His Own Men Tried to Execute Him in the Driveway — Until the Maid's 6-Year-Old Daughter Slipped the Silver Wolf Necklace into His Hand

Lily didn't hesitate. She crawled through the thick hedges and pushed open an old, rusted iron grate hidden behind the fountain. It led to the estate's forgotten Prohibition-era wine cellar—a labyrinth of stone tunnels that Alessandro hadn't used in a decade.

Alessandro followed her into the dark, damp tunnel, securing the heavy iron grate behind them just as the guards reached the fountain above.

"My mom found the secret room yesterday," Lily whispered, using a small flashlight to guide them through the dusty wine racks. "She was trying to find a broom. But she heard crying behind the wall. When she looked through the crack, she saw the lady with the silver necklace."

Alessandro’s heart hammered against his ribs. "Who locked her in there, Lily? Did your mother see who was guarding the door?"

"It was the lady with the red nails," Lily answered innocently. "The one who lives in your house now."

Alessandro stopped dead in his tracks.

The lady with the red nails. Valentina.

Valentina was Sofia’s older sister. After Sofia’s "death," Valentina had seamlessly stepped into Alessandro’s life, playing the grieving sister, comforting him, and eventually moving into the estate as his new fiancée. She had just finalized the paperwork to become the co-owner of his massive syndicate empire.

The cinematic realization crashed over Alessandro with suffocating force.

Valentina hadn't been comforting him. She had staged the car crash. She had bribed the coroner to put a fake body in the casket. She had locked her own sister in the catacombs beneath his feet for three years, stealing her life, her husband, and her empire, while slowly poisoning Alessandro's lieutenants to stage today's assassination.