Isabella POV
The Starlight Motel in Queens was a rotting scar of a building, smelling of cheap whiskey and damp mold. The neon sign outside buzzed with a dying hum, casting a sickly glow through the thin, dirty curtains. I locked the flimsy door of our second-floor room, my hands shaking as I balanced a cheap glass cup on the brass handle. A pathetic line of defense against the monsters hunting us.
"His facial structure," Alessandro said, his voice eerily calm in the dim room. He sat on the sagging mattress, adjusting his glasses. "The jawline, the brow ridge. It’s a ninety-four percent biometric match to Marco. I need a logical explanation, Mom. To assess the threat level, I need the truth."
I looked at my brilliant, analytical boy, then at Marco, who was pacing like a caged animal, and little Chiara, who was already asleep. I had to protect their world from shattering.
"It's a coincidence," I lied, swallowing the bile in my throat. I knelt before them, forcing my voice to remain steady. "His name is Damien Moretti. He is a Dark Don, the head of the most powerful mafia family in New York."
I took a shaky breath, weaving the half-truth. "Six years ago, I was given to his family as *Collateral*. When I escaped, I bruised his absolute authority. This isn't about family, Alex. It's a *Vendetta*. He is a monster who views us as stolen property, and his pride won't let that go."
Marco’s fists clenched, his knuckles turning white. "Let him come. I'll fight him."
Alessandro didn't argue. He simply absorbed the data, his eyes darkening as he pulled his heavily modified, toy-like laptop from his backpack. "If he's a Don, he has resources," Alex muttered, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he hijacked the motel's unsecured Wi-Fi.
"Alex, what are you doing?"
"Bypassing the NYPD firewall," he replied effortlessly. "He has a city-wide APB on us. But..." Alex stopped, his brow furrowing. "There's a secondary protocol. Hidden deep. It's pinging from a private, military-grade server linked to a trust fund. Vittorio Moretti."
The name hit me like a physical blow. *The Old Wolf.*
"What does it say?" I whispered, a bone-deep chill seizing me.
"It's an old directive," Alex read, the screen reflecting in his glasses. "Search and locate all unregistered Moretti bloodlines. Priority: Eradication of specific genetic markers."
The air left my lungs. Damien’s manhunt was about possession and control, but Vittorio’s secret directive was a death sentence. The Old Wolf didn't want to find his grandchildren; he wanted to purge the "stain" from his bloodline. We were caught between a monster who wanted to cage us and a tyrant who wanted us dead.
"Cut the connection," I ordered, my voice trembling with absolute terror. "Shut it down now, Alex. Destroy the trace!"
Alex slammed the laptop shut, plunging the room back into the shadows.
By 2:00 AM, the adrenaline had burned out, leaving behind a crushing exhaustion. I forced the boys to lie down. I sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the door, my eyelids heavy as lead. The silence of the motel was suffocating, pressing in on me from all sides.
Then, a sharp *clink* shattered the quiet.
The glass on the door handle hit the floor, exploding into jagged shards.
I shot up, my heart slamming against my ribs. Someone was outside. Someone had just tested the knob. Across the room, Marco sat up instantly. In the suffocating darkness, his eyes—so terrifyingly identical to the man hunting us—gleamed with the lethal, waking instinct of a cornered lion cub.
