Chapter 5 - The UltimatumAlessandro stopped two feet away from Rosa. The air in the study felt heavy, charged with unspoken history and the looming threat of the Romano family.
“You knew,” Alessandro said, not as an accusation, but as a statement of fact. “From the day you took the job here, you knew whose child she was.”
“I needed a safe place to live, Mr. Moretti,” Rosa replied, her voice steady despite the terror gripping her chest. “In my world, a single mother with no money and a target on her back doesn't survive long on the streets. Your estate was an impenetrable fortress. I thought if I stayed invisible, if I kept Lily out of your sight, we could just... exist.”
“Existence is not living, Rosa,” Alessandro said softly. He knelt down once more to Lily’s eye level. “And my daughter deserves more than a corner of the kitchen and a mother living in constant fear.”
Before Rosa could respond, a heavy pounding echoed against the outer doors of the private study.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Vince’s hand instantly went to his holster, stepping defensively toward the entryway.
The door pushed open before Vince could draw his weapon. Vittorio Romano strode into the room, flanked by four armed enforcers in matching gray suits. Isabella trailed closely behind him, her face flushed with triumphant malice.
“Well, well, well,” Vittorio sneered, his eyes sweeping over Rosa and Lily with utter contempt before locking onto Alessandro. “I leave you alone for a single morning, Alessandro, and I find you entertaining domestic staff as if they were royalty.”
Alessandro rose slowly from his crouch, his expression morphing from gentle father back into the cold, ruthless Don Moretti. He didn't blink. He didn't flinch.
“Vittorio,” Alessandro said, his voice dropping into a lethal register. “You are in my house without an invitation. That is a dangerous mistake.”
“This house will belong to my grandson one day through Isabella,” Vittorio barked, stepping forward with his chest puffed out. “We are binding two dynasties, Alessandro—not running a charity ward for bastards and maids! That child and her mother leave tonight, or the Romano family pulls every asset, every route, and every dollar out of the Moretti shipping partnership before the sun sets.”
The silence that followed was suffocating. Isabella stood behind her father with a smug, victorious grin, waiting for Alessandro to capitulate to the financial leverage.
Instead, Alessandro smiled.
It was a cold, humorless expression that made even Vittorio’s veteran enforcers take an involuntary step backward.
“You think my empire depends on your shipping routes, Vittorio?” Alessandro whispered, taking two deliberate steps toward the older mob boss. “You think a contract signed on paper can dictate who claims my blood?”
May you like
Alessandro reached out, grabbed Vittorio by the lapels of his expensive Italian suit with terrifying speed, and slammed him against the oak bookshelf, sending volumes crashing to the floor.
“The Moretti family doesn't take ultimatums,” Alessandro snarled into Vittorio’s white face. “We issue them.”
