Chapter 6 - The Council Chamber
The High Council met in the grand ballroom of the Grand Regent Hotel in Midtown Manhattan—a neutral territory secured by decades of mafia tradition.
The room was vast, lined with polished dark mahogany walls, massive crystal chandeliers, and a long oval table crafted from heavy oak. Around the table sat twenty men—the elders, the capos, and the heads of the Five Families of New York.
At the far end sat Don Antonio Moretti, an elderly, dangerous man with cold white hair and a golden cane, flanked by his daughter, Donatella.
Beside them stood Marco Duca, smiling with quiet triumph.
When the massive double doors threw open, Gabriel walked in.
He wore a tailored black tuxedo, his posture dominant, his dark hair combed back. But what caused a sudden, sharp murmur to ripple through the assembled mafia bosses was the woman walking beside him.
Olivia.
She wore an elegant emerald green silk gown that Gabriel’s tailors had delivered that morning. Her hair was swept up in a regal chignon, revealing her slender neck and silver diamond earrings. She held her head high, her hand tucked securely into the crook of Gabriel’s arm. She did not look like a humble florist; she looked like a queen stepping onto her throne.
"What is the meaning of this, Gabriel?" Don Antonio Moretti slammed his gold cane against the floor, his raspy voice cutting through the room. "This is a Council meeting of the Families. Why have you brought a civilian vendor into our sacred hall?"
Gabriel led Olivia to the head of the long table, pulling out the massive leather chair at the top for her. She sat gracefully, resting her hands on the polished wood.
Gabriel stood beside her, resting his hand on the back of her chair.
"She is not a civilian vendor, Antonio," Gabriel said, his voice echoing off the high ceiling like thunder. "She is the woman who holds my heart, and the woman my daughters have chosen as their mother."
Donatella stood up, her face twisted in rage. "She is a nobody! A divorced, penniless flower girl!"
"Silence!" Gabriel boomed, his steel-gray eyes flashing with lethal promise. "You speak to her with respect, Donatella, or you do not leave this room alive."
Marco stepped forward, pointing a finger at Gabriel. "Elders of the Council! You see his madness?! He rejects the alliance with the Moretti family—an alliance that guarantees our docks and our security—for a woman with no name, no bloodline, and no power! I move for an immediate vote of no confidence against Gabriel Duca!"
The room erupted into shouts, arguments, and slammed fists. The elders muttered among themselves, looking uncertainly between Don Antonio’s wealth and Gabriel’s raw power.
Olivia sat in the eye of the storm, feeling her heart hammer against her ribs, but she kept her gaze fixed on the men arguing for Gabriel’s downfall.
She remembered what Gabriel had told her: Every empire has a crack in its foundation.
May you like
She looked at Marco, then at Don Antonio, and pulled a small leather folder from her silk purse—a folder Gabriel’s intelligence team had compiled that morning.
She stood up.
