Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Don's Ruthless Empire: Kabanata 121 - Kabanata 130

POV: Matteo"They are saying you have lost your nerve, Don Rossaro. That a woman walked out of your house and you let her go without so much as raising your voice." The soldier delivering the words would not meet my eyes as he said them.I had called a meeting of my senior men that morning, ostensibly to discuss shipping routes disrupted by Dante's escalating provocations, though I understood the moment I walked into the room that the real subject waiting beneath the surface was Isabella's absence and everything it had apparently come to represent among the men who worked beneath me."Say what you actually mean," I said, standing at the head of the long table, my voice deliberately calm despite the tightening in my chest. "You believe I am weak because I did not chase after a woman who asked for space to think."The soldier, a younger man named Cristian who had been with the family only two years, finally lifted his eyes to mine, something apologetic and defiant tangled together in hi

POV: Matteo"Your uncle came to see me last night, Don Rossaro. He wanted to know if I had spoken with Dante Vitale. I told him no. I am telling you the truth is more complicated than that." Cristian's voice shook as he said it, standing alone in my study.I had summoned him personally rather than waiting for Salvatore's investigation to conclude, some old instinct telling me the truth would come faster through direct confrontation than through careful, patient surveillance, and I studied the young soldier's face now for any sign of the deception Salvatore suspected."Explain what you mean by more complicated," I said, keeping my voice level despite the tightening in my chest, remembering Isabella's words about proving my restraint was strength rather than weakness.Cristian's hands twisted together in front of him, the posture of a man who had rehearsed a version of honesty and found it harder to deliver than he expected. "I did not lie to Salvatore because I wanted to protect Dante,

POV: Matteo"Say it again, Salvatore. Say her name again, because I need to understand exactly how deeply you have compromised this family before I decide what happens next." My voice came out colder than I intended, though I did not take it back.Salvatore stood before me in the study, his shoulders bowed under a weight I had never once seen him carry in all the years I had known him, and for the first time since my father's death, I felt the full distance of what it meant to be his Don rather than simply his nephew."Camilla Marchetti," he said again, quieter this time. "I told her about Bianca eight months ago, before Isabella ever walked into this house, back when I still believed the past could be safely buried if the right people simply agreed never to disturb it.""Why her," I said. "Of everyone you could have trusted with something that dangerous, why a woman whose family's alliance we have spent months trying to secure.""Because at the time, I did not know she would become i

POV: Matteo"I did not betray you, Don Rossaro. Whatever Salvatore believes he uncovered, I have never once spoken with Dante Vitale or anyone connected to him." The soldier's voice was steady, too steady, as he said it.His name was Marco, one of my father's oldest men, the same soldier who had questioned my leadership openly during the meeting days earlier, and Salvatore had brought him forward after weeks of quiet surveillance uncovered a pattern of calls to numbers no legitimate business could explain."Then explain the calls," Salvatore said, standing beside me with a folder of phone records spread across the desk between us, his voice carrying none of the guilt he had shown me privately days earlier, only the cold authority of a man determined to redeem what he had already confessed to compromising."Personal matters," Marco said, though something in his expression shifted slightly, a crack forming beneath the steady surface. "I do not owe this family an explanation of every cal

POV: Matteo"He knows we have found him, Matteo. My sources confirm he left the countryside estate an hour ago, and he is not running. He is coming here." Salvatore's voice was tight with an urgency I had rarely heard from him.I stood at the window of my study, watching the water that separated my territory from everything Isabella and I had spent months trying to protect, my chest tight with the particular dread of a threat finally close enough to touch after thirty years of hiding in careful shadows."Let him come," I said, though my voice carried less certainty than I wanted it to. "We have Isabella's evidence, Camilla's confirmation, Marco's confession about Dante's reach inside this household. Whatever Vittorio believes he still holds over us, we are no longer facing him blind.""He is not coming alone," Salvatore said. "Dante is with him. My sources place them together on the road from the countryside, moving toward the compound with what looks like a small security detail.""T