Chapter 8 - THE EMPIRE BEGINS TO CRACK
Sal’s meeting failed.
Barely.
Seven captains attended.
Three supported removing Luca.
Two refused.
Two said nothing.
That was enough to prevent an immediate vote.
But the organization began splitting anyway.
Calls went unanswered.
Payments stalled.
Men who had obeyed Luca for years suddenly needed time to “consider things.”
Twelve years in a wheelchair had never made him weak in their eyes.
The possibility of uncertainty did.
Luca understood that better than anyone.
Power hated questions.
At breakfast, Elena watched him ignore three phones.
“Are you losing control?”
“Yes.”
She looked surprised.
He continued eating.
“That doesn’t bother you?”
“It bothers me.”
“You don’t look bothered.”
“I’ve had practice.”
Maya poured too much syrup onto her pancakes.
“So Sal wants your job?”
“Yes.”
“Why doesn’t he get his own?”
Luca looked at Elena.
Elena laughed into her coffee.
“That,” Luca said, “is an excellent question.”
Maya pointed her fork at him.
“You should fire him.”
“It’s slightly more complicated than that.”
“Adult answer.”
“Yes.”
Maya sighed dramatically.
Later, Luca met privately with his attorneys.
Not the criminal lawyers.
The legitimate ones.
For decades, the Costello organization had existed in two worlds.
Shipping companies.
Construction.
Warehouses.
Hotels.
And underneath them, the old network Luca inherited from his father.
Smuggling.
Protection payments.
Illegal contracts.
The parts Luca had tried to dismantle twelve years earlier.
The parts Sal had protected.
Luca put a document on the table.
“I want the illegal holdings separated.”
His attorney, Rachel Kim, stared at him.
“You understand what that means?”
“Yes.”
“You could lose half your revenue.”
“I know.”
“You could trigger internal retaliation.”
“It already started.”
Rachel looked at him for a long time.
“Why now?”
Luca looked through the glass wall toward the rehabilitation room.
Maya sat on the floor, arguing with Tommy over a board game.
“Because I have something worth inheriting now.”
Rachel followed his gaze.
Then understood.
“You want everything clean.”
“I want everything Maya could one day touch to be something she doesn’t have to apologize for.”
Rachel closed the document.
“That may require cooperating with federal investigators.”
“I know.”
“That could expose things you’ve done.”
“I know.”
“You might lose more than money.”
Luca remembered Elena’s words.
Honest when it costs you something.
“Then it costs me.”
That afternoon, Luca stood between the parallel bars for eleven seconds.
No one held him.
His knees shook.
His shoulders burned.
But he stood.
Maya counted loudly.
“Eight.”
“Nine.”
“Ten.”
“Eleven!”
Luca collapsed into the chair.
Maya threw both arms around him.
“You did it.”
“I stood.”
“You stood.”
Elena watched from the doorway.
Her eyes met his.
For one second, twelve missing years seemed to hang between them.
Not gone.
Never gone.
But maybe no longer the only thing between them.
Then Marco entered.
His face destroyed the moment.
“We have a problem.”
Luca looked up.
“What?”
“Sal knows Moretti is here.”
Luca’s expression hardened.
“How?”
“We found a device under the doctor’s car.”
“A tracker?”
Marco shook his head.
“A microphone.”
Elena went still.
May you like
Marco looked toward the windows.
“Someone inside the estate planted it.”
