Chapter 7 - A Toast of Absolute Retribution
Downstairs in the banquet hall, the clock struck midnight.
Christmas had arrived, but there was no joy in the room. Don Silvio Ricci sat frozen in his chair, his hands flat on the mahogany table, sweating through his three-thousand-dollar suit. Valentina sat beside him, trembling with a mixture of humiliated fury and rising terror. None of the Ricci men had been allowed to move, use their phones, or reach for their weapons. Luca’s enforcers stood behind every chair, silent and lethal.
The private elevator doors opened once more.
Luca walked out, but this time, he was not alone.
Holding his arm, wrapped in a thick, tailored wool coat that belonged to Luca himself, was Ella Parker. Her face was still pale, and she leaned slightly against his frame for support, but her head was held high. Her bandaged hands were steady.
The entire room went breathless. A collective gasp rose from the assembled capos as they saw the Don of the Ferretti family escorting the abused maid into the center of the executive dining hall as if she were royalty.
Valentina’s eyes bulged in pure hatred. "How dare you bring that filthy servant back down here? Luca, have you lost your mind? She is nothing!"
Luca ignored her entirely. He walked Ella to the head of the table, pulling out his own massive leather armchair, and gently assisted her into the seat of honor. Then, he stood beside her, resting one protective hand on the carved mahogany crest above her head.
He picked up a fresh crystal goblet of red wine from the service tray.
"Gentlemen," Luca announced, his voice carrying clearly across the silent expanse of the hall. "We began tonight celebrating a union. A partnership of blood and business between the Ferretti syndicate and the Ricci family."
Silvio let out a ragged breath, attempting a weak, appeasing smile. "Yes, Luca. A partnership. We can move past this unfortunate incident. Family forgives family."
Luca turned his cold, pitiless gaze onto the older don. "There is no partnership, Silvio. And there will never be a family between us."
Luca tipped his glass. The dark red wine poured slowly onto the center of the white tablecloth, soaking into the fabric like an expanding pool of arterial blood, directly in front of Valentina’s plate.
"The engagement is terminated," Luca declared, each word falling like an iron gavel. "The alliance is dissolved. By sunrise, every warehouse, shipping lane, and gambling parlor the Ricci family operates in my territory will be seized by my men."
"You can't do this!" Silvio roared, standing up in defiance, his face mottled with purple rage. "The Commission will never allow it! You are breaking a sacred pact over a peasant girl!"
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Luca smiled—a cold, terrifying baring of teeth that made Silvio’s blood run cold.
"The Commission answers to the man who controls the ports, Silvio. And that man is me. If you or your daughter ever set foot in New Jersey again, your names will be erased from every record book in this country."
