Chapter 4

Faced with Vincenzo's contempt, I didn't argue. I looked at him quietly, like I was watching a clown perform.

I turned and walked into the study. When I came back out, I was carrying a slim laptop.

I sat down on the couch in front of him, opened the laptop, and clicked on an encrypted folder on the desktop.

"What kind of game are you playing now?" Vincenzo frowned impatiently.

I slowly turned the laptop screen toward him. On the screen was the speech Vincenzo had delivered at last year's mafia family council meeting, his first as a Capo.

Next to the speech sat another document. It was my original draft, covered in dense red markings and revisions.

The fake smile on Vincenzo's face froze instantly. His eyes locked onto the screen.

I clicked open the next file, my voice flat and emotionless.

"The restructuring plan that made your name and let you take over the entire south side territory. This is my first draft. It contained 12 core strategies for eliminating your rivals, and you used nine of them.

"The interview that put you on the cover of Underground Order and earned you the title of 'the Rossi family miracle.' This is the word-for-word script I wrote for you. I even marked out how many puffs of your cigar to take and how long to pause when the family elders questioned you.

"These are the escape plans for every internal family power struggle you survived.

"These are the declarations of war I wrote before every external conflict you faced."

With every file I opened, Vincenzo's face grew paler. I lifted my head and looked straight into his eyes, which had started to dart away, clouded with dread.

"Vincenzo, the prestige you wear like a new suit, the Rossi name you're so proud of, your position as Capo… I stitched every piece of it together for you.

"Where do you get the confidence to think you climbed to the top on your own?"

His expression shifted from shock to undisguised fear, and his lips trembled. The same mouth that had ordered countless executions couldn't form a single word.

I opened a photo on my phone and tossed the phone onto the coffee table in front of him. It was a screenshot of a secret bank transfer. The staggering number on the screen was enough to suffocate him.

"The foundation you used to enter the Rossi family was the three million dollars I gave you. That money was the last thing my papa left me before he died."

I watched his face drain of all color as I peeled away his final layer of pretense. "You held my hand and kneeled with me in that church. You told me you'd claw your way to the top, that you'd owe me for the rest of your life."

Vincenzo's body shook violently. With a heavy thud, he dropped to his knees on the cold marble floor. He knew that with one tap of my finger, I could send all of this to the Don.

He'd plummet from Capo straight into hell, from the feared and respected "most valued godson of the Rossi family" to a family traitor and laughingstock who stole a woman's strategies and conned her out of her inheritance.

"Don't… Please, don't…"

He grabbed the hem of my velvet dress like it was his last lifeline, his pleas desperate and pathetic. "I can't lose what I have now! I know I screwed up!"

Just then, his phone rang at the worst possible moment. It was Valentina calling.

I picked up his phone and put it on speaker. Valentina's shrill, tearful voice immediately filled the room.

"Vincenzo! That woman is out of control! She's nothing but a gold digger! Now that you have money, she wants to make a scene so she can take more of it! Don't you dare go soft on her!"

Vincenzo listened to his sister's stupid, vicious shrieking and forgot to even beg. I looked down at the pathetic man kneeling on the floor and suddenly smiled.

"Vincenzo, your entire future is in my hands now."

I picked up my own phone. Right in front of him, I called Dario Abate, the Don of the Rossi family's most powerful rival.

"You were right. The man I've been with can't be trusted. That offer you made? I accept."