The morning after Luca showed her the truth about her father’s death, Aria woke to a silence that felt heavier than any scream. She lay in bed staring at the ceiling, her body still and her mind anything but. The world as she knew it had shifted in a single night, the villain she’d hated for years was innocent, and the uncle who’d sworn to protect her had orchestrated her father’s death. But that was only the beginning. Luca had left her alone deliberately that morning, giving her the space she needed. Yet the envelope on his desk still called to her, not for what she had already read, but for what she hadn’t. There had been more in those files, more than betrayal and bloodshed. She remembered glimpsing a photograph she didn’t recognize and a document with her mother’s name on it. And now, she needed to know everything. The study was bathed in soft morning light when she entered, the rain finally gone, leaving behind a clean chill in the air. The documents from last night still lay scattered across Luca’s mahogany desk. Her father’s signature. Vittorio’s betrayal. And tucked beneath it all, the sealed folder she hadn’t dared touch before. Her mother’s name was written across the tab in bold black ink: Vanessa Conti. Aria hesitated, her heart thundering. She had so few memories of her mother, a soft laugh, the scent of jasmine, lullabies hummed in a language she hadn’t known. She had died when Aria was four, taken by illness, or so Vittorio had always told her. But now, after last night’s revelations, even that truth was suspect. With trembling hands, she opened the folder. The first thing she saw was a birth certificate, Italian, old, edges yellowed with age. Her mother’s name was there, but beside it, under "Father," was one that froze the blood in Aria’s veins. She knew that name. Everyone in their world did. Alessandro Conti wasn’t just a mafia patriarch, he was the patriarch and the man who once ruled Europe’s underworld with an iron fist. His empire stretched across continents, a shadow network of power that dwarfed even the Deluca and Valencia families combined. And then he vanished decades ago, withdrawing from the public eye after a bloody succession war that left half the continent’s families in ruins. Her mother... was his daughter. "No," Aria whispered, her pulse hammering. "That’s not possible." ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✶𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲✶𝗻𝗲𝘁 But the next pages left no room for doubt. A marriage certificate, her mother’s name again, tied to her father’s. A handwritten letter from Alessandro himself, blessing their union despite the political risk. And a final document, a sealed decree, bearing the Conti crest. The words blurred as she read them once, twice, three times. Alessandro Conti had left everything, the family estate, the controlling shares of his business fronts, the shadow empire itself, to Vanessa and her heirs. The folder slipped from her trembling fingers and landed on the floor with a soft thud. Luca’s voice pulled her from the spiral, and she turned to see him standing in the doorway, concern etched into every line of his face. He crossed the room quickly, his eyes darting from her pale face to the papers scattered across the floor. "What happened?" he asked, kneeling beside her. She swallowed hard, pointing to the documents. "My mother... she was Alessandro Conti’s daughter." Luca froze, the weight of the name hitting him too. Slowly, he lifted the will and scanned its contents. His brows shot up. "This... this changes everything." "It says his empire passes to her heirs," Aria whispered, her voice shaking. "That means me." Luca set the papers down and reached for her hands, grounding her. "Aria, do you understand what this means? The Conti network is older and more powerful than any family still standing. If this will is still valid and it looks like it is, you’re not just a Valencia heir. You’re the rightful Donna of an empire bigger than mine." The room tilted. She pulled her hands away, pacing across the carpet as a thousand thoughts crashed through her mind. "Why didn’t anyone tell me? Why did Vittorio keep this hidden?" "Because if the truth got out," Luca said grimly, "you wouldn’t have just inherited the Valencia name. You’d have become the single most powerful figure in the criminal underworld. Every family allies, rivals and even mine would have either tried to control you or kill you." "And Vittorio..." Aria’s voice hardened as the pieces fell into place. "He killed my father to keep that power from ever reaching me, why would he be so wicked." Luca nodded slowly. "If your father and mother had lived, they could have united the Valencia name with Conti’s empire. They would have ended the Council’s reign. Vittorio couldn’t risk that." Aria pressed her palms to her temples, trying to slow the chaos in her head. Her whole life, she had believed she was powerless, an orphan raised on lies, the daughter of a man gunned down in a pointless feud. But now she saw the truth: she was born into two dynasties, heir to something far larger than she’d ever imagined. And that bloodline, that destiny, terrified her. "I don’t want this," she said suddenly, her voice cracking. "I don’t want empires or power. I just wanted answers." Luca rose and crossed to her, cupping her face gently in his hands. "Aria, listen to me. You don’t have to become anything you don’t want to be. But this truth, your bloodline, it isn’t a curse. It’s a shield. It means you’re not just a pawn in someone else’s game anymore. You’re the board." She looked up at him, her chest tightening. "Do you think people will come after me now?" "They will," he said honestly. "And some already are. Vittorio isn’t the only one who knows the truth, the Council buried it once, and they’ll try again. But this time, they’ll have to go through me." Something fierce flickered in his eyes, and for a moment she saw not the man she’d fallen in love with, but the Don, the ruthless leader who commanded armies and shattered enemies. Only this time, all that power was standing with her, not against her. She took a deep breath, her pulse beginning to steady. "If I claim this... if I step into what I am... everything changes." "Yes," Luca said softly. "It changes everything. For you. For me. For all of them." "And for us?" she whispered. Luca’s hands slid down to her shoulders, anchoring her. "For us, it means we stop reacting and start leading. Together." The word settled in her chest like a heartbeat. Together. For the first time, the future didn’t feel like a storm rushing toward her. It felt like a door she could choose to walk through. She returned to the desk and stared down at the documents again. Alessandro Conti’s signature stared back at her, bold and commanding even decades later. She traced her fingers over the ink, her thoughts suddenly shifting from fear to something sharper, resolve. "My mother died trying to keep me safe," she murmured. "My father died trying to change the world. And Vittorio... he built his empire on their graves." "And now," Luca said, stepping up behind her, "you can take it all back." Aria turned to face him, a new fire kindling in her chest. "Then we start there. We expose Vittorio. We tear down the Council. And when the dust settles, I decide what happens to the Conti empire, not them." Luca smiled, pride and something deeper shining in his eyes. "There’s my queen." Her heart skipped at the word, but she didn’t look away. For once, she felt worthy of it. Not because of who Luca was or what he offered her, but because of what she carried in her blood. The world had stolen her choices from the moment she was born. Now, for the first time, she had the chance to take them back. "Then it’s time," she said quietly. "Time they all remember who I am." Luca nodded. "Aria Valencia -Conti." The name rolled off his tongue like prophecy, powerful, inevitable. And though the weight of it pressed heavy on her shoulders, it didn’t feel like a burden anymore. It felt like destiny. The fire in the hearth crackled to life as if in agreement, casting a warm glow across the room. Outside, the clouds were breaking, letting slivers of sunlight pierce through the gray. And inside, Aria stood taller than she ever had before, the ghosts of her past no longer chains but wings. The truth about her lineage had shattered the girl she’d been. But from the shards, something new was being forged, not just a Donna and not just an heir... but a woman who would no longer be written into someone else’s story. And this time, she would write it herself.