Chapter 6 - The Fall of the House of Romano
The storm had fully passed by sunrise, leaving a brilliant golden sky reflecting off the still waters of Lake Placid. But down at the old, rusting marina two miles away, a different kind of storm was about to break.
Isabella Romano sat in the back of a luxury sedan, nervously checking her diamond-encrusted watch. The high-speed speedboat was docked nearby, its engine idling quietly.
"Where are they?" she muttered to herself, staring at her phone. "Julian should have called an hour ago."
Suddenly, the driver’s side window shattered. Before the driver could draw his weapon, the door was torn open, and Marco dragged him out onto the gravel road.
Isabella gasped, scrambling to open the opposite door, but it was grabbed from the outside. The door flew open, and Alessandro stood there, bathed in the morning sunlight, his expression forged from cold iron.
"Looking for Julian?" Alessandro asked smoothly.
Isabella shrank back into the leather seat, her eyes wide with terror. "Alessandro... how... how did you find me?"
"Your brother is remarkably chatty when he’s terrified," Alessandro replied. He reached into the car, grabbed her by the wrist—the exact same wrist she had bruised on Sophia—and pulled her out into the open air.
She tried to fight, but her strength was nothing against his. She looked around desperately, but the entire marina was surrounded by Moretti SUVs and armed men.
"You can't do this to me!" Isabella shrieked, her voice cracking with hysterical rage. "My father will destroy you! The Romano name—"
"The Romano name is finished," a stern, authoritative voice cut in.
From the backseat of one of the black SUVs stepped Don Carmine Romano himself. The old man looked broken, flanked by Alessandro’s uncle Matteo and two senior enforcers.
Isabella froze. "Father? What... what is going on?"
Carmine walked forward slowly, his face pale with humiliation and grief. He looked at his daughter with a mixture of disgust and sorrow.
"I gave you everything, Isabella," Carmine said, his voice raspy. "I built an empire so you could live like a queen. And you risked it all because you couldn't control your own sadistic temper? You dragged us into a war with the Morettis over a child and a housekeeper?"
"Father, they lied to you!" Isabella pleaded, stepping toward him. "The housekeeper set me up! Alessandro turned against us!"
"I saw the video, Isabella!" Carmine roared, his outburst echoing across the quiet lake. "Alessandro sent the unedited tapes to the entire Commission last night! Every Don in New York has seen how you treat people. They seen how you tried to slaughter a innocent mother and child! You broke the oldest laws of our society!"
In the mafia underworld, targeting women and children unprovoked was considered a line that could never be crossed. By orchestrating the attack on the safe house, Isabella had made the Romano family pariahs.
"The Commission has made its ruling," Alessandro said coldly, stepping beside Carmine. "The Romano family will surrender fifty percent of its territory to the Moretti family as compensation for the breach of peace. Don Carmine will step down immediately and retire to Italy. And you, Isabella..."
Isabella trembled, her arrogance completely shattered. "What about me?"
"You are stripped of your family name, your trust funds, and your status," Alessandro declared. "You will be escorted to a private convent in Sicily, where you will spend the rest of your life in silence and labor. If you ever set foot on American soil again, the treaty is void, and my men will end you."
Isabella collapsed onto her knees on the gravel, sobbing hysterically as two guards stepped forward to haul her away. She had wanted to rule New York as a mafia queen; instead, her cruelty had condemned her to absolute obscurity.
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Carmine looked at Alessandro, bowing his head in shame. "I am sorry, Don Alessandro. My daughter’s madness almost cost us everything. The debt is settled."
"It is," Alessandro agreed quietly. "Take your son, take what is left of your family, and leave my city."
