But there’s nothing I can do about those other men. Icando something about him now. So I'll do this. I'll find out what Alessandro is hiding. And if he's a threat to the family—if he's a threat to her—I'll eliminate him without hesitation.
I tell myself it's about duty. About protecting the Ciresa family. But I'm lying.
This is about her. It's always been about her.
I assign three of the best men I know to the surveillance, ones I know won’t talk if they know Romeo wants this done quietly and without Dante’s knowledge. They’re soldiers I've worked with for years, men I trust to be thorough and discreet. I give them their orders: follow Alessandro everywhere, document everyone he meets with, report back to me directly. And I wait.
The first few days yield nothing interesting. Alessandro goes to work, has lunch with business associates, visits Giulia at the mansion. Normal activities for a man in his position. But then, on the fourth day, something changes. Sal calls me at two in the morning, his voice urgent.
"We've got something," he says. "You need to see this."
I meet him at a safe house in Brooklyn, and he shows me photos of Alessandro entering a warehouse. And with him are three men I recognize immediately—Marchesi soldiers.
The Marchesi family has been trying to gain a foothold in Ciresa territory for years. They're ambitious, ruthless, and willing to do whatever it takes to expand their power. And Alessandro is meeting with them in secret.
"How long was he in there?" I ask, my voice deadly calm.
"Two hours. They left separately, but we got photos of all of them."
"Run a deeper background check," I tell Sal. "I want to know everything about Alessandro's family. And I want to know if there's any connection to the Marchesis."
"On it."
He calls me back six hours later, and as we go through everything he’s found, the pieces start to fall into place.
Alessandro courted Giulia under his mother's maiden name—Ferrucci. Alessandro has been using that name to hide his true allegiance. The plan becomes obvious once I see it clearly.
Marry into the Ciresa family. Gain their trust. Learn their operations, their weaknesses, their secrets, and then destroy them from within.
It's elegant, really. Diabolical. A long-term strategy that could actually work if no one caught on. But we caught on.
And now Alessandro is a dead man walking.
—
I bringthe information to Romeo and Dante the next morning, with Sal to back me up. We meet in Dante's office, and I lay out everything we've found: the surveillance photos, the background check, the connection to the Marchesi family. Alessandro is a younger Marchesi son, not the heir, and he used his smaller position in the family to move on us.
Dante's face goes white, then red, then settles into an expression of cold fury that I've only seen a handful of times. "That bastard," he says, his voice shaking with rage. "That fucking bastard got close to my daughter. Was going to marry her. Was going to?—"
He can't finish the sentence. Romeo is calmer, but I can see the anger in his eyes. "We need to eliminate him. Tonight. Before he realizes we know."
"No." Dante's voice is sharp and decisive. "We're going to use this."
"Use it how?" I ask, even though I'm afraid I already know the answer.
"We let the wedding continue." Dante stands and starts pacing. "We let the Marchesis think their plan is working. We gather them all in one place—the wedding, the reception—and then we destroy them. All of them. We show the other families what happens when someone tries to plot against the Ciresas."
The words hit me like a punch. "You can't be serious," I say, and I don't care that I'm speaking out of turn. "You're going to let Giulia marry him? Let her walk down the aisle to a man who's planning to destroy her family?"
"She won't actually marry him," Dante says dismissively. "We'll stop it before the vows are complete. But we need the Marchesis to think it's happening. And then we strike."
"What about Giulia?" The question comes out more harshly than it should, but I’m not thinking straight—I can’t. "What about the trauma this will cause her? She's already being forced into a marriage she doesn't want, and now you're going to turn her wedding into a bloodbath?"
Dante turns to look at me. His eyes are cold. "Giulia will do what's expected of her. She's a Ciresa. She understands duty."
"She's your daughter." My hands clench into fists. "She's not just a pawn you can move around the board. She's a person. And this will destroy her."
"That's enough, Luca." Romeo's voice is quiet but firm. "The don has made his decision."
