Alessia POV
I squeezed his hand, anchoring myself to his lethal strength, but I didn't take a step toward the door. My eyes remained fixed on my pale, trembling father.
"There is only one way to save your precious political career, Father," I said, my voice slicing cleanly through Carina's pathetic whimpers. "You will go to the Patriarch. You will request a private audience with Salvatore Moretti and express your deep concern over your son-in-law's recent... erratic behavior."
Ernesto stared at me as if I had grown a second head. "You want me to betray a Moretti Don to the head of the Commission? Are you out of your mind?"
"It is the act of a loyal subordinate trying to maintain peace," I countered coldly. "If you refuse, I will personally inform the Five Families that the Rinaldi Patriarch knowingly shielded the woman who tried to murder my husband. Dante won't even need to lift a finger. The Commission will slaughter you all."
Ernesto's face contorted with a coward's rage. His pride, already shredded in front of the Moretti Don, finally snapped. He lunged forward, his hand raised high to strike me.
Before I could even blink, Dante shifted. He didn't draw a weapon, nor did he raise his voice. But the sheer, suffocating wave of murderous intent rolling off his massive frame froze my father mid-step. Dante's eyes were black voids of promised death, silently daring Ernesto to close the remaining distance.
Trembling violently, Ernesto dropped his hand. Suffocating under his own impotence, he whirled around and delivered a vicious kick to Carina's chest. She collapsed against the bloody marble with a wet gasp. He followed it with a brutal backhand to her face.
"You useless *puttana*(whore)! You and your bastard daughter have doomed us all!" Panting heavily, Ernesto turned and fled the grand foyer like a beaten dog, leaving the shattered remains of his authority behind.
My mother didn't blink at the violence. She stepped forward, her posture radiating the absolute, icy authority of a Visconti. She looked down at the broken woman bleeding on her expensive rug.
"Drag her to the underground wine cellar," Elenora ordered the terrified maids, her voice devoid of any mercy. "Lock the heavy iron door. She gets no food and no water until I give the word."
As Maria and Teresa hastily dragged the sobbing Carina away, my mother turned to me. The reign of the mistress was over. The Rinaldi estate belonged solely to the Matriarch once again.
Twenty minutes later, the heavy doors of Dante's armored Cadillac sealed us inside a dark, soundproof vault. The vehicle glided smoothly away from the estate, heading back toward Manhattan.
The cabin was thick with the scent of expensive leather and the rich, earthy aroma of Dante's cigar. He sat on the opposite bench, his broad shoulders swallowed by the shadows, the cherry of his cigar glowing like a demon's eye in the dark.
My mother sat beside me, her rigid composure finally cracking. She grabbed my hand, her fingers digging painfully into my skin.
"You're asking your father to put a target on your husband's back," Elenora whispered, her voice trembling with a mother's raw terror. "If Dante survives this, he might never forgive you. If he doesn't... you'll be the one who killed him. How is this a victory, Alessia?"
Dante didn't react to her words. He simply took a slow drag of his cigar, exhaling a plume of gray smoke that veiled his unreadable expression.
I didn't answer her. I gently pulled my hand from my mother's desperate grip and met Dante's gaze through the dim, smoke-filled space. A silent, dangerous current passed between us—an unspoken pact forged in blood and calculated risks. I turned my head, letting the heavy silence stretch as the neon lights of the city blurred past the bulletproof glass.
