Chapter 1: The Betrayal.

The call came just after midnight.

Isabella Lorenzo… now Moretti by marriage, was busy pouring herself a well earned glass of wine after another long day tolerating her new family. As she eased herself gently into the couch, her phone lit up and started vibrating.

“Should have put you on DND” she muttered in annoyance as she reached for the phone.

It was an nknown number, and she didn't usually fancy answering unknown numbers. Her instincts however kept pushing, and she eventually took the call.

“Isabella Moretti?” a deep voice asked.

She paused. Nobody had called her by her maiden name in the last three months since she got married.

“Yes. Who is this?”

There was a small pause before the caller finally spoke again. “Your father has been arrested, and the council has summoned a trial tonight. Your immediate attendance is required, good day.”

The line went dead before she could even ask a question. How could this be possible, what could they possibly have against her father. She had to talk to Luca, surely there should be something he can do.

She found him in his library, focused on a bunch of books and documents with a serious look on his face. He seemed really busy, and she felt bad that she had to disturb him, but she had no choice.

“Luca,” she gasped, “my father’s been taken, they said the council’s trying him tonight.”

He paused, looked up very slowly like her words didn't quite register to him, but he replied all the same.

“I know.”

Isabella was stunned. 

“You knew?” she asked, her voice gradually rising. “And you didn’t even bother to tell me?”

Luca stood up slowly, gently closed the document folder he'd been holding after placing an envelope in it. He went to stand in front of the mirror, adjusting the gold cuffs on his suit. “It wasn’t my place.”

“Wasn’t your…” She choked at the words, then managed to try again. “Luca, that’s my father.”

“Your father is a Don Isabella, and he has been arrested by the Internal Mafia Council… It isn't a personal affair, it's simply protocol.”

She stared at him in shock. “Arent you suppose to protect him from something like this?” She asked sobbing. “Isnt it part of the wedding agreement?”

Luca had no time to respond before his father, Don Nico Moretti walked in. He looked excited, followed by his two heavily armed guards. He ignored the sobbing Isabella, and spoke directly to his son 

“Luca, get ready immediately, the council meets tonight and we have been summoned.”

Luca nodded. “Understood Papa.”

Isabella stepped forward. “I’m coming too.”

Don Nico’s finally turned to her, as if seeing her for the very first time. “This is a Council matter, it's not a show for women.”

“He’s my father,” she snapped. “And I received a summon also.”

A smirk appeared on Don Nico’s face. “Very well signora, just make sure you remember where your loyalty lies.”

She looked at Luca, but he had turned away, and she only nodded weakly to Nico. There was no need to say anything else… but inside, her heart was pounding like a warning drum.

…

The Council chamber was filled by members of all the notable Mafia families in New York. The twelve elders who governed the underworld sat behind their judgment table, dressed in black with a stone cold look on their terrible faces. She hated them.

A few minutes after silence has been ordered, Don Antonio Lorenzo was dragged into the hall under the watch of heavy security. Isabella's eyes watered at the sight of him… he looked broken and battered, bleeding slightly, but with defiance still burning in his eyes.

She took a step forward without thinking, and she was stopped immediately by Luca’s outstretched hand. When she looked at him, he wasn't even looking at her, he was more focused on the spectacle in front of him.

The head council elder’s voice suddenly rang through. “Don Antonio Lorenzo,” he began, “You have been accused of high treason against this council, and against the Mafia Confederation. What say you?”

Her father straightened himself proudly, ignoring his chains and raising his voice. “I deny it all, every single word of it.”

“Evidence has been submitted Don Lorenzo,” another elder cut in, pushing forward a bunch of documents in a file. “Transactions, surveillance, letters, communications with known federal contacts, and many more. They have all been traced back to your seal and signature.”

Antonio’s face turned red in anger. “Forgeries and lies. Someone wants me gone, and has go to great lengths to plant those lies.”

A councilman came forward holding a sealed envelope, and envelope that caught Isbwlla’s eyes. She seen it somewhere before… yes! The envelope Luca pushed into the document earlier that day… she'd seen him.

“This,” began the councilman. “Was submitted anonymously earlier today, and sources have confirmed the information it carries to be true. It supports the Moretti investigations.”

Isabella froze at the mention of the Morettis. Her heart thudded violently, and she almost passed out. No… it couldn't be.

“Moretti you bloody traitor,” her father hissed in disgust. “You forged lies on my records and sent them to the council?”

Isabella looked at Luca again, trembling as the councilman began to tear the envelope open. He still didn't look at her, rather he was coldly focused on the trial.

 Inside the envelope were photographs, signatures, receipts of wire transfers… things that only someone with deep access to her family’s inner sanctum could have acquired. 

Isabella's heart crumbled with every one of those evidence they displayed, every lie they told against her father. She looked at all the files displayed by the council and trembled violently… They were the same exact files and documents Luca had been so focused on, she could remember them clearly now. She had thought they were additional work he brought home from his office, not knowing that it was a noose hanging around her father's neck.

Then the final blow came as a verdict was immediately announced. 

“In accordance with the Old Code,” the Council elder said, “Don Antonio Lorenzo is hereby sentenced…”

“No,” Isabella whispered.

“...to death by hanging.”

The gavel struck like a gunshot.

She reached for Luca, dazed and unable to believe the nightmare happening before her. “Tell me this isn’t real Luca, tell me you didn't do this to my family.”

“I’m sorry, Isabella.”

She watched as they dragged her father away, screaming, kicking, and cursing furiously. She couldn’t even move… couldn't breathe.

…

Two trucks left the Moretti compound that night, filled with armed men and headed for the Lorenzo estate, far from the council's knowledge. 

The assassins stormed the estate in the darkness, and began executing all the Lorenzo lieutenants one after the other.  Isabella's brothers, cousins, and even her family's household staffs were all wiped out, and the estate set ablaze.

One of her cousin, Gerald Bastoni, managed a panicked call from where he lay hidden. “Bella, they're killing everybody… I… It's a massacre. Moretti soldiers… They're…”

He was cut off by a succession of gunfire and screams. The line went dead, and Isabella dropped the phone in shock. In her hand was a crumpled envelope she had pulled from Luca’s desk after they returned from the trial… inside was a copy of a letter, a single sheet.

The official death warrant of her father… Signed by Luca Moretti.

Her husband.