"I'll take the deal," I said.
After Rodriguez left, I found Domenico on the back porch.
He stood facing the mountains, smoke from his cigarette curling into the cold air. In twenty-three years, I'd seen Domenico smoke maybe half a dozen times—never during firefights, never during the attacks on the safe houses, never even when I was bleeding out on an operating table. Only when something weighed on him so heavily that he couldn't hold it inside.
This was one of those times.
"You heard?" I asked.
"Rodriguez briefed me before the meeting." He took a drag, exhaled slowly. "Six to twelve weeks. Could be worse."
"Could be better."
"Could be twenty years if you'd refused to cooperate." He turned to face me. "This is the right call, Alessio. You pay for your past, then you're free. Clean slate."
"Is it though? A clean slate?" I moved to stand beside him. "I ran the Valestri family for eighteen years. Did things that can't be erased by a few weeks in minimum security."
"No. But you can choose differently going forward. That's what matters." He crushed out the cigarette. "So. The succession. We doing this formally?"
This was it. The conversation we'd been building toward since I'd broken the blood oath for Valentina.
"The Valestri family is yours," I said. "Full leadership transfer. You run the organization however you see fit—continueoperations, transition to legitimate business, whatever you decide. I'm out completely."
"Alessio—"
"But Valentina and the children are sacred. Protected by the full weight of the Valestri name and resources. No one touches them. Ever. That's the price of succession."
Domenico studied my face for a long moment.
"You're sure about this? Walking away from everything you've built?"
"I've never been more sure of anything. That world nearly destroyed her. Nearly destroyed us. I won't risk it touching my children." I met his eyes. "You've been my brother for twenty-three years. Saved my life more times than I can count. You've earned this. The family will thrive under your leadership."
"It won't be the same without you."
"It'll be better. You're smarter, more strategic. Less bound by the old codes that trapped our fathers." I gripped his shoulder. "This is right, Dom. You know it is."
He nodded slowly, then pulled me into a brief, fierce embrace—the kind that said everything words couldn't.
"I accept," he said quietly. "The family is mine. Your wife and children are untouchable. I swear it on our brotherhood, on Eva's memory, on everything I am."
The oath was formal and binding—the kind that couldn't be broken, not in our world. The Valestri empire would continue without me.
And I was free.
That night, after the babies were finally asleep, I found Valentina in the nursery.
She stood between their bassinets, one hand on each, watching them breathe.
"They're okay," I said softly.
"I know. I just—" Her voice caught. "In three days you leave. And I'm terrified of doing this alone."
"You won't be alone. Sofia, Livia, Domenico—they'll all be here. And it's only six weeks, maybe less."
"Six weeks feels like forever."
I crossed to her and pulled her carefully against my chest. "I need to ask you something."
