Chapter 3 - The Viper Within
The silence that followed was heavier than lead. The grand grandfather clock in the corner ticked heavily, marking every second as the reality of Alina’s sacrifice burned away the last remnants of my cold cynicism.
I crossed the room in two strides, falling to one knee in front of the sofa. My large, calloused hands—hands that had signed death warrants and broken bones—trembled as I gently gripped Alina’s wrists, pulling her hands away from her face.
“Look at me,” I commanded, my voice fierce yet thick with an emotion I hadn't felt in decades.
Alina raised her tear-filled eyes. The fear in them stabbed me deeper than any knife.
“You took poison meant for me,” I said, every word a heavy confession. “You bore the agony of near-death on our wedding night, and every day since, you’ve stayed by my side, enduring my coldness, believing I didn't love you… all to keep me safe?”
“I couldn't lose you, Dante,” she whispered, her fingers curling weakly around mine. “Even when you looked at me like I was just a business arrangement, I loved you. But I couldn't let you carry the paranoia of knowing your most trusted brother betrayed you on our wedding day. I wanted you to have peace.”
Rage—pure, unadulterated, mafia-lord wrath—surged through my veins. Not at Alina, but at myself, and more importantly, at the rat still hiding within my organization. Julian had had an accomplice. Someone inside my high command had helped poison the wedding goblet.
“Who?” I asked, my voice dropping to a lethal purr. “Who helped Julian?”
Alina hesitated, biting her lower lip. “I… I only saw the signet ring on the person’s desk when I overheard Julian talking in the study a week before the wedding. It was a silver serpent with a ruby eye.”
My eyes narrowed into slits. Marcus Vance. Julian’s cousin, current head of our logistics division, and the man who sat two seats away from me at every weekly syndicate meeting.
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Before I could speak, the double doors to the sitting room burst open.
My chief enforcer, Viktor, stood in the doorway, breathless and bleeding from a gash on his temple. “Boss! We’ve got a perimeter breach. Marcus Vance just locked down the compound gates and cut the comms. He’s got armed men swarming the estate. He says the Moretti dynasty ends tonight.”
