QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD

The sky above Florence had turned bruised and bitter by morning.

Valentina stood at the center of the estate's underground vault, surrounded by maps, photos, encrypted files—anything that could explain how the enemy had breached her most protected room.

The child was gone. And the only thing more dangerous than a mother with a gun… was a queen with nothing left to lose.

"She was never supposed to be known," Valentina muttered, voice low.

Bryan leaned against the vault door, his face drawn but quiet. "Only five people knew about her existence. Me. You. Two guards. And Niko."

Valentina's jaw tightened. "Niko's dead."

Bryan nodded. "Which leaves the guards."

"They're already in the river," Nina said, walking in, laptop under one arm, dark circles under both eyes. "They never had the intel to move the girl. She wasn't in any system. Not even my deepest grid."

Valentina turned to her sharply. "Then how the hell did The Red Circle know?"

Nina was silent for a beat. Then handed her a small, worn notebook—tattered and scorched along the edges.

"Niko's ledger. The last thing I pulled from the chapel ruins before they went up in flames."

Valentina took it slowly.

The pages were filled with code—scratched in Niko's messy, familiar hand. But one name was circled over and over in ink like blood.

ELENA.

The child's name.

Beneath it, a date. A birthmark. A location.

And a name Valentina had erased from her memory:

Dahlia Vale.

⸻

"You're shaking," Bryan said as he followed her to the north corridor. She didn't stop walking.

"I'm furious."

"She was yours, wasn't she?" he asked. "Your sister's daughter."

Valentina stopped cold.

Then turned to him. "My daughter."

Bryan froze.

A silence fell between them—thick and impossible.

"I gave her up to protect her," Valentina said quietly. "After I found out who her father was. After everything with my family started collapsing. I left her with a name, a necklace, and the hope she'd grow up clean. When I took the throne… I brought her back."

"And who's the father?"

Valentina's eyes flicked to him—but her silence said enough.

Bryan exhaled. "No."

"She was conceived before the war. Before the blood. Before the betrayal. I didn't tell you because we weren't… this."

Bryan swallowed, his voice bitter. "And now she's gone."

⸻

Meanwhile, Nina was already decoding Niko's notebook in the server room. She blinked against the screen, fingers moving fast.

There were references to offshore accounts.

Coordinates.

A symbol repeated again and again.

It wasn't the vulture.

It was the Red Circle's true insignia.

A bleeding eye.

She searched every database. Every old mafia archive. Until one match popped up from a long-sealed file.

The Bleeding Eye = Operative Codename: DAHLIA.

And beneath it: current status: embedded operative.

Nina's blood turned to ice.

"Dahlia…" she whispered. "Not a name."

A code.

A spy.

Her stomach twisted.

She picked up her burner and called Valentina.

⸻

"Tell me."

"Val…" Nina's voice broke. "Dahlia Vale never existed."

"What?"

"She wasn't a lover. Not just a woman who disappeared after birth. She was part of The Red Circle. An embedded agent sent to seduce and dismantle the Vellaro line from within."

Valentina sat down slowly.

"My daughter is half Red Circle."

"No," Nina said. "She's not just their target."

Valentina whispered, "She's their heir."

⸻

Back in the shadows of the city, Elena stood barefoot in a room filled with candlelight. A tall woman in crimson gloves approached her and gently touched her cheek.

"My beautiful child," she said.

The girl didn't cry.

She simply stared—silent. Cold. Watching.

Just like her mother.