Chapter 3 No.3

Seraphina POV

The flight to New York had been a blur of dark water, cabin pressure, and the suffocating weight of a new identity.

I had spent twelve hours staring at the passport in my lap: Seraphina Russo.

The girl in the photo looked like me, but her eyes were softer, her hair styled in a way that suggested she spent time in front of mirrors for reasons other than checking for bruising.

I arrived at the Russo Estate in Long Island just as the sun dipped below the horizon, bleeding a deep, sickly orange across the Atlantic.

The estate was a sprawling monstrosity of Renaissance architecture-marble columns, gilded gates, and manicured lawns that screamed of a minor family desperate to project the power of a dynasty.

It was a fortress made of glass and ego.

Giovanni Russo, my supposed father, stood on the grand steps.

He was a man who wore his stress in the sag of his jowls and the expensive, poorly tailored fit of his suit. He had a tight, nervous smile plastered on his face, flanked by a dozen guards who held their weapons with the casual laziness of men who had never seen a real war.

Beside him was his wife, Caterina. She was draped in unnecessary furs despite the mild evening, her face a mask of Botox and barely concealed loathing. She looked at me not as a lost daughter, but as a disease that had returned to infect her perfect, curated life.

"Seraphina," Giovanni started, stepping down the stairs with his arms open. "My girl. After all these years, the convent finally-"

He never finished the sentence. The air shattered.

The screech of high-performance tires echoed from the long driveway, followed immediately by the deafening, rhythmic roar of automatic gunfire.

A black SUV tore through the front gates, the wrought iron groaning as it was ripped from its hinges.

Two masked men leaned out the rear windows, MAC-10 submachine guns spraying the driveway with a hail of 9mm rounds.

The scene devolved into chaos instantly. Giovanni froze, his mouth hanging open, paralyzed by the kind of panic that only strikes men who have spent too long behind desks.

Caterina screamed-a high, piercing sound-and dropped to the gravel, covering her head with her fur coat. The Russo guards fumbled for their weapons, their movements slow, clumsy, and soft. One of them took a burst to the chest before he could even unsnap his holster.

Instinct took over. My mind shifted into the "Combat State"-a cold, hyper-focused reality where time seemed to dilate. I didn't dive for cover. Cover was for people who wanted to be pinned down. I advanced.

I drew the Browning M1910 from my coat in a single, fluid motion. The weight of the gun was an extension of my arm.

Pop. Pop.

Two suppressed shots.

The driver's head snapped back, a red mist painting the interior of the windshield.

The SUV swerved violently, the tires screaming as the vehicle lost its trajectory. It crashed into the estate's massive stone fountain, the sound of twisting metal and shattering stone drowning out Caterina's screams.

The shooter in the back stumbled out of the wreckage, coughing through the smoke of the deployed airbags. He raised his weapon, his finger tightening on the trigger.

I was already there.

I didn't just shoot him. I wanted the others to see.

I kicked the MAC-10 from his hands, the force of the strike audible. I grabbed him by the tactical vest, spinning him around, and drove my knee into his sternum with enough force to collapse his lung.

As he fell to his knees, gasping for air, I pressed the hot muzzle of the Browning beneath his chin.

"Who sent you?" I asked. My voice wasn't loud.

It was a dead calm that seemed to cut through the ringing silence of the courtyard.

The man choked on his own blood, his eyes wide and bulging as he stared at the "convent girl" who had just dismantled his team in six seconds. He didn't answer. He tried to reach for a backup piece in his waistband.

I didn't hesitate. I pulled the trigger.

The recoil was a familiar pulse against my palm. I stood up, wiping a single speck of blood from my cheek with the back of my hand, and turned back to my "family."

Giovanni was trembling, his hands hovering in mid-air as if he were trying to catch the reality that had just slipped away.

He was looking at me with a mixture of absolute terror and a sudden, greedy realization. He didn't see a daughter. He saw a weapon that he didn't have to pay for.

Caterina was staring at the body at my feet, her face pale with a genuine horror.

I tossed my duffel bag at the feet of a shell-shocked Russo guard who was still trying to find his safety catch.

"I'm Seraphina," I said to Giovanni, stepping over the corpse without a second glance.

"Show me the perimeter defenses. Your security is a joke, and I don't intend to die because you hired amateurs to guard your gates."

The "long-lost daughter" had arrived. And the Russo family would never be the same.