Chapter 50

MATTEO

~Several hours earlier, the morning of Freya’s departure~

I couldn’t sleep.

No matter how I tossed and turned through the night, the tension running through my body kept me awake. I had come across some information last night that I wasn’t supposed to know about—information concerning my Don.

It had all started when I couldn’t stop worrying about the Donna, her odd behavior constantly on my mind. I never saw her anymore. In fact, I hadn’t seen her in weeks.

Even when I looked for her, she was nowhere to be found. At first, I just missed her; she was fun to have around and made the Don’s ever-changing moods more bearable.

But then it turned into something else.

Something was going on between the Don and Donna that I didn’t know about.

My first clue was when the Donna asked me to be the mediator between her and the Don due to some fight they’d had during her second night with the family. This wasn’t the oddest thing in and of itself. ~Destinos~ fought, it’s the way it was—God knew Elio and I fought on a regular basis. But the Don and Donna just didn’t seem like the type.

The next clue was when she showed up in the kitchen sporting a black eye and bruised chin and said she hadn’t been eating! ~What the hell~? She had looked worried and tired, maybe even depressed.

Thinking it could solve the problem and looking to take care of my Donna, I had taken her straight to the Don. I ignored the fact that she was screaming and crying as if she was scared of seeing him.

I ignored the look of terror in her eyes.

Now in hindsight, I regretted my actions.

~I should have spoken to her first. I should have listened to her before deciding what was best for her.~

I hadn’t seen her since that morning, several weeks ago. My worry grew with every day that I didn’t see her. She wasn’t even at the weekly family dinners, the chair next to the Don always empty.

The Don never gave an explanation for her absence: he was quiet and focused on his work, more so than I had ever seen him.

Time passed until it was as if the Donna hadn’t existed at all.

Yesterday, my worry had finally become too much and took over my common sense.

The Don might lash out at me for thinking I knew what was best for his ~destino~ instead of him.

But I convinced myself that I had no choice. I cared too much about the Donna to let this go.

After a long meeting that morning, I decided to ask the Don about the Donna, hoping for a logical explanation. I was shocked when he only seemed bothered that I had brought the subject up, not angry.

He acted as though it was an inconvenience to talk about his ~destino~.

He nonchalantly told me that she was having a hard time adjusting and needed space, and insisted I didn’t worry about her anymore.

Of course, these words that were meant to reassure me did the complete opposite.

Something wasn’t adding up. Dons didn’t leave their ~destinos~ alone, especially at a time like this, important not only for the family but for the Donna as she adjusted to life as a leader.

If the Donna was struggling even a little, the Don wouldn’t even consider leaving her side—and if, for some odd reason, he ~did~ consider it, his responsibility to the family wouldn’t let him act on it.

Put off by his answer and not ready to let the subject drop, I joked about my surprise over the fact that he hadn’t officially bound himself to her. I hoped this would get a response out of him: Dons were known to become furious and overprotective when asked about their own ~destinos~.

To his credit, the Don did react. Just not in the way I had expected.

He perked up and looked at me for the first time since the start of the conversation.

He didn’t speak for a moment, thinking. Then his lips curled up in an odd smile.

“Ah, yes… Binding,” he said, leaning back in his chair.

He looked up at the ceiling and licked his lips. Then he looked back at me with a new twinkle in his eye and clapped me on the back.

“Not to worry. The binding will be happening soon. Very soon.”

Without another word, he had strode out of the conference room, determination evident in every single step. I watched him go to his office with a sour taste in my mouth.

The way he spoke made it seem as though he had forgotten what the binding ceremony was.

So by this point I was in a panic. His strange behavior mixed with the missing Donna equaled a need for answers.

I had to find the Donna and figure out exactly what was going on. My first stop was the room she shared with the Don. I knocked multiple times and, when no one answered, barged in.

I couldn’t bring myself to care that no one besides her and the Don was allowed in here; I was too focused on my mission.

To my shock, the room was empty. The Donna was nowhere to be found.

I had figured this was where she had been hiding out, and obviously I had figured wrong.

As I looked around the room, my eyes stopped at the Don’s desk.

It was extremely messy—strange, as the Don was one of the neatest people I knew.

He became upset when even a paperclip was out of place. There were papers thrown across the entire surface of the desk, covered in red ink.

I approached, curiosity and concern overriding my usual dedication to rules.

What I found made my heart drop.

All of the papers were letters written to the Don.

