Chapter 7 - THE ARCHITECT OF LIES
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Silvio did not immediately answer, but the aristocratic color completely drained from his aged, aristocratic face.
The capos sitting near him instinctively slid their chairs away, clearing a wide perimeter around the old consigliere.
In the mafia world, an accusation of taking enemy money was synonymous with an immediate death warrant.
Silvio took a slow, measured sip from his crystal glass of vintage Scotch.
He set the glass down on the white linen tablecloth without making a single sound.
"You were always too sentimental, Luca," Silvio said, his grandfatherly warmth instantly evaporating into ice.
"Just like your foolish father."
"And just like your sanctimonious mother."
Luca stepped forward, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles cracked like pistol shots.
"You helped Carmine Russo kill my mother," Luca stated, stating the horror not as a question, but as a verified fact.
Silvio leaned back in his leather chair, a smug, contemptuous smirk playing on his thin lips.
"Your mother was going to destroy everything we built!" Silvio hissed, his eyes flashing with sudden, manic venom.
"She found the ledgers showing my cuts from the docks and the gambling parlors."
"She wanted your father to go legitimate, to turn this family into a bunch of soft, tax-paying cowards!"
"She was going to take you and Olivia to Europe and leave the streets behind!"
Silvio slammed his palm against the dining table, rattling the silverware.
"I spent forty years building the Moretti name in blood and steel!"
"I wasn't going to let an idealistic woman throw my empire into the garbage bin of history!"
Olivia began sobbing uncontrollably, covering her face with her trembling hands.
"You told me Luca hated me," Olivia cried out through her tears.
"You came to my apartment that night with a gun in your coat and said Luca would put me in a shallow grave if I ever contacted him!"
"Because you were a loose thread, girl!" Silvio sneered, glaring at Olivia with profound disgust.
"You saw the mechanic, you asked too many questions, and you were always too clever for your own good."
"I spared your pathetic life out of respect for my brother’s blood, and you repay me by crawling back here like a rat!"
Vanessa let out a muffled whimper from the floor, realizing her leverage was entirely gone.
"Silvio promised me safety," Vanessa blubbered, looking up at Luca with frantic, desperate eyes.
"He approached me after my father died and said he would protect me from your vengeance if I married you and watched your mail!"
"He said you would kill me if you ever found out who my father was!"
Luca stood perfectly still, looking at the two people who had orchestrated the nightmare of his entire adult life.
"You murdered my mother," Luca whispered, his voice trembling with an awesome, terrifying wrath.
"You stole my sister from my youth."
"And you poisoned my home with treachery and lies."
Before Luca could take another step, Silvio's right hand moved with blinding, desperate speed inside his tailored jacket.
The metallic click of a semi-automatic pistol cocking shattered the silence of the dining room.
Silvio drew a snub-nosed revolver and aimed it straight at Olivia’s chest.
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"Nobody move an inch!" Silvio barked, his face twisted in a desperate, cornered snarl.
"Or the girl dies eighteen years late!"
