6. Chapter 6
Chapter six
Ettore
T he air was thick with tension as an urgent meeting, hastily arranged in the aftermath of Leone’s untimely passing, brought together the four remaining families. I took my place at the table, representing the legacy of the Moretti name. The other seats were filled by the heads of the Coscia, Tomasino, and Salvaggio households, each one bearing their own unique weight of responsibility and power.
The atmosphere was tense as our leaders and their advisors huddled together, about to discuss the future of our powerful alliance. I could already feel the tension in the room. They knew what I had done with Liria, which wasn’t enough to break our truce, but it would definitely cause some ripples. All the other men at this table wanted one of their sons to marry her or her dead.
“Let’s not beat around the bush,” Tomaso Coscia said. “We need to address the changes to the families now that Leone is gone.” He glared at me, and I knew he was easily the angriest at this table. The man had been all but begging Leone to let one of his sons marry Liria.
“I would have appreciated congratulations on my marriage first, Tomaso.”
“You knew exactly what you were-” He raised his voice but was interrupted.
“Enough!” Gianni Salvaggio said. “Let’s keep this on topic.”
A silence fell over the room, broken only by the soft clink of wine glasses against the dark mahogany table. Ignoring Tomaso’s livid stare, I took a long sip from my glass. Gianni, always the peacekeeper, regarded each of us briefly before continuing.
“Regardless of the circumstances of Leone’s daughter’s marriage, she is now a Moretti by name. That fact cannot be altered.”
A murmur of assent passed through the room. Even Tomaso couldn’t argue with that. He sat back down, crossing his arms over his chest in a sulk.
“Thus, the Alto name has been dissolved,” he continued. “This leaves a void in our alliance.”
I disagreed with a scoff. In my opinion, Leone Alto’s departure was not an issue at all.
“Leone was the backbone of our alliance. His influence and power were unmatched by any of us.”
I retorted, heat creeping into my tone. “Perhaps, but that’s no longer relevant. Hilaria is my wife now and I have already begun to reorganize power accordingly.”
Just before the tension in the room escalated once more, Antonio Tomasino intervened. “We need to agree on one thing before we proceed any further,” he said, leaning forward on his elbows. His gaze swept over each of us in turn before settling on me. “Does anyone here dispute the legitimacy of Ettore Moretti’s marriage to Leone’s daughter?”
The room fell silent once more. All eyes darted between the four patriarchs. The silence was deafening, a moment stretched out for an eternity. Finally, Tomaso broke the silence.
“I dispute it,” he spat venomously across the table. Every gaze in the room sharpened towards me, their expressions a shared anticipation of my retort.
“On what grounds, Tomaso?” I asked. My tone was sharp, cutting through the heavy silence like a knife.
“On the grounds that you manipulated her,” he shot back, leaning across the table, his face red and contorted with anger.
Gianni suddenly interjected, “Tomaso, this isn’t about vengeance. This is about maintaining stability within our alliance.”
The tension in the room was palpable as Tomaso and I locked eyes. He finally threw himself back in his chair, looking begrudgingly at Gianni.
“Stability…” he muttered under his breath, pouring himself another glass of wine. “When there has never been stability with a Moretti at the helm.”
The room slid into another uneasy silence, and I leaned back in my chair, a thin smile crossing my face. “Then perhaps it is time we adapt to the changing tides,” I said, raising my glass to him.
My mind was a swirling storm of stress after the intense meeting between the four powerful families. I had confidently slipped into Leone’s shoes, but now that I was actually walking in them, my nerves were on edge. It felt as though if I made one misstep, the ground could give way at any moment.
Fuck it. I was more than capable of handling Leone’s affairs. My capabilities are unmatched and there was no reason why I should be letting the other geezers get under my skin. I would prove them wrong with every successful business deal and strategic decision. I was Ettore Moretti, and I would not be brought down by anyone.
I made my way back to the apartment, feeling a surge of confidence with each step I took. The lock to my apartment door beeped as I ran the keycard over it, and I was not expecting what I saw when I opened the door.
Liria had the oven door open and was fanning out thick, black smoke from the oven.
“-supposed to bake it for ten minutes!” she yelled at Felix between bouts of coughs.
The man’s face was smeared with dark, gooey substance that I could only assume was chocolate. It coated his lips and chin, leaving traces of brown on his skin. Even his shirt bore patches of the sticky treat, as if he had been indulging in it for some time.
“What is going on here?” I said loudly, ripping the two out of the chaos they were in.
Both began talking at the same time, each one giving very different stories.
Liria was gesturing wildly, “He set the timer for an hour instead of ten minutes!”
