helped Alessio bury a body." I grabbed his arm before he could move toward the roof hatch. "If she's cornered and desperate—""Then she needs to see someone who isn't holding a gun. Someone who knew her before all of this.

Alessio's Matron

"Alessio answered to someone?" Dante's voice was sharp as broken glass. "That's impossible. My brother doesn't answer to anyone. He'd rather die than kneel."I turned the phone toward him, watching his face as he read the message again. The dawn light caught the tight set of his jaw, the way his throat moved when he swallowed. Whoever this woman was, the idea that Alessio had a master terrified him more than any gun."I thought we'd won." My voice came out smaller than I wanted. "Alessio captured, Isabella disarmed, Greta in custody. I thought it was over.""It's never over with my family." He handed the phone back and turned to Marco, who was coordinating the prisoner transport on the dock below. "I need everything we have on Alessio's financial backers. Shell companies, offshore accounts, property holdings. Someone's been funding his war from the shadows, and I want to know who."Marco nodded and disappeared down the ladder. The roof suddenly felt too exposed, the golden sunrise too

Twins

"You sold more than one child?" I turned toward my mother, the photograph shaking in my grip. She was still sitting on the overturned crate, the dawn light harsh on her bruised face, and when her eyes met mine, I saw the answer before she spoke a single word.Enzo stood frozen beside her. "Mom. What is she talking about?"My mother's hands trembled in her lap. "I wanted to tell you. Both of you. I tried to write it in the letter, but I couldn't find the words. Every time I tried, I saw their faces.""Their faces." I stepped closer, the phone still clutched in my hand. "You sold Enzo first. I know that. But the caption says I'm not the first child you sold. Who else?"She closed her eyes, and the tears that slipped down her cheeks were decades old. "I was twenty-three when I had Enzo. Lorenzo's people took him three days after he was born. I thought that was the end of it—the one terrible choice I'd have to live with forever. But two years later, I found out I was pregnant again. With

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