Chapter 4 - The Commission’s Wrath
The grand ballroom of Villa Valente was lit by towering crystal chandeliers, but the atmosphere was thick with hostility and impending violence.
Standing near the center of the marble floor was Don Giovanni Moretti—a ruthless, white-haired crime lord who controlled Brooklyn’s shipping ports—flanked by his daughter Victoria and ten heavily armed lieutenants in long leather coats.
On the surrounding balconies, Adrien’s security team stood with their hands near their jackets, their eyes locked on the intruders.
Adrien walked down the wide marble staircase alone, wearing a crisp black suit, his hands folded calmly in front of him. His presence was so imposing, so absolute, that the armed men in the room involuntarily shifted their weight nervously.
"Giovanni," Adrien greeted smoothly, stopping at the foot of the stairs. "You bring weapons into my home without an invitation. That is a dangerous breach of protocol."
Giovanni Moretti stepped forward, leaning heavily on a gold-headed cane, his face twisted in anger. "You insulted my daughter, Adrien! You tossed her out of this house like a dog for a broke kitchen girl from Queens!"
"Your daughter spoke disrespectfully to a guest in my home," Adrien replied coldly. "She showed total disregard for my son."
"That child is an illegitimate brat born to a traitor!" Victoria shrieked from behind her father. "And you are throwing away our family alliance for a peasant who feeds him!"
Adrien’s eyes flashed with a lethal, terrifying flame. "Say another word about my son or Hannah, Victoria, and not even your father’s army will get you out of this driveway alive."
Giovanni slammed his cane against the marble floor. "Enough! The Five Families signed a pact three years ago, Valente! Your father pledged you to Victoria to keep peace between Manhattan and Brooklyn! If you break this engagement for a nameless servant, my family will declare war on your territory by midnight!"
The room fell into a deathly, suffocating silence.
A war between the Valente and Moretti families would turn the streets of New York into a bloody battlefield, pulling in hundreds of federal agents and destroying billions in commercial holdings.
From the top of the marble staircase, a soft, clear voice broke through the tension.
"She is not nameless."
Everyone in the ballroom snapped their heads upward.
Hannah stood at the top of the grand stairs. She was wearing an elegant, simple emerald-green silk dress that Adrien had bought for her, her hair pinned up in a graceful, classic style. In her arms, she held little Luca, who was wrapped in a hand-embroidered white blanket.
She walked down the marble steps slowly, smoothly, her head held high, her presence overflowing with a calm, regal dignity that silenced every ruthless killer in the room.
Giovanni glared at her. "Who gave this girl permission to speak at a syndicate table?"
Hannah stopped beside Adrien, looking directly into Don Moretti’s furious eyes without a single trace of fear.
"My name is Hannah Brooks," she said, her voice clear and resonant. "I am the daughter of Thomas Brooks, who owned the copper docks in Queens for thirty years before he passed. I am not a servant. And I am the only mother this child knows."
Victoria laughed mockingly. "A mother? You are a hired wet nurse! You have no standing, no money, and no family!"
Adrien took a step forward, reaching out to encircle Hannah’s waist with his broad arm, pulling her firmly against his side in front of the entire room.
"She has standing because she stands beside me," Adrien declared, his voice booming across the grand ballroom like thunder. "And as for money and family..."
Adrien looked at Marco, who immediately stepped forward holding a velvet-lined wooden case. Marco opened the case, revealing a magnificent, fifty-carat heirloom diamond necklace—the legendary Valente Crest, which had belonged to Adrien’s grandmother and was reserved exclusively for the reigning Matriarch of the Valente empire.
The entire Moretti family gasped in utter shock.
"Adrien... what are you doing?" Giovanni whispered, his face turning pale.
Adrien took the diamond necklace from the case, turning to Hannah. With gentle, revered hands, he fastened the heavy, glittering jewels around her slender neck.
"Effective immediately," Adrien announced, his dark, commanding eyes sweeping across every lieutenant and rival in the room, "the engagement between the Valente and Moretti families is dissolved."
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"You can't do this!" Victoria screamed hysterically.
"I am the Don of New York," Adrien said, his tone icy and absolute. "I do whatever I choose. And I choose Hannah Brooks."
