My Daughter Recognized Her Missing Mother’s Bracelet on a Maid—Then the Woman Said She’d Been Told Her Baby Died.

The thirty rival enforcers in the cathedral raised their weapons, locking their sights onto Dominic and his men. The air inside the sacred hall grew suffocatingly thick with lethal tension.

"Stand down, Dominic!" Arthur Vance shouted, holding up the legal folder like a shield. "The board has already reviewed Isabella's medical records! Maisie is an illegitimate child stolen from a common maid! She has no legal claim to the Bellaro estate!"

Dominic didn't flinch. He reached into his tuxedo jacket, pulled out the digital tablet containing Dr. Harrison's verified DNA reports, and tossed it flat onto the marble altar rail.

"The DNA report is verified by three independent laboratories, Arthur," Dominic stated coldly. "Maisie is the biological daughter of Elena Hart."

"That proves my point!" Arthur sneered, a triumphant grin touching his pale face. "A maid's child cannot inherit under the 1950 charter!"

Dominic pulled the second document from his jacket—the yellowed founding charter bearing his father's wax seal—and set it beside the tablet.

"Read Section Seven, Arthur," Dominic commanded softly.

Arthur hesitated, his hands shaking as he picked up the ancient parchment. He scanned the calligraphy, his eyes widening into circles of pure, unadulterated horror as he reached the bloodline clause.

"This... this is impossible..." Arthur stammered, his voice dropping into a desperate whisper. "Elena Hart... is Thomas Hart's daughter?!"

The seven syndicate bosses in the pews gasped, several of them stepping forward to read the document over Arthur's shoulder.

"Thomas Hart's bloodline?" the senior coalition dean breathed, looking at Elena in profound reverence. "The original co-founding dynasty of the eastern territory?"

"Yes," Dominic announced, his voice carrying absolute authority across the cathedral. "Which means Maisie is not only my biological daughter—she is the absolute, unchallengeable sovereign heir of both the Bellaro and Hart empires."

Vivienne, still handcuffed to the stone pillar, shrieked in wild, hysterical rage. "Shoot him! Shoot them all! Don't listen to his paperwork!"

Arthur Vance realized his entire multi-billion-dollar scheme had crumbled into dust. In a moment of wild, cowardly desperation, Arthur reached into his coat, pulled a concealed snub-nosed revolver, and aimed it directly at seven-year-old Maisie!

"If I can't have the empire, nobody gets it!" Arthur screamed.

CRACK!

Before Arthur could pull the trigger, a single, precise shot echoed through the cathedral.

Dominic had drawn his heavy sidearm with blinding speed. The round struck Arthur's wrist, sending the revolver spinning across the marble floor as Arthur collapsed onto his knees, clutching his bleeding hand in agony.

Frank and the Bellaro enforcers moved in instantly, disarming the rival syndicate guards before a single shot could be returned.