THE MAFIA BOSS CLAIMED ME AT HIS RIVAL'S GALA AFTER MY FIANCÉ PUBLICLY PROPOSED TO AN HEIRESS—BUT AS WE WALKED OUT, DANIEL FELL TO HIS KNEES AND BEGGED, “MR. MERCER, PLEASE DON'T TAKE THE TRUE FOUNDER'S DAUGHTER.”

Three days later, the grand assembly hall of the High Syndicate Council in downtown Minneapolis convened for an extraordinary tribunal.

The circular, wood-paneled amphitheater was filled with seventy syndicate bosses, regional logging barons, and federal trade liaisons from across the United States and Canada.

Seated at the center of the high tribunal table was Elder Don Carmine Barzini—the eighty-two-year-old dean of the Northern Council, leaning upon his carved ivory cane.

Nathaniel Mercer and I walked down the central marble aisle together, our footsteps echoing with absolute, undisputed sovereignty.

I wore an exquisite, custom-tailored navy silk gown that accentuated the antique sapphire necklace resting upon my collarbone.

Walking beside me, dressed in a sharp three-piece bespoke suit with his health fully restored, was my sister’s chief physician, Dr. Chen, accompanied by seventy-year-old Arthur Henderson.

Don Carmine Barzini rose to his feet, adjusting his spectacles as he looked down at the documents spread across the tribunal desk.

“Before this council,” Carmine’s deep, resonant voice boomed through the vaulted chamber, “we formally record the final judgment against the Houses of Reeves and Cross.”

He pointed to the federal indictments and the original 1994 charter.

“Under the evidence certified by the High Tribunal of Zurich, Marcus Reeves, Daniel Reeves, Victor Cross, and Madeline Cross stand convicted of high treason, vehicular homicide, the murder of Arthur Blackridge, and corporate embezzlement totaling thirty-two billion dollars.”

Carmine banged his heavy wooden gavel onto the marble block with a thunderous crack.

“The Houses of Reeves and Cross are hereby declared *Extinctus*! All timber reserves, commercial shipping docks, and corporate charters are transferred permanently, unconditionally, and irrevocably to Clara Blackridge and Nathaniel Mercer!”

The entire assembly of seventy syndicate lords stood as one, erupting into a deafening, standing ovation that shook the stained-glass windows of the hall.

Carmine turned his gaze toward me, bowing his silver head in profound, unprecedented reverence.

“And to Miss Clara Blackridge, the High Council decrees the historic title of *Regina del Nord*—Sovereign Queen of the Northern Forests. Her word is law across seventy thousand square miles of territory!”

I looked out over the sea of powerful men bowing before me, my heart swelling with pride for the father and mother who had given their lives so that I could stand tall.