Chapter 47
COSIMO
There was a room in one of our Midtown office buildings where many of the important family meetings were held. But none had been as important as this one.
There were no windows, one door, a table long enough to seat eighteen.
Soundproof panels lined the walls and the ceiling.
At around eight o’clock, the last of the employees at the property management company that occupied the building clocked out.
By nine o’clock, the whole place had been swept for bugs, the hallway cameras had been disabled, and two trusted soldiers were stationed at the only door.
The furniture inside the room was well-made but old. The first time Dad brought me here, shortly after I became a capo, I asked him why we made our biggest decisions in such an inconspicuous place.
His answer had stayed with me.
It reminds everyone who comes in here to stay humble. It’s easy to start imagining we’re kings, but that’s not what we are. We all serve something bigger than ourselves. The men at this table serve me, and I serve the family.
The family.
It was a name for a group of people, but more than that, it was an idea. And ideas outlived every man who served them.
I wondered when Father had realized he’d betrayed that idea by listening to Vita and turning his back on Rena Santoro. The drawing in his journal told me he had understood eventually.
I’d always believed his greatest mistake was loving too deeply.
I’d been wrong.
His mistake was giving all that love to the wrong woman.
At quarter past nine, the capos filed in. Rom and Alessio sat on each side of me, their presence grounding and familiar.
The capos filled the seats around the table, but they left the spot directly across from me open.
That empty fucking chair mocked me. They all clearly knew what was about to happen next, which explained why none of them so much as blinked when Mother walked in a few moments later and took that seat.
Vita folded her hands on the table and surveyed the room. “Shall we begin?” she asked, as though her presence here was completely normal.
A cold smile pulled at my mouth. “What are you doing here, Mother? This vote involves the capos, my brothers, and me.” I wanted her to articulate her betrayal plainly so that she’d have nothing to hide behind later.
Her mild expression didn’t change. “As I have already communicated to the caporegimes, your father did not explicitly leave the family to you in his will. The succession is therefore unclear. I am putting myself forward as a candidate.”
The nonchalance with which she spoke told me she believed she already had the votes. Several of the capos wore the guarded expressions of men who’d recently been promised something and were now wondering whether those promises would hold. Most of the ones she’d paid refused to meet my eyes.
I leaned back in my chair. “I am his eldest son and his underboss. What you’re proposing is treason.”
She laughed. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Cosimo.
We all know you were raised with certain expectations, but Gino was taken from us far too soon.
We believed you would have another ten or fifteen years to prepare.
You are not ready. Treason would be placing someone in that seat before he is equipped to lead.
” She flattened her palms on the table and gave me the condescending smile she had used on me since childhood.
“I don’t intend to hold the position forever.
Just long enough for you to grow into the role. ”
“And what makes you more qualified than me?”
“I ran this family alongside Gino for thirty years. I have also served as CEO of Ferraro Holdings for the last sixty days.”
“Yes. And as far as I can tell, the only thing you’ve accomplished in those sixty days is carving Ferraro Holdings into pieces and distributing them among the men sitting at this table.”
Some of the capos bristled, appearing surprised. They hadn’t expected me to know.
Neither had Vita. A faint tension appeared in her posture.
I arched a brow. “Did you honestly believe I wouldn’t find out?”
“What I’ve done,” she said after a beat, “is create stakeholders. I gave the men who built this family the incentives they deserve.”
“What you’ve done is jeopardize the reputation of a legitimate private company by putting men with criminal records on its board.
We all know that arrangement can’t last. A company with Ferraro Holdings’ profile won’t survive that kind of scrutiny.
” I turned to address the table. “Which means she would have found a way to take those shares back eventually.”
The mood in the room curdled.
“If my father could see this, he’d be turning in his grave at how cheaply some of you allowed yourselves to be bought.”
George cleared his throat. “Cosimo, Gino always trusted Vita. We’re all trying to do what’s best for the family.”
“Are we?” I shifted my attention to Mother. “Is she? How well do any of you truly know this woman and what drives her?”
Her jaw tightened. “And what about your motivations, Cosimo?” She angled herself toward George. “Consider what he has been doing while his father’s killers have not yet been held accountable. He abandoned his post and went on a honeymoon with his wife.”
“It wasn’t a honeymoon,” I said. “It was a working trip. My wife will have to forgive me for the distinction. The trip turned out to be highly informative. I even met someone who I invited to be present for this conversation.”
Alarm flashed in Vita’s expression, but she quickly hid it away. “What are you talking about? This is a family matter.”
“Exactly.” Sardonic amusement tugged on my lips. “Rom?”
My brother rose and went to open the door.
“This is Dominic Santoro,” I said, as Dominic stepped in.
Gasps sounded around the table. Three of the capos pushed back from their seats, their hands moving toward hips instinctually before they realized that weapons had been left outside per protocol. Vita went very still, and for the first time since we’d sat down, fear cracked her composure.
“Relax,” Rom snapped at the capos as he pulled out the chair beside him for Dominic.
“What the hell is going on, Cosimo?” George asked, his voice low. “Is this the man responsible for what happened to Gino?”
“No,” I said. “His mother is. But by the time you hear him out, I think you might have a different perspective on the entire situation.”
George’s frown deepened.
