Chapter 4

The next morning, Lorenzo called a meeting of the Vieri council without me.

He used an old joint authorization we had signed during the early years of the family. The council voted to freeze my field command and transfer control of Port Newark, the Midwest route, and six offshore accounts to Sophia.

His secretary sent the decision to my apartment after the vote was complete.

The final page transferred twenty percent of the port holding company to Sophia as permanent support for Marco's widow.

I had secured those shares by using my Moretti inheritance as collateral.

When I entered the council room, Sophia was studying one of my coded ledgers. She did not understand the first layer of the system, but she was already ordering capos to move profits into a new account.

Lorenzo remained in the head chair.

"The vote is final. You will be my wife soon, and you do not need to live as a hired gun."

"You froze my command."

"I returned authority to the Don," he said. "Vieri soldiers answer to me. They do not answer to a woman who spends most of the year outside New York."

"Those crews recognize my orders."

"They will learn to recognize a new leader."

Sophia stood and placed one hand over the ledger.

"I can refuse the shares if this is going to hurt you. I never wanted to compete with you."

She spoke of refusing while her fingers held the book tight.

I did not challenge the vote.

"If this is what the council decided, then you should proceed."

Satisfaction passed across Lorenzo's face.

He believed I had finally learned to obey him.

I needed him to believe that.

The addendum in our settlement would only take effect if he moved Moretti property without my approval. Lorenzo had now created the evidence himself and recorded it in the minutes of his own council.

After I left the estate, Victor drove me to the old Moretti house on the North Shore of Long Island.

The front doors had not opened for me in seven years.

My father's consigliere and twelve senior members waited in the family chapel. The succession papers I had once refused were on the altar.

Victor spoke before I signed.

"Once you take the blood oath again, Vieri will no longer be an allied family. The unauthorized transfer will make them an enemy holding Moretti property."

I remembered the last warning my father gave me.

A crown could be set aside for love. It should never be handed to a man who mistook a gift for his own talent.

I signed Isabella Moretti at the bottom of the succession papers. I pricked my finger with a silver pin and pressed my blood to the wolf crest.

The twelve men rose at the same time.

"Welcome home, Don Moretti."

After the oath, an armed courier brought a black case into the chapel.

Inside was the marriage settlement Damian had kept for seven years.

It contained no transfer of soldiers, property, or voting rights. It did not require me to take the De Luca name. Each family would remain independent, and every joint action would require both signatures.

Damian had written one sentence on the last page.

Your crown belongs on your own head, whether you choose me or not.

I signed below his name.

Then I handed the papers to Victor.

"Keep this sealed. Damian enters through the west door of the chapel on the wedding day."

The ceremony was one day away.

Lorenzo was sitting inside an empire I had already emptied, waiting for me to wear white and submit to him.