Chapter 5 5

Isabella POV

The heavy oak doors had barely settled into their frames when my father sank into his leather armchair. The firelight cast long, flickering shadows across his exhausted face. He looked every bit the hardened Caporegime, yet the guilt of harboring those vipers under his roof weighed heavily on his broad shoulders.

I stepped behind him, gently kneading the tense, knotted muscles of his neck. "It wasn't your fault, Papa," I murmured into the quiet room. "You couldn't have known."

He reached up, his calloused hand gripping my wrist with sudden, bruising force. His dark eyes locked onto mine, sharp and demanding. "What did you say to him, Isabella? To Damien Costello. The Phantom does not intervene out of the goodness of his heart. What did you trade?"

I kept my breathing steady, masking the terrifying truth of my nightmares and the treasonous plot I had uncovered. "I gave him a secret he couldn't refuse," I answered softly, holding his gaze. "A secret concerning the future of the Gallo family. It was our only leverage."

Marco searched my face, his jaw tight. Slowly, he released my wrist. His suspicion didn't entirely vanish, but it morphed into a wary respect. He was realizing his little girl was playing a dangerous game with the Don's deadliest weapon, and a new, unspoken boundary formed between us.

The sharp clatter of footsteps in the foyer shattered the fragile quiet. The parlor doors swung open, and Lorenzo stood on the threshold. My eldest brother, Enzo, wasn't supposed to be back from his law studies in Chicago until the week of the wedding. His tailored suit was rumpled from travel, but his sharp eyes immediately took in the suffocating tension in the room and my red, swollen eyes.

"Bella," he breathed, crossing the room in three long strides.

I threw myself into his arms, the dam finally breaking. The tears weren't just for tonight's humiliation, but for the agonizing memories of his brutal death in my past life-a fate I was desperately trying to rewrite. I buried my face in his chest, sobbing as his familiar scent of cedar and old parchment enveloped me.

Over my head, my father delivered the cold, clinical truth of Jason Brennan's betrayal and the Vances' poison plot.

I felt Enzo's body go rigid. When I pulled back, his handsome face was twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. "I'll kill him," Enzo snarled, turning toward the door. "I'll gather the Soldiers right now and put a bullet between Jason's eyes myself."

"Stop!" Marco's voice cracked like a whip, carrying the absolute authority of a Capo. "The Old Man has made his ruling. To strike now is to challenge Don Gallo himself."

"He insulted our blood!" Enzo roared back.

"And he paid with his leg and his inheritance!" my father countered fiercely. "We will have our Vendetta, Lorenzo, but on our time, and in our way. Discipline, son. Discipline above all."

Enzo halted, his fists trembling at his sides. He forced a sharp nod, but the fire in his eyes didn't die; it merely hardened into ice.

Before Enzo could argue further, the front door opened again, bringing a gust of crisp night air. My mother, Sofia, stepped into the foyer, stripping off her leather gloves with a chilling, elegant satisfaction.

"It is done," she announced, walking over to the window and gesturing for me to join her. "I supervised her packing myself. Not a single coin of Falcone money left this property."

I stood beside her, peering through the glass. Out by the grand wrought-iron gates, under the harsh glare of the streetlamps, Agatha Vance was on her knees in the mud, scrambling to gather her meager belongings.

"I made sure the guards and the neighbors heard every word," my mother continued, her tone as sharp as a blade. "I declared her a *Rat*. I told them all: anyone who offers that woman a crust of bread or a roof over her head makes an enemy of the Falcone family."

A public execution of her reputation. In our world, social exile was a death sentence.

I watched Agatha's pathetic, retreating figure disappear into the shadows of the streets. There was no pity left in my heart, only a cold, dark thrill. But as I stared into the night, I knew Agatha and Elena wouldn't just roll over and die. A cornered rat always bites back, and tomorrow, the real war for our survival would begin.