“How could I?” My jaw tightens. “You chose to live out here, off the grid. We don’t see you unless you want to be found.”
There was a time the three of us—Marcello, Valerio, and I—would take a booth at the club every Friday, the whole worldbowing beneath our feet. But life evolves. Responsibilities shift. Families come first. The crown weighs heavier every year.
“I know.” He drags a hand through his hair, the gesture exhausted, defeated. “I just… fuck.”
His eyes go to the window, to the vineyard glowing under the soft afternoon sun, and for a heartbeat I see a father instead of a man raised by blood and iron.
“What happened?” I ask.
He exhales, long and hollow. “She was leaving ballet. Luca was driving her home. There was a storm and he lost control, or so he thought. Something had been placed in the road. The car didn’t skid. It crashed exactly where they wanted it to.”
A coldness curls through my veins.
“When the vehicle stopped, they dragged them both out.”
He swallows. “They tortured Luca in front of her, trying to force him to give up the location of one of my warehouses.” His voice falters despite himself. “She was just there. Watching. For God’s sake… she’s seven.”
“We trackedher through a device hidden in her ballet bag. If I hadn’t put it there… God knows where she’d be now. When we reached her, she was covered in blood. Not hers. His.”
My stomach twists. No child should ever carry a memory like that. No father should ever have to say those words aloud.
“She doesn’t sleepunless she’s in my arms,” Marcello says, voice scraped raw. “She wakes screaming. She barely eats. She hides from everyone. My own daughter flinches when a door shuts too hard.”
The afternoon sunpours through the windows, bathing the room in warm gold, as if the world dares to pretend everythingis fine. But Marcello’s grief carves through the light, heavier than the shadows it tries to chase away.
“I know the life I inherited,” he goes on, staring past me for a moment as if looking into a world he no longer believes in. “I know the duty placed on my shoulders the day I was born. But a time comes when a man has to choose what he’ll protect—his empire or his blood.”
He turns his gaze back to me, eyes sharp with a truth I’ve avoided for years.
“Duty or heart, Matteo. Which will you choose?”
The quiet that follows is suffocating. I can hear my own pulse, steady and unsteady all at once, pounding like it’s trying to answer before I do.
“You kept your family safe,” he says. “You shut the door on Giacomo and made sure it could never be opened again. But tell me… how can you guarantee your wife and your son will stay safe? How do you protect them from the ghosts of men like him?”
I swallow hard. The truth sits on the back of my tongue—bitter, heavy, dangerous.
“I… I don’t know.”
I’ve never admitteduncertainty in front of anyone. But Marcello is not anyone. He’s a brother forged in blood and survival. “There’s no way to guarantee a leech like him stays buried. All I can do is be ready the second he tries to crawl back into the light.”
I’ve been keeping tabs on the man. Last I heard, he was seen in Belarus with some unsavory company.
Marcello exhales, slow and tired. “And that is exactly why I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live a life where my daughter’s safety depends on whether a rival syndicate decides to leave usalone. I can’t wake up every morning wondering if Marta will make it home from her Pilates class. I won’t gamble with them anymore.”
Something shifts in my chest. A warning. A realization.
“What are you saying?” My fingers tighten around my glass, knuckles whitening. “Are you leaving the brotherhood?”
He nods, steady and certain. “My forefathers will have to forgive me. That’s why I called you here. I want you to buy me out.”
My breath halts.
“You can take my supply chain. My ports. My distribution routes. My territory. Every man under my command will become yours.”
He inhales deeply,as though releasing a century of inherited oaths. “I’ll take what you give me and I’ll build a new life in Italy. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere safe. Somewhere my children can grow without learning to read danger the way we read newspapers.”
For a moment, I can’t speak. The weight of what he’s offering is staggering.
