Chapter 1 - The Master’s Return
Elena felt the pristine marble before she understood why it was so cold against her bruised knees.
The mansion’s grand foyer stretched endlessly around her like an elaborate, inescapable cage.
Massive crystal chandeliers threw heavy gold light across floors that had never once been allowed to stay dirty.
That was, at least, until her own blood began dripping slowly from a split lip she could taste far more than she could actually feel.
Her trembling hand was not resting against her battered face to comfort her injuries.
Instead, it was curled fiercely and protectively over the small, five-month curve of her stomach.
That unborn child had quickly become the only pure thing in this ruthless mafia stronghold she still trusted.
Directly above her, Beatrice Moretti slowly lowered her heavy, silver-tipped mahogany cane with a cruel smile.
The formidable older woman did not look even slightly angry about the brutal violence she had just inflicted.
She simply looked satisfied, completely wearing the expression of someone who believed she was executing righteous, necessary justice.
"A filthy servant carrying a bastard child does not deserve to live under my prestigious roof," Beatrice sneered viciously.
A heavy leather shoe violently nudged Elena's battered suitcase toward the massive front doors.
"Throw her out into the freezing storm right now," the matriarch commanded her heavily armed guards.
"If the miserable girl loses her baby in the gutter, that is strictly her own pathetic problem."
Elena absolutely refused to beg for her own worthless life.
She had long ago stopped believing that anyone in the Moretti family possessed even a single shred of human mercy.
So instead, pushing through the thick blood and the hot tears she refused to let fall, she whispered the only desperate plea that mattered.
"Please do not hurt my innocent baby."
That was the exact moment the heavy iron and wood front doors violently blew open.
The enormous, deafening sound announced the unexpected arrival of a highly dangerous man fully six hours before his scheduled flight.
The entire grand foyer went completely and utterly silent in a terrifying instant.
It was the very specific, suffocating silence of a room where everyone suddenly remembered exactly why they feared the dark.
Julian Moretti aggressively stepped into the light, his expensive dark coat completely soaked from the violent autumn rain.
His freezing, calculating eyes saw the dark purple bruises on Elena's delicate face first.
Then, his deadly gaze tracked downward to the fresh drops of crimson blood staining the marble beneath her bare feet.
His large, powerful hands slowly closed into lethal, white-knuckled fists at his sides.
Absolutely no one in the room dared to breathe, let alone attempt to speak to the furious boss.
In a voice so dangerously, deceptively calm that it was infinitely worse than screaming, he demanded an answer.
"Who in this house dared to touch her?"
The surrounding guards and servants remained completely paralyzed in silent, overwhelming terror.
Julian crossed the massive room in three terrifyingly swift strides, dropping directly to his knees beside the trembling maid.
He completely ignored the dirt and blood ruining his tailored suit as he gently placed his warm hand over hers on her stomach.
"Nobody in this miserable world will ever lay a finger on my heir again," Julian declared, sending an absolute shockwave of horror through his mother.
Beatrice’s elegant face instantly twisted into an incredibly ugly, unrecognizable mask of pure, unadulterated hatred.
"She is nothing but a filthy thief and a treacherous liar, Julian!" his mother screamed aggressively.
Beatrice marched forward and violently kicked the rusted latches of Elena’s battered suitcase open to expose her supposed crimes.
Elena gasped in pure shock as the hidden contents violently spilled out across the pristine floor.
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Instead of her simple cotton maid dresses, the bag completely opened to reveal three heavy, tightly wrapped bricks of pure cartel heroin.
Sitting right on top of the illegal drugs was a freshly severed human finger still wearing a rival family's solid gold signet ring.
