The private jet cut through the night like a silver bullet, silent but deadly. Below, the lights of Italy glittered like broken glass, and above, the cabin was drenched in a charged stillness no luxury could mask.
Valentina sat in her leather seat, spine straight, jaw tight.
Lupo sat across from her, watching her with the simmering caution of a man expecting to be bitten.
She finally spoke. "Tell me what the Blood Inheritance Pact is."
His eyes flicked toward Alejandro, who sat near the cockpit, pretending not to listen but Lupo knew better. Alejandro didn't pretend anything.
Valentina crossed her legs, slow, deliberate. "Now, Lupo."
He exhaled through his nose. No amusement. No smirk.
Just surrender.
"It's not a contract," he began. "It's a blood-coded lineage pact created by three original cartels Cruz, Moretti, and Ricci. It was supposed to keep balance after the Silent War."
"I know that much," Valentina snapped. "Everyone in the underworld does. What don't they know?"
Lupo's gaze hardened.
"Your mother was Ricci."
Silence fell like a bomb.
Valentina blinked.
"No," she said. "She was Elena Montoya de la Cruz. Spanish. Civilian."
"She was also heir to the Ricci dynasty. The last blood-born daughter. That's why Arturo married her. Not for love. For power. And when she died, that legacy transferred to you."
Valentina's hands trembled in her lap. She curled them into fists.
"You're lying."
"I wish I was."
"Then why did no one tell me?"
"Because the inheritance isn't just political. It's sealed in blood. Literal blood."
She looked at him, her voice cold.
"Elaborate."
Lupo leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
"When you turn twenty-five, the pact activates. Every Ricci-descendant is genetically coded into the original scroll. Once you sign the seal in Venice"
"Which I never agreed to."
"Once you sign it," he continued, ignoring her fury, "every estate, account, offshore weapon cache, and generational alliance under Ricci control becomes yours. Including the fallen branches. Including the debts. Including the enemies."
"And if I don't sign?"
He didn't blink. "Then the Morettis try to marry you into it. Or kill you."
She stood.
"I'm not property."
"I never said you were."
"Then why the games, Lupo? Why kiss me? Why act like, like this is anything but manipulation?"
Lupo stood too.
"Because I didn't plan to fall for you."
The cabin went still.
The hum of the jet.
The distant thunder outside.
The roaring in her ears.
"You think this is love?" she hissed. "You touched me knowing I was leverage. Knowing your brother"
"My brother doesn't deserve you," Lupo growled. "And we both know he'll burn your crown just to wear it himself."
Valentina shoved him back.
"I don't need saving."
"I know."
"I don't need protection."
"I know."
"I need the truth."
He looked at her then stripped of charm, stripped of menace. Just a man drowning in the weight of bloodlines and forbidden want.
"I'll follow you to Venice," he said, voice low. "But after that, Valentina you choose. Sign it and become queen or burn it and become mine."
She stared at him, the air between them crackling like static.
Then she turned, fists clenched, rage and heartbreak tangled behind her ribs.
In her chest, something ancient stirred.
Not just vengeance.
Legacy.
And somewhere, deep in the past, a mother's secret waited to be unearthed.