Chapter 2 - The Architect of Shadows
The betrayal didn't hit me with a roar; it hit me with the silence of a collapsing building. I looked up at Marco. His face was a masterpiece of controlled indifference.
"She's a liar, Alessandro," Marco said, his voice smooth, reasonable. "She’s a pawn being used by the rival syndicates to turn you against your own blood. You know how desperate they are to fracture this organization."
I looked at Sophia. She was weeping, not in fear, but in rage. "He’s been taking money from the foundation for years, Moretti. He’s been selling the families out to the land developers. He used your name to evict us, to destroy everything."
I turned back to Marco. "Show me the server logs from that month," I said, my voice dangerously steady.
Marco’s smile didn't fade, but his eyes turned to flint. "The logs were wiped during the system migration, you know that. You authorized it."
"I never authorized a full wipe," I said.
I stood up, the chair scraping harshly against the floor. I didn't reach for my gun. I reached for the man I had trusted with everything. I grabbed Marco by the lapel, slamming him against the wall with such force that the framed photographs of my family rattled.
"Who else is in on it?" I growled.
Marco laughed—a short, jagged sound. "Who isn't, Alessandro? You were becoming a ghost. You were spending more time playing father than running an empire. The men want a leader who eats, not one who feeds."
May you like
He pulled a small device from his pocket and pressed it.
The lights in the building surged and died. In the darkness, I heard the sound of gunshots—not from outside, but from the hallway. My own men were turning on the office.
