Chapter 5 - The War Council
For twelve hours, we remained inside the reinforced vault while Alessandro’s loyal forces purged the remaining Corvo mercenaries from the grounds of Villa Moretti.
By noon the following day, the estate was secure once more. The damage to the gates was extensive, but the main villa remained standing—a testament to the Moretti empire’s unyielding strength.
Alessandro summoned the remaining eleven mafia bosses back to the villa for an emergency War Council. This time, the meeting was held inside the grand dining hall, surrounded by fifty heavily armed Moretti enforcers.
I stood beside Alessandro’s chair at the head of the table, dressed not in a housekeeper’s apron, but in an elegant black wool dress provided by Alessandro’s personal tailors. Emma sat quietly in a small armchair beside me, coloring in a sketchbook Alessandro had gifted her.
The eleven bosses sat in tense silence. Don Ricci looked older, his hands resting heavily on his cane.
“You called us back, Moretti,” Don Ricci said, his deep voice gravelly. “The city is on fire. The Corvo launched attacks on my docks in Genoa three hours ago.”
Alessandro leaned forward, placing his heavy gold signet ring on the polished mahogany table.
“The Corvo are backed by foreign money,” Alessandro declared, his voice cutting through the room like a blade. “They wanted to divide us. They used Vivian Romano to plant bugs in my home, and they used Matteo to leak my security protocols.”
He gestured to Marco, who threw a heavy leather bag onto the middle of the table. The bag tumbled open, revealing dozens of encrypted ledgers and hard drives seized from Matteo’s estate.
“Matteo was executed an hour ago,” Alessandro said without a flinch. “His territory is now absorbed by the Moretti family.”
A murmur of shock went through the bosses.
“And what of the woman?” Don Falcone from Milan asked, looking toward me. “The maid who brought the device into your house?”
Alessandro stood up slowly, his tall frame casting a long shadow across the table. He reached over, took my hand in his, and raised it for every boss in the room to see.
“Clara Bennett is no longer a maid,” Alessandro announced, his deep voice carrying total, unchallengeable authority. “She is my fiancée. And the future matriarch of the Moretti empire.”
My heart stopped. I stared at Alessandro in absolute shock, my breath catching in my throat.
The eleven bosses stared in disbelief.
“Moretti, she is a commoner!” Don Ricci protested. “A widow with no bloodline! You were meant to marry into the Romano family to consolidate power!”
Alessandro’s eyes turned cold as mountain ice. “The Romano family tried to murder me. Clara Bennett’s daughter saved my life and exposed the traitors inside this very room.”
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He squeezed my hand firmly, his dark eyes locking onto mine with a passion that took my breath away.
“If any man in this room disrespects my future wife or her daughter,” Alessandro growled, addressing the entire table, “he will answer directly to my gun. The war against the Corvo ends tonight. And we march under my flag.”
