Chapter 2 2

Isabella POV

The elevator doors slid open to the private floor. The thick, blood-red carpet swallowed my footsteps, deadening the sound of my approach as I walked down the dimly lit corridor. At the far end stood a massive set of mahogany doors. Guarding them were two men built like brick walls, their tailored black suits doing nothing to hide the lethal weapons holstered beneath.

One of them was Rocco 'The Wall' Gallo, Dante Moretti's Chief Enforcer.

He crossed his massive arms as I approached, his face a mask of stone. "No entry, Signorina. The Don is handling family business."

"The Moretti shame is fermenting outside," I said, my voice a blade of ice cutting through the heavy silence. I didn't stop moving until I was inches from his chest. "Every second you delay, your Don's authority wavers. Do you want to be the fool explaining why you wasted time, or the man who let him solve the problem?"

Rocco's jaw tightened. I saw the flicker of hesitation in his eyes-the ingrained Mafia loyalty warring with the undeniable truth of my words. In that split second of indecision, the heavy mahogany door clicked, opening a fraction from the inside.

I didn't wait. I shoved past the Enforcer, slipping through the narrow gap with my heavy silk wedding dress trailing behind me like a ghost's shroud. Before anyone could react, I slammed the door shut and threw the brass deadbolt.

The air in the private parlor was suffocating, thick with the scent of aged scotch, Cuban cigars, and raw, unadulterated power.

Dante 'The Lion' Moretti sat behind a massive oak desk. He didn't flinch at my sudden intrusion. His slate-gray eyes locked onto me with the chilling stillness of an apex predator assessing a broken toy. There was no anger in his gaze, only a terrifying, beast-like calculation.

I walked forward and slapped the folded tabloid onto the polished wood between us.

Dante barely glanced at Marco's grinning face. He reached for the brass telephone on his desk. "I am calling my Consigliere to handle this public relations mess."

"Don't," I said, pressing my hand flat against the desk. "Marry me."

Dante's hand paused over the receiver. A dark, mocking smirk touched his lips, cold and devoid of humor. "You have nothing to offer, little bird. You are a ruined asset."

"I am a solution," I fired back, refusing to shrink under his suffocating aura. "Your heir just made the Moretti syndicate the laughingstock of New York. That isn't about money, Dante. That is a symbol of weakness."

His smirk faded slightly. I pressed my advantage.

"The other families smell blood. Your cousin Pietro is already circling like a vulture downstairs, ready to take a coward's place. If you cancel this wedding now, you admit defeat. You tell the world you were played." I leaned closer, my heart hammering against my ribs, though my voice never wavered. "But if you marry me, you turn a humiliation into a declaration of absolute power. You aren't cleaning up your son's mess-you are correcting it. You replace a useless prince with a queen of pure Sicilian blood."

Silence stretched, thick and dangerous.

Dante stood up slowly, his massive frame casting a dark shadow over me. He stepped around the desk, stopping mere inches away. The sheer heat radiating from him was intoxicating, terrifying. He reached out, his rough, calloused finger tilting my chin up.

The contempt in his slate eyes was gone. In its place was a dark, burning scrutiny. He was no longer looking at a pawn; he was looking at a player. He was weighing the immense power of my insane proposal.

He opened his mouth to speak, but a sharp, authoritative rap of a silver-tipped cane struck the heavy mahogany door behind me.

"Dante, *apri questa porta*," (Dante, open this door) a raspy, ancient voice commanded from the corridor.

Nonna Elena Moretti had arrived.