“Let’s start at the beginning.” I looked at Vita. “Mother, anything to say before I begin? After all, one could argue that the reason my father lies in the ground is because of the blood feud you started thirty years ago.”
The color left her face. I watched with satisfaction as the realization that I knew everything washed over her.
I smiled. “Like you said, this is a family affair. Since Dominic is our half brother, it’s only right he’s present.”
“Your half brother?” one of the capos called out, stunned.
I told them the full story.
“It is a shameful moment in our history,” I said once I was done. “A man refusing to protect the mother of his child. Rena Santoro had to watch her family be slaughtered around her, while my father—at Vita’s behest—refused to intervene.”
“I don’t believe it.” Marco said from the far end of the table. He was one of the old guard, a man who’d known my mother since before I was born. He shook his head slowly. “Vita’s not capable of something like that.”
“My brothers and I were raised by her,” I said.
“We can tell you firsthand that she is capable of this and considerably worse. I want you to ask yourselves, why has she not said a word about any of this to you? She had all the pieces we were missing all along. She knew exactly why the Santoros were targeting us. And yet she stayed silent. She knew that helping us track down my father’s killers would expose her own role in all of this. ”
The mood around the table had changed. Men who’d spent years accepting Vita’s polished version of herself were starting to revisit what they thought they knew.
Doubt tightened their mouths. Their bodies drew back from the table, as if to put some distance between them and the woman they had been prepared to install at the head of the family.
Vita’s composure held, but barely. It was clearly difficult for her to remain still beneath their scrutiny. She’d spent her entire life curating what other people saw, polishing every gesture and every expression until the performance was perfect.
Being seen for what she really was terrified her. And now, every man in the room could see the rot beneath the surface.
“Everything I have ever done,” she said, a tremor entering her voice, “has been to protect this family.”
“No,” I said. “Everything you have ever done has been to hoard power and protect yourself. You’ve spent nearly thirty years doing an excellent job of convincing everyone otherwise.
But it’s over now. You will never lead this family.
” I turned back to the capos. “Dominic and I have been working on a deal. We see a path out of this feud that doesn’t require any more spilled blood. Dominic, will you do the honors?”
Dominic began walking the capos through the terms we had put together, and when he reached the numbers, the mood shifted again.
Their remaining skepticism gave way to calculation, then to relief.
My version of the Ferraros’ future offered peace that would make us stronger.
And the deal would put money in their pockets that was even better than what Vita had tried to offer them.
She remained rigid in her chair, but the strain was beginning to show in the tight line of her mouth and the shallow rise and fall of her chest. She could feel the vote slipping away from her.
When Dominic finished, she surged to her feet. “This is absurd. You’re asking these men to simply set aside the fact that this family—” she gestured at Dominic “—killed your father.”
“I’m asking them to consider the full history,” I said.
“Including the part where our family’s choices created this feud in the first place.
You’ve claimed for thirty years that you built this family alongside my father.
That may be true to some extent. But the quality that separates a don from a consort is that a don understands that the interests of the family come before their own. ”
Her face hardened, but I didn’t give her a chance to interrupt.
“What you did thirty years ago is the opposite of that. It would have cost my father almost nothing to help the Santoros. It would have ended this before it began. But you were so determined to control him—so unwilling to allow him any connection to the woman carrying his child—that you pushed him into a decision that ultimately cost him his life.” I held her gaze.
“If his blood is on anyone’s hands, it’s on yours. ”
The room was absolutely silent.
“When it comes to the Santoro family,” I said, “I consider the matter settled.”
“That’s not for you to decide. You are not don yet,” Vita said. Her voice remained steady, but her face betrayed her. She knew what was coming. Maybe she had known from the moment Dominic walked through the door and brought the past she’d tried to bury with him.
From the far end of the table, George lifted his hand.
“I’m with Cosimo.”
Around the table, the hands went up one by one. Eight, nine, ten…
I shot a look at Rom, who still had his arms down. He met me with a serious expression, then broke into a grin and put his hand up.
Funny. I flicked my gaze back to Vita.
What now, Mother?
The expression on her face was one I’d never seen there before.
Defeat.
I’d won.
She turned to Dominic, the last of her mask melting away. Beneath it was pure, undisguised hatred.
“I told Gino you’d return,” she hissed. “Told him he should have taken care of you and your wretched mother once and for all. But he was too sentimental.”
Dominic looked completely unruffled. Almost bored. “I imagine that was deeply frustrating for a woman who believed she could have everything she wanted.”
Mother picked up her purse and walked out without another word.
The door shut behind her.
A moment later, the room broke into motion around me.
Chairs scraped against the floor as the capos rose, voices overlapping as they came forward.
Alessio’s hand landed heavily on my shoulder.
Romolo gave my back a hard slap. Dominic and I shook hands before several of the men drew him into conversations of their own.
I accepted the congratulations, but they reached me as if from a distance. As if I was watching the scene play out from somewhere above.
My entire life had been shaped around getting to this moment. But if it wasn’t for one person who wasn’t even in the room, I would’ve never gotten here.
The seat was mine now, but I sure as hell hadn’t won it alone.
I was the don of the Ferraro family.
And when I went home to my wife, I was going to make damn sure she understood that whatever came next, I intended to face it with her beside me.