Fall of the Underboss

At the head of the long table sat the current Don Moretti, the man known as the “Old Lion”. His eyes were closed, resting.

Though he was advanced in age, the presence radiating from him silenced the entire dining hall.

Lorenzo sat at Don Moretti’s lower left, the seat reserved for the underboss.

And Sophia was really there. Dressed in a garish red gown, she trembled as she sat to my right.

The other family elders exchanged looks. They stared at Lorenzo as if they were watching a dead man.

“Lorenzo.” Don Moretti slowly opened his eyes, his voice hoarse yet commanding. “This is the ‘surprise’ you mentioned to me?”

Lorenzo stood stiffly. “Don Moretti, Sophia may be of low birth, but she… she’s carrying my child. I wanted to take this opportunity—”

“Outrageous!”

Before Don Moretti could speak, the consigliere across the table slammed his hand down.

“Lorenzo! Your wife is sitting right here, and you bring a mistress to the main table? Where does that put Ms. Bernardi? Are you trying to humiliate her or the Bernardi family?”

Lorenzo opened his mouth to argue when the doors suddenly burst open.

Mario, one of his closest men, stumbled in, covered in blood.

“Don Moretti! Something’s happened!”

“Pier Four has been wiped out! Interpol moved like they had a map, and our shipment was seized the moment it hit the dock! Our men… none of them made it!”

“What?!” Lorenzo’s face drained of color. He slumped back into his chair.

That shipment was Don Moretti’s trust placed directly in his hands. The deal was meant to prove his worth.

Don Moretti slowly set his glass down. The soft clink as it landed sounded like thunder in everyone’s chest.

He turned his head, his clouded eyes locking onto Lorenzo.

“Lorenzo, is this your return to the family?” he said too calmly. “The goods taken, and the men gone with them?”

“Don Moretti, I—” Cold sweat poured down Lorenzo’s face. “Someone must have leaked it! There has to be a traitor!”

He suddenly pointed at me, desperate to grasp for a lifeline.

“It was her! It had to be Elena! She’s a Bernardi! She wanted to swallow the shipment!”

All eyes turned to me.

I calmly cut a piece of steak, wiped my mouth with elegance, and then looked at Don Moretti.

“Don Moretti, if the Bernardi family wanted that shipment, we would have intercepted it at sea. Why wait until it reaches port and draw the police? What would we gain from that?”

Don Moretti nodded slightly.

Drawing the authorities was a cardinal sin in the mafia. The Bernardi family wouldn’t do something so foolish.

“Besides…” I set my knife and fork down and turned my gaze, sharp as a blade, toward the trembling Sophia.

“When the meeting was held in the study to set the schedule, who went in to deliver coffee? Then, lingered outside the door after, refusing to leave?”

Sophia’s fork slipped from her hand, crashing onto the plate with a shrill sound.

“And,” I added coolly, “I’ve heard Miss Sophia recently lost quite a bit of money at the casino. She’s been desperate to find cash to cover her debts.”

“You’re lying!” Sophia screamed, her face deathly pale. “Lorenzo, it wasn’t me! I didn’t do it!”

“Enough!” Don Moretti slammed the table.

He didn’t even glance at Sophia. His eyes never left Lorenzo.

“As underboss, you leaked family secrets to an outsider. As a man, you betrayed your wife for a mistress. Lorenzo, you’ve disappointed me.”

“Don Moretti, please give me one more chance…” Lorenzo dropped to his knees with a heavy thud.

“Take that woman away.” Don Moretti pointed at Sophia. “Deal with her according to family law.”

Then he looked coldly at Lorenzo.

“As for you, step down as underboss. Go to the countryside in Trinacria and reflect for three months. If Elena does not forgive you, don’t ever come back.”

Sophia’s screams echoed through the hall as she was dragged away.

Lorenzo remained kneeling, shaking, not daring to look up at me.

Late at night in the dungeon.

I stood outside the iron bars, looking at Sophia curled into herself.

“Why…” She sobbed. “It was clearly you…”

“Shh.”

I raised a finger, gazing at her with pity through the bars.

“Foolish girl. If you hadn’t been clutching that divorce agreement, dreaming of replacing me, how would Don Moretti ever believe that a mistress who couldn’t even sit at the table would dare sell out the family?”

I turned and walked away, my heels striking the stone floor.

“Remember this. Whoever I choose to lift can become an underboss. Whoever I choose to destroy can only end up as trash.”