Todos los capítulos de The Don's Forbidden Claim: Capítulo 71 - Capítulo 80

Chapter 72: The Ghost and the Girl"You're not alive. You're not dead. What the hell are you?"Sarah smiled, and it was the saddest thing I'd ever seen. "I'm a mother who refused to leave her children. When I walked into that energy at St. Michael's, I didn't die. I became something else. A guardian. A ghost. A presence that exists between worlds." She gestured toward the crib. "Lyra needed me. So I stayed."I stared at the little girl, at her dark hair and storm-gray eyes. She was beautiful. She was perfect. And she was looking at me like she'd known me her whole life."Mama," she said again, reaching for me with tiny hands. "I missed you."My heart cracked open. I crossed the room and lifted her from the crib, holding her against my chest. She was warm. She was real. She smelled like baby powder and something else, something ancient and familiar. The same scent that clung to Lucian's presence inside me."How is this possible?" I whispered. "How is she here? How is she mine?""The Or

"You're the master? You've been playing me this whole time?"Natalia stood across from me, her expression unreadable. The family had gathered around us, weapons still drawn, faces full of shock and anger. Lyra clung to my leg, her small body trembling. And Sarah's ghost had faded, leaving only the echo of her final words."I've been playing everyone," Natalia said quietly. "Since the beginning. Since before you were born.""You were created to replace me. You were supposed to be the enemy." My voice was shaking. "You came to the council. You confessed. You chose us.""I chose to survive." Natalia's eyes were cold, empty. "That's what I've always done. That's what I was created to do. The Order wanted a perfect heir. Ophelia wanted a weapon. But I wanted something else. I wanted power. Real power. Not borrowed from men who thought they owned me. Power that was mine."Dante stepped forward, his weapon aimed at her chest. "You've been working with Cornelius this whole time.""I've been u

"You're telling me my blood is the weapon? That I'm the thing I've been fighting against?"Dante's arms tightened around me, but I barely felt them. The words Natalia had spoken before she died were still echoing in my skull, poisoning everything I thought I knew about myself. The Order wasn't an organization. It was a bloodline. And I was part of it."We don't know if she was telling the truth," Dante said, his voice steady despite the chaos swirling around us. "She was a liar. A manipulator. Everything she said could have been designed to break you.""Or it could have been the one true thing she ever said." I pulled back, looking at him, at the family gathered around us. Lyra was in Enzo's arms, her tiny face peaceful in sleep. Lucian's presence was quiet in my mind, but I could feel his fear, his confusion. He didn't understand what was happening any more than I did."The bloodline theory makes sense," Marco said quietly. "The Order has been around for centuries. Longer than any fa

"There's something you're not telling me. Something about what you saw when Lyra opened her eyes."Dante's voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of a man who'd spent decades reading people. We were in the back of the armored SUV, heading north toward the mountains. The family followed in a convoy behind us. Lyra slept in Enzo's arms in the vehicle ahead. Lucian's presence was restless in my mind, a constant hum of fear and hope.I stared out the window, watching the city fade into forest. "I saw the Serpent. Not the one inside Lyra. The original. The one that's been waiting for a body. It looked at me through her eyes. And it smiled."Dante's hand tightened around mine. "Then we're not just fighting the original Serpents. We're fighting the thing that created them.""The thing that cursed them." I turned to face him, my heart heavy. "Sarah said the original Serpents were cursed by something they did. Something terrible. What if the Serpent isn't just a soul? What if it's a punish

"You want me to kill my own daughter? Is that what you're asking?"The guardian's eyes burned with ancient fire, its shifting form pulsing with something that might have been sympathy or might have been hunger. We stood in the heart of the tomb, the single flame casting shadows that danced like living things. Lyra was in Dante's arms, her small face pressed against his shoulder. Enzo and Elara flanked us, weapons drawn. Marco's men guarded the entrance."I'm not asking you to kill anyone," the guardian said, its voice like stones grinding together. "I'm telling you what the curse requires. The firstborn of the cursed bloodline must give their life. That is the only way to free the others.""Then find another way." Dante's voice was ice, but I could feel the heat of his fury radiating off him. "My daughter is three years old. She's innocent. She hasn't done anything to deserve this.""Innocence is irrelevant. The curse doesn't care about innocence. It only cares about balance. A life f