Chapter 8 - LORENZO CHOSE HER OVER THE EMPIRE
Lorenzo burned the note.
Not dramatically.
Not in rage.
He held it over the fireplace until the words disappeared.
Then he called every captain loyal to him.
Seven men entered the estate war room.
Men who had killed for the Falcone name.
Men who expected orders.
Lorenzo gave one.
“Every operation stops.”
Silence.
Matteo stared.
“Boss?”
“Shipping. Collections. Gambling. Contracts. Everything.”
One captain laughed nervously.
“You serious?”
Lorenzo looked at him.
“Entirely.”
“Marcello will take the city.”
“Let him.”
That shocked them more than violence would have.
“The federal task force gets our financial records.”
Another man stood.
“That’ll bury all of us.”
“Yes.”
“You’d destroy the family?”
Lorenzo’s answer came cold.
“My family was destroyed before I was old enough to understand what the word meant.”
He looked around the room.
“I’m done feeding it bodies.”
Two men walked out.
Three stayed.
Matteo stayed.
The seventh man reached beneath his jacket.
Matteo drew first.
No shots.
Just a warning.
The man slowly raised his hands.
Lorenzo understood.
Marcello already had loyalists inside.
Then his phone rang.
Vivian.
He answered.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For hanging up.”
She sounded exhausted.
“Where is Vittorio?”
“Gone.”
“Don’t go after him alone.”
Lorenzo almost smiled.
“You still worry.”
“Don’t confuse basic humanity with reconciliation.”
Pain.
Deserved.
“I won’t.”
She hesitated.
“Why did you say you never loved me?”
There it was.
The question he had been dreading.
Lorenzo sat down.
“Because two hours before I came home, Marcello’s men shot at me.”
“I know.”
“They missed my heart by inches.”
“That still doesn’t explain it.”
“No.”
He forced himself to say the truth.
“One of the men yelled your name.”
Vivian went silent.
“He told me next time they would shoot you instead.”
Her breath caught.
“I came home terrified.”
“So you decided to destroy me yourself.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No prettier wording.
“I thought if you believed I didn’t love you, you would leave.”
“You could have told me.”
“I didn’t trust you to leave.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
“I know.”
“Now.”
“Yes.”
A pause.
Then Vivian said:
“You didn’t push me away to protect me.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
“You pushed me away because you needed to control what I did.”
“Yes.”
She was crying quietly.
He hated himself.
Then Vivian whispered:
“I’m glad you finally understand the difference.”
The call ended.
Matteo entered.
“We found Vittorio.”
“Where?”
“Old Saint Michael’s monastery.”
Lorenzo stood.
“Marcello?”
“Unknown.”
Then federal agents sent another update.
Marcello’s network had activated movement around the monastery.
This was not a hiding place.
It was a meeting.
Two brothers preparing to negotiate.
Over Vivian.
Lorenzo called Antonio.
“Move her.”
Antonio answered:
“She’s already gone.”
Lorenzo’s blood froze.
“What?”
“She left ten minutes ago.”
“Where?”
“She saw the monastery coordinates.”
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
Of course.
Vivian had spent three years being moved, hidden, protected, and lied to.
She was done waiting.
Then Antonio said:
“She took Nathan’s original files with her.”
“Why?”
“Because she thinks Marcello won’t kill her if she carries the only evidence he needs.”
Lorenzo was already moving.
He reached the garage.
Then stopped.
The empire.
The men.
The territory.
Everything he had spent his life protecting.
For once, none of it mattered.
He handed Matteo his weapon.
Matteo stared.
“Boss?”
“If I go armed, Vivian will think I’m there to control the outcome.”
“That’s suicidal.”
“Probably.”
May you like
Lorenzo left without it.
For the first time in his adult life, the heir to the Falcone syndicate walked into danger with nothing in his hands.