Felix, meanwhile, was adamantly defending himself. All while attempting to wipe his face clean with his shirtsleeve and only succeeding in smearing it further around. “I swear on my grandma’s grave, Ettore! She told me an hour!”
“An hour for a cookies?” I questioned dubiously. I turned to my wife with a raised eyebrow.
“I said ten minutes! He didn’t listen,” she countered, propping her hands on her hips.
Felix muttered something along the lines of how he liked her better when she didn’t talk.
With a sigh, I shrugged off my suit jacket and tossed it onto the back of a chair. I rolled up my shirt sleeves and moved to the oven to assess the damage. An acrid smell hit me as I opened it, only to find a blackened lump that had presumably once been an attempt at dessert.
“Why were you even baking cookies?” I asked.
“I thought it would be nice,” she explained, her voice sheepish. “A... welcome home gift from me.”
That confession made me pause. Her words were simple, yet they had a profound impact on me. I turned to look at her. She was standing there, the light from the kitchen illuminating her face. The faint smudge of flour on her cheek, her slightly disheveled hair, and the nervous twitch of her fingers all added an endearing quality to her overall persona.
“Thank you,” I said finally, giving her a warm smile that seemed to put her at ease.
Felix grumbled a goodbye and left the apartment, leaving Liria and me alone in the smokey mess of a kitchen.
I reached out for a dish towel and started waving it around, trying to disperse the lingering smoke. “Well, let’s clean up this disaster before it gets any worse,” I said lightly, a hint of humor in my voice.
For the first time in our marriage, Liria giggled. It was a soft sound, barely audible over the hum of the hardly functioning exhaust fan, but I caught it and my gaze snapped back at her. But just as it quickly as it happened, it ended.
The two of us, armed with sponges and soap, spent the next hour meticulously scrubbing away at the chaos in the kitchen. The powerful scent of cleaning products filled the air as we tackled each sticky spot and greasy surface. We worked in tandem, a well-oiled machine, our movements complementing each other as we made quick work of the mess. By the time we finished, every dish was sparkling clean, and every crumb had been swept away. The kitchen now gleamed with an aura of freshness and order, a stark contrast to its previous state. Exhausted but satisfied, we high-fived before collapsing onto the couch in victory.
“I can’t believe I did all that work and still didn’t get cookies,” she mumbled to herself.
“I can fix that for you.” I pulled out my phone and opened DoorDash. “Do you still want cookies, or a different dessert?”
“What? No. You don’t have to buy me dessert.”
“If you don’t tell me what you want, I suppose I’ll have to order one of everything,” I tilted my phone screen towards her so she could see me add each item to the cart.
“No, no, no! Alright. Chocolate chip cookies and banana bread please.”
“Done and done,” I said, tapping the order into my phone. A vibration signaled the order’s confirmation.
Liria looked at me, her face a mixture of surprise and gratitude. “You didn’t have to do that, you know.”
I shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s just cookies, Liria.”
She hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “It’s not about the cookies, Ettore.” She paused, seemingly searching for the right words.
“It’s about you being... nice,” she continued, her eyes dropping from my gaze to her hands in her lap. There was a warm blush spreading across her cheeks.
“Is that so surprising?” I asked, trying to keep the amusement out of my voice.
Liria shook her head slightly, looking up again. “A bit... unexpected.”
“Well,” I said after a moment, “I suppose there are many facets to Ettore Moretti.”
She looked at me, her blue eyes wide and fixed on my face. Not with fear or apprehension, but with interest - a curiosity that endeared her to me even more.
“I’m starting to see that,” she murmured.
We sat there for a moment, lost in the comfortable silence between us. The ding from my phone announcing our dessert’s arrival broke it. I got up from the couch and went to fetch our treats, leaving Liria with her thoughts.
When I returned to the living room, Liria was standing by the window, gazing out at the cityscape. She turned at my entrance and gave me a small smile.
The lights of the city shone through the window behind her, creating a dazzling array of colors and shadows. Their glow enveloped her like a halo, giving her an otherworldly allure. As she moved towards me with such grace and poise, it was as if she were a divine being walking among mere mortals. She was a vision to behold; a goddess descended from the heavens to walk among us on this earthly plane.
I mentally slapped myself. Why was I having these thoughts? I had never obsessed over a woman in my life - they always begged for me. Not to mention Liria was almost half my age.
I tried to convince myself that her beauty was the only reason why she had such an impact on me. Eventually I would become accustomed to it and I could resume everyday life.
When she smiled at me as she grabbed a cookie, I hoped that day would come sooner rather than later.