Sent by the Rossi family.

~No, that can’t be right. The Don wouldn’t be in secret communication with our mortal enemies.~

I reread the letter I was holding before moving on to the next, hoping to find some other explanation. But there was none. All the letters were written by the Rossi family head to the Don.

And that wasn’t even the scariest part.

This wasn’t just any family—it was the most famous family in the world other than the royal family. It was also the most evil.

This was Antonio’s family, receiving the title after supporting the rule of Antonio Rossi, the former Don.

Unlike others who seemed to have at least some morals, this family was notorious for murdering without cause and performing despicable acts. Their vile conduct was the reason our family and theirs had been at war for so long.

As Don, Antonio Rossi moved to allow rogue groups conduct organized crime operations, ignoring how dangerous that could be, only thinking of gaining more power. Rogue groups weren’t attached by loyalty to a family… And this was why Antonio had lost the throne.

The letters spoke of an ambush on our family that would take place in three days’ time.

The Don had shared with them all the weak spots in our borders, given them information on the best attack strategies. Together, they had formed a plan to take down our headquarters.

And after the defeat, they would give us the choice to join them.

Or die.

My hands shook as I read through each letter, taking in the details and committing them to memory. Their ultimate goal was to woo us to their side to defeat anyone that stood in their way.

And they would.

Antonio Rossi would have the throne once again.

I dropped the letters back onto the desk after I had finished reading.

I wasn’t supposed to know any of this. The Don was hiding the evidence, and with good reason. My mind drifted to when he had proposed us letting a group of Rossis onto our territory.

He had thought it would be nice to have them on our side in case we were ever attacked. His idea was shot down immediately by the elders and me.

Rossis and Contis had never gotten along. Both our families were too proud to work in harmony. If the Don had proposed teaming up with Antonio during a meeting with the elders, he would have been deemed insane, possibly unfit for his role.

He could have lost all his authority and credibility.

So he had gone behind our backs and communicated with him in secret.

Don Luca took great pride in having the most powerful family in the world, and he had worked hard to earn that title. But I had never thought he was power-hungry enough to willingly endanger us all.

Didn’t he know that most, if not all, of our members would die before they agreed to take orders from Rossis and help them kill our own in the process?

~If he imagines this will somehow help us rise to the top or make history, then he’s badly misjudged. It will mean the end of our family as we know it.~

I had very little time to take action.

I thought about going to Destra Angelina, but her name had been mentioned in the letters multiple times. In fact, now that I thought about it, she and the Don had been awfully friendly ever since we had come home from Naples.

Was it possible they were in on this together?

There was no one else I could trust with the information who wouldn’t be put in danger by knowing. I had to do this myself.

In a flash, I was out of the Don’s room and down the hall.

Although I was still worried about the Donna, she was now the last thing on my mind. It was better for her to stay away anyway. She would be safer if she had no contact with the Don.

And the Don would be weaker without his ~destino~.

Once I was in my office, I hurriedly wrote a letter explaining the stakes and handed it off to our strongest man, Ben. I sent him out with orders to deliver the letter to our surrounding allies.

I reminded him that he wasn’t to stop for any reason or let anyone except the Don of the other family see the letter. Once he had his instructions, Ben sprinted off without any questions, sensing the urgency.

It was clear to me that a war was coming in three days, a war we would not survive if we didn’t get help. Hopefully, our allies next door would be willing to help us.

We had a good relationship and a record of fighting together. Although this time would be more dangerous than any of the other ones, I had little doubt that they would step up, especially since it concerned their wellbeing too. But that wasn’t enough. I was going to need more than that.

After ensuring that the Don was still in his office, I called a family meeting in the forest.

I ordered everyone to start training and getting ready for an intense battle, emphasizing that these were the Don’s orders instead of my own. At first they were confused and worried and wanted to know what was going on, which was more than fair.

I assured them that I knew just as little as they did, that I was just the messenger.

They got to work right after that.

It would take too long to get letters to our allies, and I couldn’t call them without arousing the Don’s suspicion. If all went well with them, I would have an army of about six thousand on my hands.

However, Antonio’s group was over ten thousand rogue criminals strong and counting, constantly blackmailing people to join their ranks, adding to their numbers.

I needed more assistance if I was going to save my family.

And there was only one way to do that, only one person who would have just as much to lose if Antonio were to gain power.

I would have to negotiate and partner with Antonio’s brother.

Zefiro Rossi.