Black Opal’s Three Tests of True Love Chapter 09

They actually believed a signature on a piece of paper would magically restore me to their obedient

ttle daughter, their doting sister, and his submissive trophy.

They had no idea that this summit was never about going home.

Sudden, heavy footsteps hammered against the corridor floor. Operatives in tactical gear burst into the suite, pinning my arms and dragging me toward the rooftop helipad.

“Let her go!” Leandro roared, lunging forward.

Alaric drew his firearm, shouting as his men stormed out behind them.

I was shoved into the cabin of an unmarked chopper that lifted off into the night sky. Within

seconds, Leandro and Alaric boarded their chase chopper, tailing us across the skyline.

The two birds engaged in a high–speed pursuit over the mountainous outskirts of Mexico City.

Gunfire ripped through the dark. Rounds chewed into the chassis of the pursuer’s aircraft, sending Leandro’s chopper spiraling out of control before it crash–landed hard across the rocky terrain.

Alaric was bleeding heavily, and Leandro couldn’t stand on his shattered leg.

A search–and–rescue bird hovered into view. Paramedics reported that both men required

immediate medevac stabilization.

Meanwhile, the chopper carrying me was fast disappearing over the ridge.

The rescue outfit had only one medical bird on site. If they stabilized Leandro and Alaric, they would lose my trail forever; if they prioritized the pursuit, both men risked bleeding out on the

mountain.

Black Opal’s voice cut through their tactical radio.

“You have one choice. Take the medevac and save your own skins, or follow the bird carrying

Odessa into the dark.”

Alaric clutched his shredded shoulder, gasping for air.

Leandro tried to claw his way upward, only to collapse as his broken knee gave out.

“Get the medics,” Alaric wheezed through gritted teeth. “We have to stay alive to find her!”

Leandro ground his molars together, offering no counter.

The medical bird touched down, and medics rushed them onto stretchers

The helicopter carrying me vanished into the clouds.

Moments later, the masked figure stepped out of the tree line.

Flanked by heavily armed private operators, Black Opal strode toward the stretchers.

“How unfortunate. You made your choice. Again.”

Leandro hauled his head up, his vision swimming with blood.

“Where… where is Odessa?”

Black Opal didn’t answer.

Instead, slender fingers reached up and unlatched the obsidian mask.

The mask slipped off.

Leandro and Alaric froze in sheer terror.

The face staring down at them was burned into their memories.

Me.

Odessa.

The very same Black Opal they had spent a desperate year trying to hunt down.

From day one, the shadowy architect behind the Bellandi syndicate was me.

The figure sitting at the head of the boardroom had been a body double. The woman dragged onto

the helicopter was another decoy.

I had walked beside them in plain sight as the assistant, watching them weigh their options, before

stepping into Black Opal’s gear once the trap snapped shut.

The phantom debts, the staged abduction, the aerial dogfight–it was all an orchestrated loyalty

trial.

A trial of absolute devotion.

Looking down at their shattered faces, a genuine smile finally touched my lips.

“I regret to inform you both.”

“You failed the test.”

Alaric clawed at the stretcher, coughing violently.

“This isn’t fair! You can’t test human hearts like this!”

I looked down at him, finding the irony almost poetic.

Smoothing down my tailored cuffs, I turned my back on them.

“Did any of you stop to ask whether it was fair, when you put my heart to the test?”

I didn’t spare them a second glance.

“Fate is never fair.”

With the thirty percent voting equity secured and Bellandi’s intelligence corridors fully leveraged,

systematically dismantled the core holdings of both the Moretti and Voss empires.

I seized control of New York’s deepwater ports, its supply chains, and its shadow networks.

The two dynasties that once looked down on me were reduced to pawns in my portfolio.

And I stepped into the light as one of the most ruthless, formidable sovereigns the city’s

underworld had ever seen.

Looking back on it now…

I suppose I really was the best heir the Moretti family could have ever asked for.