Chapter 32 Fiorella
The door closed quietly behind Rocco, and the room felt. emptier.
I exhaled, running a hand through my hair as I faced my desk again, but I didn't sit. I couldn't. My body was too tightly wound, my mind too restless.
Rocco had a talent for getting in my skin, making me question something I'd sworn to myself I wouldn't. The way he looked at me, with a look of intensity as if he saw something beyond another mafia princess attempting to hold her own ground, grated on me.
And worse? I hadn't resented him leaving.
I should have told him to stay.
But I didn't know how to request that.
I stared at my phone, praying for some news about my father. Nothing. The silence was crushing.
Twirling on my heel, I left my office, needing to do something, needing space to think. The house seemed too still. No matter how many guards I'd stationed outside, no matter how secure I'd closed it off, it wasn't the same without my father's presence ruling it.
The sight of him lying there unconscious made my stomach twist.
I wasn't used to waiting. To being powerless.
I had lived my entire life proving that I wasn't a girl in a man's world, that I could command, fight, lead. And yet, at this moment, all I could do was wait.
I went over to the sitting room, sinking into the armchair beside the fire. The shadows flickered on the walls as the flames danced, but they did nothing to ease the icy knot in my chest.
I sat there for a moment, gasping through the weight that was suffocating me.
I should have let Rocco stay.
He would have sat here, in front of me, watching with that intense, unreadable gaze of his. He may not have said much, but his mere presence would have been enough to help keep me grounded.
It was a dangerous thought.
Desiring him to be here.
Requiring him to be here.
I propped my elbows on my knees, fingers tangled in my hair.
Part of me had wasted years believing that I didn't need anyone. That relying on someone, even in small ways, was a weakness.
But Rocco had stood before me tonight, insisting that we were in this together.
And for a long time, I had clung to the hope that it was true.
I swallowed hard, pushing the thought away.
He was a De Luca. And I was a D'Angelo.
We were allies, for now. But I recognised the way that this world operated.
Nothing lasts.
I walked over, held my breath until I let it out slowly, trying to expel the weight of it all.
I had a family to protect. A war to be won.
And a father that needed to wake up.
I wasn't about to let time get away spending daydreaming about things which never belonged to me.
The knocking on the door was sharp and intentional. The knock of a soldier.
I lifted my head from the ground where I was sitting in front of the fire, the heat of the dying embers creating shadows on the ground. I hadn't moved much since Rocco left. His presence was still palpable, but I forced the thought away as I spoke out, "Come in."
Leo stepped in, his face a mask, but I knew him too well. His calculating, cool eyes scanned every detail of me, listing the exhaustion I refused to show, the tension in my shoulders, the way my fingers clenched the pleats of my dress.
“You did well tonight," he told me, his tone low but strong. "Enzo was a headache, and now he's out of the picture. But Elio." He exhaled, his head shaking. "Elio won't take this lying down. He'll be on us fast, and he won't be foolish about it. We need to be cautious."
I stood tall, my back straight, my chin lifting. "Let him come.".
Leo looked at me, his dark, calculating eyes. "You sure about that?
I stepped forward, inches from him. "He's already coming towards us, Leo. Whether we sit back and wait or strike first, the war is upon us." I tried to keep my voice flat, but my insides seethed with blood. "I'm not going to stand around letting them shoot at us again. If Elio wants war, I'll give it to him."
Leo held my gaze for a moment, then breathed out, nodding slightly. "Then we need a plan. A good one."
"We've already hit them where it hurts," I said. "Enzo was one of the key players. Without him, their structure is shattered." My fists were clenched at my sides. "But that's not sufficient. We need to destroy them completely. Capture their supply chains, hit their business fronts, sever their alliances, so that there's nothing of them left but dust."
Leo smirked, though it wasn't a smile. It was simply respect. "You really are your father's daughter."
A sharp pant cut through me at hearing the mention of my father's name, but I kept it masked. Now was not the moment.
"I had the best teacher ," I shot back, voice cold. "And I'll see that he wakes to a kingdom when his eyes open.".
Leo nodded once. "I'll have the men ready by tomorrow."
I didn't look away. "Do it tonight."
For a moment, a spark of something like pride showed in his face before he masked it with his usual unreadable composure. "Understood."
As he turned to leave, I clenched my jaw, letting the silence drop again.
Elio Marchesi thinks he could come get me.
He thought he could finish what Enzo started.
Let him try.
I would burn his entire world to ashes.
No one disrespects my family and lives to tell the tale.
The room was silent, but my head was a battlefield.
I rested against the window, arms crossed, mind tangled in a strand of plan and consequence. Outside, the estate grounds stretch out into night, the security lights casting the driveway into long shadows. Men stood at every corner, guns drawn and waiting. We were prepared for an attack, but waiting for one to happen, never my style .
Elio would be angry. I knew that.
His brother was dead. And if I had learned anything about men like him, it was that rage became fury when unrestrained. He would take revenge, not any revenge, but one that would make a statement.
That meant he'd act fast. And he'd be reckless.
I needed to turn that on him.
The key to eliminating a man like Elio wasn't muscle power, it was control. He was waiting for me to hide, to barricade my defences and wait for him to make the next move. But I wasn't that type of person. I didn't hide. I didn't wait. I made the first move.
I walked away from the window, pacing the room as I pieced everything together.
The Marchesi held strong points all across the city, but Elio was always anchored to the docks. That was his domain, the blood in their veins. Their guns, their product, their money, all flowed through those shipments. It was the secret to their power.
If I take it away from him, I'm taking away from him a means to fight.
I needed to make a point.
Not so much for Elio, but for anyone who was watching.
He would think I would get revenge secretly, but I would do just the opposite, I would attack him where it would hurt him the most, in the eyes of the world. I'd steal his ships, seize his cargo, dismantle his empire piece by piece until he'd lost everything.
And when he was at his wit's end when he had no choice but to step out of the shadows and face me, I would finish what I'd started.
A slow smile spread over my lips.
This was no longer about revenge.
This was about power.
When I was done, there wouldn't be a single person in this city who would ever doubt who actually ruled it.
Elio Marchesi wanted a war.
I'd make sure he lived to see the end of it.