Chapter 6 - The Council of Shadow
The High Council assembled in an underground boardroom beneath a neutral hotel in downtown Providence.
The air was heavy with cigar smoke and tension. Five elderly men—the leaders of the major East Coast crime families—sat around a massive oval table made of dark mahogany. At the far end sat Don Donato Rossi, looking triumphant, surrounded by four heavily armed bodyguards.
"Allessandro Romano has gone mad!" Donato shouted, slamming his fist onto the table. "He seized my daughter! He fired upon my men! He broke the peace pact that has kept our families rich for a decade! I demand the Council authorize a total war to wipe out the Romano family!"
The Commission Chairman, an old, gray-haired man named Don Carmine, puffed calmly on his cigar. "Allessandro has requested an audience before we vote, Donato. We hear both sides. That is the law of the Commission."
"He is a traitor!" Donato snarled. "He has no defense!"
The double doors at the back of the chamber swung open.
Allessandro walked into the room. He wore a crisp, tailored navy suit. But he did not come alone.
Beside him walked small six-year-old Emma, wearing a fresh woolen dress, holding her mother's hand on one side and carrying her rag doll Rosie in the other. Marco followed closely behind, carrying a black metal cooler.
A murmur of shock swept through the hardened mob bosses.
"What is the meaning of this, Allessandro?" Don Carmine barked, narrowing his eyes. "You bring a housekeeper and a child into the High Council chamber? This is a holy place of business!"
"I brought the witness who saved my life," Allessandro said calmly. His voice resonated through the stone room. He gestured to Marco.
Marco stepped forward, opened the black cooler, and placed two glass jars onto the polished mahogany table. Inside one jar was the silver dish of melted, buttered bread from breakfast. Inside the other was a tiny white porcelain vial with a broken wax seal.
"This morning," Allessandro began, looking around at the old bosses, "I was supposed to eat breakfast with my betrothed, Isabella Rossi. A marriage designed to unite our territories."
"And you abused her!" Donato interrupted fiercely.
"She poisoned the butter," Allessandro said coldly. "With concentrated digitalis extract. A chemical that causes heart failure within three hours, mimicking a natural heart attack."
"Lies! Fabricated nonsense!" Donato roared, standing up. "You put that poison there yourself to cancel the wedding!"
Allessandro ignored Donato and turned to the little girl beside him. He knelt down so he was at her eye level.
"Emma," Allessandro said softly. "Look at the gentleman with the cigar at the end of the table. Tell him what you saw last night."
Emma looked at the old men in suits. Their harsh, scarred faces were terrifying, but she remembered Allessandro's promise. She stepped forward, holding her doll against her chest.
"I went to get water for my mama," Emma said, her voice clear and bell-like in the silent room. "Miss Isabella was in the kitchen. She thought I was sleeping. She took that white bottle from her purse and crushed a pill with a spoon. She put it in the butter and rubbed it smooth."
Donato spat on the floor. "You expect the Commission to take the word of a six-year-old street rat?!"
"She didn't just see the act, Donato," Allessandro sneered, standing up to his full height, his eyes blazing. "She told me what your daughter said to her. Isabella gave her three thousand-dollar bills from her purse to keep quiet. Bills that carried the sequential serial numbers of the Rossi family treasury reserve."
Marco tossed a clear plastic bag onto the table. Inside were three crisp, fresh thousand-dollar bills.
Don Carmine leaned forward, taking off his glasses to inspect the bills. He looked at the serial numbers, then looked up at Donato Rossi.
"These numbers belong to your family bank vault, Donato," Don Carmine said, his voice dropping into a dangerous rumble. "You tried to assassinate a Don on the eve of a peace treaty. You used a child to cover your tracks."
"It's a setup!" Donato panicked, stepping back toward his bodyguards. "She's lying!"
"Ask your daughter," Allessandro said coldly. "She is currently in my safehouse. We had a lab analyze the butter two hours ago. It contains enough poison to kill five grown men."
Don Carmine stood up, wiping his cigar out in an crystal ashtray. The other three Council members stood up with him, their faces grim.
"Donato Rossi," Don Carmine declared, his voice echoing like a death knell. "You have broken the sacred code of the Commission. You used poison, you targeted a Don during a peace summit, and you endangered an innocent child."
"No! Wait!" Donato yelled, reaching for his weapon.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Before Donato’s bodyguards could draw their guns, the Commission’s silent enforcers stationed around the room fired. Donato Rossi collapsed onto the carpet, his reign over the Rossi syndicate ended in a matter of seconds.
May you like
Emma gasped and buried her face in her mother's dress. Allessandro immediately stepped in front of them, blocking their view of the blood with his broad body.
"It's over," Allessandro said quietly to Emma, reaching down to shield her eyes. "The bad men are gone."
