But nothing prepared him for the little blonde girl who suddenly climbed onto his lap during a meeting with five powerful crime bosses.

“Daddy, stop moving!” she ordered, sticking pink princess stickers across his face. “I’m making you pretty!”

Every man around the table froze.

Luca slowly lowered his gaze to the child. “Sweetheart, who told you I was your daddy?”

The girl smiled, revealing a missing front tooth.

“Mommy did. She said you’re supposed to buy my milk, but you’ve been gone for a very long time.”

A strange ache тιԍнтened Luca’s chest.

The girl introduced herself as Emma. When she handed him a crumpled pH๏τograph of a woman holding a newborn, the world seemed to stop.

Elena.

The only woman he had ever loved.

Three years earlier, Elena had vanished without a trace. Luca had searched every corner of the country, interrogated everyone who might have known her whereabouts, and nearly started a war trying to find her. Eventually, his most trusted adviser, Vincent, had delivered the devastating news that Elena was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Yet here was her daughter, sitting in his lap with Elena’s golden curls and familiar eyes.

Then Emma showed him a tiny silver medallion hanging around her neck.

Luca pulled a matching half from beneath his shirt. Elena had given it to him on the night they promised never to abandon each other.

The two pieces fit perfectly.

“You’re my daughter,” he whispered, his voice breaking.

Emma threw her arms around his neck.

“Does that mean I can have milk now?”

For the first time in years, the ruthless Mafia king laughed through his tears. He ordered his men to bring Emma whatever she wanted and promised himself that nobody would ever hurt her.

But Vincent stepped forward, his expression carefully controlled.

“Boss, this could be a trap. We need to investigate the child before you trust her.”

Emma immediately frowned at the stuffed bunny tucked beneath her arm.

“Bunny says you’re bad!”

She squeezed its little paw.

A faint click sounded from inside the toy. Then a woman’s trembling voice filled the room.

“Luca, if you’re hearing this, Vincent betrayed us. He stole your money, forged your signature, and threatened to kill me. I had to disappear to protect our daughter. Please, Luca… protect Emma.”

It was Elena’s voice.

Luca’s expression turned terrifyingly cold.

Slowly, he looked at Vincent, the man who had stood beside him for more than a decade. The man who had comforted him when Elena disappeared. The man who had convinced him to stop searching because there was nothing left to find.

“Is there anything you’d like to tell me?” Luca asked quietly.

Vincent said nothing.

Then Emma pointed at the expensive gold watch on his wrist.

“Daddy, that’s Mommy’s watch! She said there’s a secret inside.”

Luca recognized the engraving on its back.

Forever yours, Elena.

He ordered Vincent to remove it.

Instead, Vincent reached inside his jacket.

Five guns rose instantly, their muzzles trained on him. Vincent realized he had nowhere to run, but his eyes remained fixed on the door.

“Tell me what happened to Elena,” Luca demanded.

Vincent’s composure finally shattered.

“You don’t understand. Everything I did was to protect this family!”

“Then why did you tell me the woman I loved was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ?”

Before Vincent could answer, Emma clutched Luca’s shirt.

“Mommy said the watch would tell you who hurt her. She said not to let the bad man take it.”

Luca took the watch from Vincent’s trembling hand. One of his men discovered a hidden compartment beneath the watch mechanism. Inside was a tiny memory card and a folded piece of paper bearing a name Luca had never expected to see.

His own older brother, Anthony Moretti, who had supposedly died ten years earlier.

Luca stared at the name, struggling to understand. Vincent had betrayed him, but someone else had orchestrated Elena’s disappearance—and that person might have been responsible for the destruction of his family long before Elena ever vanished.

“Where is she?” Luca demanded.

Vincent finally looked up, terror replacing every trace of arrogance.

“She’s alive,” he whispered. “But if you find her, you’ll start a war that will destroy everything you own.”

Luca pulled Emma closer and kissed the top of her head.

“Then let it burn.”

For four years, he had believed he had lost everything that mattered. Now he had a daughter to protect, a traitor to expose, and a woman he had never stopped loving to find.

But as his men prepared to examine the memory card, Emma quietly asked a question that made his blood run cold.

“Daddy… if Mommy is alive, why did she tell me that you were the one who hurt her?”

Luca went completely still.

Because suddenly, he understood that Vincent might not be the only person hiding the truth.

And the next secret he uncovered could destroy not only his empire, but the family he had just found.