"Here, Edoardo confirms he will keep La Famiglia passivein exchange for the Leonardo favor. If you look at the dates, they all line up with Don Leonardo's death."
The room erupts into angry whispers.
"That’s taken out of context!" Edoardo shouts. "I was forced! They coerced me!"
Raf lifts one brow. "By giving you the power you always wanted?"
Edoardo’s mouth opens, closes. He has no answer.
Raf looks around the table. "I call a voto di sfiducia—a vote of no confidence—like Jacomo DeLuna did a year ago, before he paid with his life for it." Another slide appears, bearing a text. From Edoardo to Carlos Orsi, time-stamped a month before Carlos shot Jacomo.Get rid of Jacomo. This text from Edoardo to Carloshad been intercepted and duplicated by Aurelio and swiped by Nico.
Toni looks stricken, even though he had already known about it for a few days, ever since he and the others plowed through Nico's thumb drive.
Raf's gaze challenges every man in the room, "I demand the removal of Edoardo Zanello as Don."
Gustave slams his fist down. "I voteagainst!"
"Of course you do," I say, finally rising.
All eyes are on me now as I take my turn under the spotlight. Gustave looks relieved.
He shouldn’t.
I walk to the head of the table. My pulse is steady, but my anger is not. "My father," I say those words with the disgust they deserve, "has always played both sides of the sword." I look at the men at the table; they all know it's true, especially Fabrizio, who is about the same age as my father. "It’s who he is. It’s what he does. But this time he went too far."
Gustave stiffens, panic flickers behind eyes that are begging me to stop. I don't. "He made deals with the Venezuelans behind our backs. Quiet deals. Profitable ones. Deals that let them establish roots in our territory."
A murmur ripples across the table.
"When Nico was taken hostage because of those deals?"I look directly at my father. "He didn’t lift a finger to save him. He allowed it."
"That wasn't all, though, because when Nico escaped, when he called the one person he should have been able to trust—his own father—for help?" I lean forward, voice razor sharp. "Gustave called the Venezuelans and told them where to find him."
Gasps and curses sound out. Even Edoardo looks stunned.
"And when I discovered his betrayal," I say, "he didn’t accept responsibility. He didn’t confess. He didn’t try to fix it." I let the silence stretch. "He sent one ofmyown men to kill me."
Gustave shakes his head, trembling. "Stephano, that’s not?—"
"Enough." My voice cracks like a whip.
"No man willing to sacrifice his sons for the sake of covering his own treachery deserves to sit at this table. No man who betrays La Famiglia to foreign enemies has the right to call himself capo."
I straighten. "I call for the immediate removal of Gustave as capo."
The room holds its breath. "And," I add, steady, unflinching, "I offer myself as his replacement."
Absolute, heavy silence ensues.
Then Enrico stands. And Toni. And Marcello. Then Ettoro, Matteo, and Tommaso. One after another, the men rise.
A unanimous acknowledgment. A unanimous condemnation. A unanimous acceptance.
I don’t look at Gustave. There’s nothing left to see. Gustave is done, and he knows it.
Edoardo stares at him in shock. "You… you betrayed me?"
Gustave snarls back, "You betrayedeveryone!Don’t you dare act?—"
