Chapter 11 - The Sacred Blood Debt
Gabriel opened a velvet box sitting beside the album.
Inside lay a heavy platinum locket.
When Gabriel opened the locket, it revealed the miniature portrait of Elena on one side and Isabella on the other.
“When the Moretti cartel attacked fifteen years ago,” Gabriel explained, his voice thick with reverence, “your mother took you and led the hit squad into the mountains to save my mother and me. Your mother faked her own death and placed you into an anonymous foster system under an assumed surname to keep the cartel from ever hunting you down.”
Tessa wept openly as the missing pieces of her broken childhood snapped into place.
Her mother hadn't abandoned her.
Her mother had sacrificed her entire life, her nobility, and her identity to protect both Tessa and the Costa bloodline.
Gabriel stepped forward and gently fastened the platinum locket around Tessa’s neck.
He took both of her hands into his large, warm palms.
“The Costa family owes a blood debt to the house of Lynn that can never be fully repaid,” Gabriel swore, looking into her eyes with burning conviction. “From this moment on, every soldier, every dollar, and every drop of blood in the Costa empire exists to protect and honor you.”
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Tessa looked into his eyes and saw no mafia don.
She saw the boy who had grown up carrying the same grief, now standing before her as her ultimate protector.
