The Mafia Boss Watched His Maid Care for His Mother in Secret—What He Did on the Ninth Day Left the Entire Estate Speechless / Chapter 9 / 20

Chapter 9 - The Shadow on the PorchTessa was awakened by a faint, metallic scraping sound outside her bedroom window.

She sat up instantly in the dark, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. The guest cottage was pitch-black, save for the faint silver moonlight filtering through the linen curtains.

Scrape. Click.

The sound came from the glass patio doors leading out to the rear olive grove.

Tessa slipped out of bed, her bare feet moving silently across the cool hardwood floor. She remembered the two armed guards posted at her front porch, but the back garden was dark and secluded.

She crept toward the kitchen counter, her hand reaching out to grip the wooden handle of a heavy chef's knife resting in the block.

Suddenly, the glass door gave a low, agonized creak as it was forced open from the outside. A tall, broad figure clad in a dark raincoat stepped into the living room, a silenced pistol raised in his gloved right hand.

Tessa backed against the kitchen counter, her fingers tightening around the knife, her breathing sharp and shallow.

The intruder took a single step toward the bedroom hallway. He didn't see her standing in the dark shadow of the kitchen archway.

"Don't move," Tessa whispered, her voice trembling but fierce as she stepped into the light, holding the knife out in a defensive posture.

The man spun around instantly, raising the silenced barrel directly at her chest.

Before he could pull the trigger, the front door of the cottage exploded inward with a deafening CRACK.

The wooden door frame splintered into pieces as Damian Costa crashed into the room like an apex predator unleashed.

In a single, fluid motion of terrifying speed and lethal grace, Damian closed the distance between himself and the intruder. He grabbed the gunman's wrist, twisting it violently downward—the sickening SNAP of breaking bone echoing through the cottage—forcing the pistol to clatter uselessly to the floor.

The intruder gasped in agony, but Damian didn't stop. He slammed the man backward onto the heavy mahogany coffee table, shattering the glass top into a thousand sparkling pieces.

Damian pinned the man down with a knee to his chest, drawing a sleek, black ceramic knife from his belt and pressing the razor-sharp edge directly against the intruder's throat.

"Who sent you?" Damian growled, his voice a guttural, terrifying roar that made the walls shake.