The Don's Ruthless Empire のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 131 - チャプター 140

POV: Isabella"Tell me you did not speak to him, Nico. Tell me right now, and let me believe you." My voice shook more than I wanted it to, standing in the doorway of my brother's room at dawn.Nico sat on the edge of his bed, still in yesterday's clothes, his eyes refusing to meet mine, and I felt something cold settle in my stomach before he even opened his mouth."I did not tell him anything that mattered," he said quietly. "He already knew about the joint office, Bella. I only confirmed what he already suspected.""That is the same as telling him," I said, my voice rising despite myself. "Do you understand what you have done. Matteo trusted this house with his family's secrets, and you handed pieces of them to the one man trying to destroy us.""He threatened Mama," Nico said, and his voice finally cracked, all the false calm falling away at once. "He came to the estate three days ago, before any of us knew his name was Vittorio. He said if I did not confirm what he already believ

POV: Isabella"You knew Vittorio's name before Matteo ever spoke it aloud in that courtyard. Do not tell me you did not, Salvatore. I saw your face the moment he said it." My voice carried more accusation than I intended, but I did not take it back.The missing soldiers had been found an hour earlier, shaken but alive, left tied near the water with a single message carved into the dock beside them: patience runs out for everyone. Matteo was still down at the harbor with Marco and Enzo, and I had found Salvatore alone in the study, staring at the same folder of evidence he had once used to expose Costa's true name."You are not wrong," he said quietly, not bothering to deny it. "I recognized Vittorio Amado the moment he stepped out of that car. I have known his name for thirty years."My stomach turned cold. "Then why did you let Matteo walk into that confrontation believing it was still a mystery.""Because the moment I recognized him," Salvatore said, "I understood exactly how much d

POV: Isabella"I do not give my family's name to a war I have not measured with my own eyes, Isabella. Not even for you." Camilla Marchetti's voice was calm, almost gentle, and somehow that made her words land harder than a shout would have.We sat in the private room of a restaurant overlooking the harbor, far enough from Rossaro territory that Camilla had insisted on choosing the location herself. She was younger than I expected for someone whose family carried so much quiet influence in Marabella, her composure sharpened by the same careful distance I recognized from my own early days learning to survive rooms full of powerful men."I am not asking you to trust Matteo," I said. "I am asking you to trust what we have already proven. Vittorio's threat is real, and your family's public support could end this before more people get hurt.""My family's public support could also end my family," Camilla said, "if I commit it to the wrong side of a war that has already cost two men their f

POV: Isabella"He asked how it felt to finally understand our fathers were friends before they were victims. Then he laughed, Isabella, like grief was something he had been saving to use against us." Matteo's voice was still tight with anger an hour after the call ended.Vittorio had said little else of substance, only enough to prove he already knew we had found the box, which meant someone had told him within the hour. I sat across from Matteo in the study, the photograph of our fathers still resting on the desk between us, and felt the same cold suspicion Salvatore had planted days earlier settling deeper into my chest."Only a handful of people knew Enzo found that box," I said carefully. "You, me, Enzo himself, and Salvatore, once we told him.""I know what you are about to suggest," Matteo said, "and I do not want to believe it any more than you do.""I do not want to believe it either," I said. "Enzo has been the one steady face in this house since the day I arrived. But someon

POV: Isabella"I have been carrying this secret longer than you have been alive, Isabella, and I do not know if telling you now will heal something or break it completely." My mother's hands trembled around her teacup, and I realized, watching her, that I had never once seen Rosa Conti afraid of the truth until this exact moment.Matteo had returned from the warehouse district shaken but unharmed, and I had spent the hours since holding onto him tighter than I usually allowed myself, grateful in a way that frightened me for how quickly I had come to need him whole. When Rosa called asking me to come to the estate alone, I had almost refused, exhausted by how many secrets this family seemed determined to keep revealing one devastating piece at a time."You said there was something about Papa," I said gently, sitting across from her at the kitchen table where I had eaten a thousand ordinary meals as a child. "Mama, please. I cannot survive one more secret arriving after the danger has a