Chapter 2 2

Isabella POV

The silence in the grand foyer was deafening after Carmella's humiliated confession. Beatrice's jaw tightened, her eyes flashing with a venomous promise as she prepared to force me into the servant's quarters anyway.

Before she could speak, the sharp, rhythmic thud of a wooden cane echoed from the landing above.

"Enough," a frail but iron-hard voice commanded.

Nonna Elena, the Elder of the Russo family, stood at the top of the stairs. Her sharp eyes, clouded with age but missing nothing, swept over Beatrice and Carmella with thinly veiled disgust. "The girl has bled for our survival. She stays with me in the west wing."

I kept my eyes lowered, playing the obedient, traumatized daughter as I followed my grandmother into her sanctuary. The air in her quarters was thick with the scent of dried lavender, melting beeswax, and old secrets.

As Nonna poured us tea, I wrapped my trembling hands around the porcelain cup. "Nonna," I whispered, letting my gaze drift to a faded family portrait on the wall. "Is it just me, or do Carmella and Angelo look exactly alike? They have the exact same brow... just like that bootlegger from Chicago who used to visit Beatrice. Signor Carmine Kirkland. Do you remember him?"

Nonna Elena's hand froze mid-pour. The teacup rattled against the saucer. I kept my expression entirely innocent, but I saw the exact moment the seed of ruin took root in her mind. In our world, blood was everything. A bastard was a disgrace; a bastard parading as an heir was a death sentence.

The next morning, Beatrice launched her counterattack. She summoned me to her drawing room-a gaudy, gold-trimmed nightmare of a room that screamed of her desperate need to buy class. Father Antonio, a corrupt priest whose loyalty was bought with Russo coin, sat beside her.

"It is God's will that Carmella remains in the Matriarch's suite, Isabella," the priest purred, his smile oily. "Her presence there brings divine luck to your father's shipments."

I didn't blink. I simply looked at Beatrice. "My blood saved Eleonore Moretti. If my sacrifice isn't respected in my own home, perhaps the Matriarch would like to personally ask why her savior is being treated like a stray dog. Should I have Silvio make the call?"

Beatrice's face drained of all color, the heavy rouge on her cheeks suddenly looking like clown makeup. The threat of the Dark Don's mother was absolute. To invite the wrath of the Moretti family was to invite death. I turned and walked out, leaving them choking on their own powerlessness.

A week before Christmas, Carmella made one last, desperate play for Nonna's favor. She stood in the sitting room, waving a gilded invitation. "Five hundred dollars to the parish, Nonna," she bragged. "A private Christmas Eve dinner at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral with Senator Vance. The whole city will see our power."

I stepped out of the shadows. I knew the future. I knew the blizzard that would paralyze New York, and more importantly, I knew the FBI raid that would end Vance's corrupt career that very night.

"A public spectacle with a politician?" I asked softly, my tone laced with genuine concern. "That draws federal eyes, Nonna. It violates *Omertà* (the code of silence). The Morettis value discretion above all. If they see us acting like reckless, attention-starved fools, they will cut ties."

Nonna's eyes sharpened. She looked at Carmella's triumphant face, then at my calm, calculating one. "Cancel it," she ordered Beatrice coldly.

Carmella let out a strangled sob, her face twisting in ugly fury before she fled the room.

That evening, as the first snow of the blizzard I had predicted began to fall, I sat beside Nonna's armchair. I pulled a velvet pouch from my pocket and let the heavy, black onyx beads spill into my palm. The solid silver crucifix gleamed, stamped with a sharp, undeniable 'M'.

Nonna gasped, her hand flying to her chest. "Is that..."

"The late Don Moretti's," I murmured. "Signora Eleonore gave it to me." I reached out and gently pressed the cold, heavy beads into my grandmother's wrinkled hands. "She told me it belongs with the true Matriarch of the Russo bloodline. Wear it to Sunday mass, Nonna. Let everyone know that a strike against us is a declaration of war against the Moretti family."

Nonna Elena stared at the rosary, her fingers trembling as she traced the silver 'M'. When she finally looked up at me, the pity she once held for her fragile granddaughter was gone, replaced by a profound, unshakable awe.