Chapter 1 - THE MAID’S WARNING
Billionaire syndicate leader Matteo Falcone returned to his secluded Hamptons estate three days ahead of schedule, having narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Sicily. The world believed him dead, and he intended to use that illusion to protect his life and seek comfort with his refined fiancée, Camilla Rossi.
Instead of an empty, peaceful home, he stepped into darkness and silence. The perimeter guards were gone, and before he could reach his private suite, a trembling figure intercepted him in the dark. It was Sofia Bennett, a quiet and observant maid on his household staff. Rather than cowering, Sofia pressed her hand against his mouth and whispered a chilling order to stay silent. She warned him that the estate was compromised, the outer guards had been slaughtered, and an ambush was waiting upstairs.
Choosing to trust the genuine panic in her eyes over his instinct to kill, Matteo followed her into the estate’s forgotten 1920s service tunnels behind a library bookcase. Sofia guided him through the dust and dark crawl spaces up toward his private study. Crouching beside an ornamental cast-iron ventilation grate, Matteo peered into his own inner sanctum. To his horror, he saw his lifelong brother-in-arms, Damian Costa, pacing the floor. Beside him sat Camilla, speaking in a calm, cold voice that shattered Matteo’s entire world. His closest ally and the woman he intended to marry were orchestrating his downfall from within his own sanctuary.
