Chapter 7 - The Cassaro Ultimatum
Three days later, Don Lorenzo Cassaro arrived in the city, bringing with him a entourage of armed enforcers. A summit was arranged at a neutral venue—a secluded luxury estate overlooking the coast.
Mars insisted on bringing his entire inner circle, including Damian and Nico. To Victoria’s utter dismay, Mars also demanded that Tami sit beside him at the head of the negotiation table.
"You are throwing her to the wolves," Victoria warned Mars in the estate courtyard before they left. "Lorenzo Cassaro is a brute. He will humiliate her."
"She is the Duchess of this family," Mars replied coldly, adjusting his cuffs. "She stands where I stand."
When they arrived at the estate, the atmosphere was suffocating. Lorenzo Cassaro, a ruthless man in his late forty with a scarred neck and a reputation for extreme violence, sat at the head of the marble table. Beside him was his son, Matteo, a arrogant young man who looked at the Bellaforte heirs with open contempt.
As Mars and Tami walked in hand-in-hand, Lorenzo’s eyes narrowed immediately on Tami.
"Mars Bellaforte," Lorenzo grunted in a rough, heavy accent. "I came across the Atlantic expecting to see a Don, not a man playing house with a common woman."
Damian’s hand twitched toward his holster, but Mars raised a quiet hand, keeping his expression calm and deadly.
"State your business, Cassaro," Mars said, helping Tami into her chair before taking his own. "You asked for a summit under the old pact."
Lorenzo threw a thick leather document onto the center of the table. "The pact signed by your late father states clearly: if the Bellaforte leadership lacks a noble alliance, the Cassaro family inherits control of the eastern shipping docks. Your mother tells us you married your housemaid. That is not an alliance, Mars. That is a insult to the High Commission."
Matteo Cassaro sneered, looking directly at Tami’s full figure and simple, elegant dark velvet dress. "She doesn't even look the part. Did you run out of real women in America, Bellaforte?"
Before Mars could draw his weapon, Tami spoke up. Her voice was surprisingly calm, carrying a clear, steady strength that startled everyone in the room.
"If you came here to evaluate my worthiness, Mr. Cassaro," Tami said, resting her folded hands quietly on the table, "perhaps you should evaluate your own intelligence network first."
Lorenzo frowned, his thick eyebrows joining together. "What are you talking about, woman?"
"You rely on a paper signed twenty years ago by Mars’s father," Tami continued, looking Lorenzo dead in the eye. "But you conveniently failed to check the updated filings made by Adelina Bellaforte before her passing."
The entire room went quiet. Mars turned to look at Tami, genuine surprise flashing in his eyes.
Tami opened her small portfolio bag and pulled out a certified legal document bearing the official seal of the Italian Ministry of Justice.
"Adelina Bellaforte was the sole heir to the Carbone estate in Naples," Tami explained clearly. "Before she entered hospice care, she transferred her family’s historic land rights and financial trusts directly into a foundation registered in my name to ensure her sons were protected from internal family vultures."
Tami slid the paper across the long table until it landed right in front of Lorenzo.
"I am not just Mars's wife, Mr. Cassaro," Tami said, her voice rising with quiet authority. "I am the sole controller of the Carbone maritime trust—which happens to own seventy percent of the coastal waters your family uses to ship goods out of Naples. If you challenge my marriage or step foot on Bellaforte territory, I will revoke your shipping access by sunrise tomorrow."
Lorenzo stared at the document, his face turning pale as he scanned the official seals and signatures. Matteo looked at his father in complete shock.
May you like
Mars let out a low, slow chuckle, leaning back in his chair and resting his arm over the back of Tami’s seat, his eyes gleaming with immense pride.
"You heard my wife," Mars said, his voice dropping into a lethal whisper. "Now take your paper, take your son, and get off my land before I decide to make this personal."
