Chapter 5 - The Stolen Years
Adrian took a slow, incredibly heavy step forward, completely ignoring the whispering wealthy crowd.
The overwhelming, crushing reality of what he had lost hit him with the kinetic force of a freight train. He had missed her first steps. He had missed her first words. He had missed two entire years of his daughter's life because he had been too arrogant, too blind, and too consumed by his own ruthless pride to trust the woman he loved.
"She has my family's mark," Adrian said, his intense voice breaking, stripped entirely of its lethal mafia authority. He looked at Elena, his dark eyes brimming with unshed tears of agonizing regret. "She's mine, Elena. She's my daughter."
Before Elena could back away, the heavy crowd parted violently.
"Don't listen to her, Adrian!" a sharp, venomous voice shrieked over the ambient noise of the gala.
Stepping into the center of the marble floor was Victoria. The older woman wore a glittering gold evening gown, her face twisted into a mask of arrogant fury. She marched forward, pointing a manicured finger directly at Elena.
"She is a liar and a thief!" Victoria sneered, addressing the crowd and her stepson. "That child is a bastard! She probably tattooed that mark on the brat herself just to extort you! Guards, arrest this traitor immediately and throw her out of my gala!"
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Two massive, armed syndicate enforcers stepped forward from the perimeter, blindly following the matriarch’s orders, reaching their heavy hands out toward Elena.
👉 Victoria thought she still controlled the empire, but Adrian’s reaction was about to violently rewrite the hierarchy of the family.
