The Lost Heiress

Maria-May Rebecca Danielson had spent almost her entire life believing she belonged to no one. At two years old, she had been found alone beside a quiet country road. She had no identification, no belongings that explained where she had come from, and nobody ever came forward to claim her. The only thing found with her was a small silver necklace engraved with a single letter: Q. The authorities searched for her family, but every lead went nowhere. Eventually, the little girl was placed in an orphanage, where she was given the surname Danielson and grew up surrounded by unanswered questions. Who were her parents? Why had she been left on that road? And why had nobody spent the last sixteen years looking for her? At eighteen, Maria-May had stopped expecting answers. She was preparing to leave the orphanage and build a life of her own. She had little money, no family and only a battered suitcase containing everything she owned. But Maria-May was wrong about one very important thing. She hadn't been abandoned because nobody wanted her. She had disappeared. And somewhere far away stood an enormous estate belonging to the Quinet family—one of the most feared and powerful mafia families in the world. For sixteen years, the Quinets had believed their youngest heiress was dead. Her disappearance had caused alliances to collapse, old enemies to resurface and members of the family to turn against one another. They had searched for the missing child for years. Eventually, even they had stopped believing she could still be alive. Until one rainy afternoon, Maria-May walked into a small jewellery shop and placed her childhood necklace on the counter. The elderly jeweller picked it up. His expression changed instantly. "Where did you get this?" Maria-May frowned. "I've always had it." The man's hands began to shake. He turned the necklace over and stared at a tiny marking Maria-May had never noticed before. A crown surrounded by five stars. The jeweller slowly looked back at her. "What did you say your name was?" "Maria-May Danielson." He went completely pale. Because eighteen years earlier, he had made that necklace himself. And the name engraved inside it hadn't been Danielson. It had been: Maria-May Rebecca Quinet.