Chapter 4

Three hours before the succession ceremony.

I got a call.

On the other end, Maury's voice was vicious. "Mother, you shouldn't have done this. Lucia doesn't have what it takes to inherit the Donna's seat."

"We didn't want to do this either, but it's the only way to make you take back your decision."

Lucia's struggling, desperate cries came through the phone.

My pupils contracted hard.

"Mom, come to the backstage of the hall. Let's have a proper talk."

The car ran three red lights on the way.

Mid-route, the butler called.

"Ma'am, the Isabella you asked me to look into—her full name is Isabella Conti."

Conti. That surname hadn't surfaced in a long time.

Because in the three years after Enzo Conti shot my husband dead, I had wiped out their entire family.

I thought I'd cleaned house thoroughly enough. Now it seemed there were still fish that slipped through the net, gasping in the dark.

"Your four adopted sons didn't just ally with Conti. They've also joined forces with many of the families that were once your enemies. And they've been quietly siphoning your power in the Rizzo family."

When I reached the grand hall, some early guests were already inside.

I didn't go backstage like Maury wanted. I went up to the control room on the second floor.

Through the one-way glass, the entire hall was in full view.

As time passed, the hall gradually filled with people.

"What's going on? Why hasn't the ceremony started?"

"No sign of the Rizzo Donna or the heir..."

Finally, Maury and the other three lost patience and dragged Lucia out from backstage.

The hall erupted.

Dante fired two shots into the air, and the crowd went silent.

"Tell Donna Rizzo—if she doesn't show herself, these next two bullets go through her daughter's skull!"

He pressed the gun to Lucia's temple.

Someone spotted me on the second floor. In the commotion, the four on stage finally noticed me too.

Maury twisted his face into a smile.

He raised his voice. "Mother, I didn't think your daughter's life meant so little to you."

"Mom, look at Lucia. Just a little kidnapping and she's this terrified. Where's the makings of a future Rizzo head? Maybe the heir you should've picked from the start was us."

"But we don't need you anymore. You've probably been idle so long you've forgotten—the ones running Rizzo's core businesses now are us! We're the real ones in charge!"

"Be obedient. Stop fighting us. Let us take your seat today, and maybe we'll let you and Lucia stay in the Rizzo family. Otherwise..."

Dante jabbed the gun harder against Lucia's head. She turned her face away.

Then a hidden shot rang out, precise and clean, and the gun flew from Dante's hand.

"Who's there?"

Dante panicked. The bodyguards around the hall instinctively drew their weapons and were gunned down in an instant by countless unseen shots.

Rumble—

A massive roar suddenly came from above the hall's dome, drowning out all the noise.

The sound was deafening. Even the chandeliers on the ceiling began to sway violently.

Everyone looked up in terror.

Then the two sealed alloy doors of the grand hall were kicked open from the outside.

A huge gust of wind poured in with the roar, kicking up clouds of dust.

Over a dozen black heavy helicopters hovered over the grounds outside the hall.

On each fuselage was stamped the emblem of a different top-tier powerful family.

The Moretti family. The Bianchi family. The Greco family. The Mancini family...

Any one of them could make the entire business world tremble with a single stomp.

Outside the doors, eight men in custom suits, radiating terrifying presence, strode into the hall through the storm.

At the lead, Ricardo, Don of the Moretti family, had eyes like drawn blades.

Maury's expression shifted.

Then he straightened his suit and hurried forward.

"Mr. Bianchi, Mr. Moretti, what brings you here in person? It's about the West Side project, isn't it?"

Maury didn't believe I could summon men like this. He assumed these Dons were here for the Rizzo resources in his hands.

After all, he'd long fancied himself the real head of the Rizzo family.

But Ricardo didn't even glance at him.

Ricardo turned slowly, bloodthirsty killing intent churning in his deep eyes.

He scanned the stunned faces on and off the stage. Finally, his gaze cut through the crowd and landed precisely on the glass of the second-floor control room.

Ricardo, and behind him Rowan, Vincenzo, and five other Dons of top families powerful enough to cover the sky with one hand.

In front of every business figure in the hall, and under the disbelieving eyes of Maury and the other three.

In perfect unison, they bowed toward the same direction.

Eight deep voices echoed through the grand hall, shattering every last shred of Maury's pride.

"Welcome, Madam Rizzo!"

Those four words exploded like a thunderclap in the dead-silent hall.

The blood drained from Maury's face in an instant.

He turned mechanically, following the direction the eight Dons had bowed.

I pushed open the door of the second-floor control room and descended the stairs, one step at a time.

Lucia stood behind me, poised and elegant, dressed impeccably.

"That's Lucia... then who's on stage... a decoy?"

"Lucia wasn't kidnapped!"

My heels struck the metal steps with a dull, heavy thud.

With every step, the four men's faces went a shade paler.

Until I reached Ricardo and looked down at them.

"Ten years, and you still remember your manners."

Then I swept my gaze over the crowd below.

"Welcome, everyone, to Lucia's succession ceremony. But before that, there's one other ceremony to conduct."

"The family reckoning."