Page 74 of Brutal Crown

She doesn’t spare anyone a single glance as she heads toward the door. Elio walks over to shut the doors behind her.

Only the Romanos remain, and Olga, who stands behind my father, looking calmer than usual for the situation.

My father walks back and sinks into the lavish sofa at the front of the room. I watch as he folds his arms across his chest. I have never seen my father so angry. He looks like he is so close to ripping someone’s head off—specifically Marco’s.

“Are you out of your damn mind!?”

Marco doesn’t even seem fazed. “I can explain, Father. If you’d just let me?—”

“Let you what? Give me more useless justification for the nonsense you’ve just put our family in?” Dante’s voice is a lowgrowl, each word dripping with venom. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What this spectacle will cost us?”

“I know exactly what I’ve done. I did what I had to,” Marco replies coolly. “To protect all of us.”

“Protect?” Dante laughs bitterly. “You put a target on our backs. You think claiming her protects us? You’ve signed her death warrant and yours along with it, you fool. The Elders will never?—”

“The Elders already know my intentions,” Marco interrupts, his voice wavering slightly for the first time.

“I went to them beforehand with a proposal. I discovered her pregnancy the same day she did—I knew before any of you. I saw her steal the test from the maid’s room. So I created a solution they couldn’t refuse—one that would protect Lia and benefit us all.”

The room falls silent. Even Olga’s composed facade cracks slightly, her eyes widening.

My father’s face goes white, then red. “You didwhat?”

“I had to,” Marco says, stepping forward. “Father, listen to me. There’s more at stake here than just Lia’s pregnancy. Much more. I knew I had to figure out a way to make them listen.”

Dante glares. “And how exactly did you convince men who’ve burned empires for less?”

Marco doesn’t flinch. “I gave them something they wanted more than blood—control.”

“Explain. Now.”

Marco takes a deep breath. “Adriano Moretti was planning something. Something that could have destroyed not just our family, but the entire Society. I found his journal?—”

“What journal?” I find myself speaking before I can stop myself.

Marco’s eyes flick to me briefly. “The one hidden in the cellar. I followed Lia to the cellar one night. She’d been asking toomany questions, and I knew she was up to something. I watched her open a hidden compartment in the cellar and saw her find the journal, but I distracted her before she could read much. I knew instantly that it was the reason we had been looking for Adriano for years. And he fooled us all by keeping it right under our noses. Every secret deal between the Romanos and Morettis, every transaction, every… arrangement with La Mano Nera going back decades.”

Dante’s face hardens. “That’s impossible. We destroyed all evidence years ago.”

“Not all of it,” Marco says grimly. “Adriano was thorough. He had records of money laundering, arms deals, election interference—everything. And he wasn’t just collecting it for blackmail. He was planning to trade it all in exchange for protection for Lia.”

The words hang in the air like a death sentence.

“He set up a dead man’s switch,” Marco continues. “If anything happened to Lia, all of that information would be released to the authorities and our enemies simultaneously. We would have been finished.”

“It’s true,” I speak suddenly, drawing their attention. “Lia isn’t just some commoner who happened to get pregnant by a Romano. She’s a fuse tied to something buried so deep beneath this family’s rotten history that if it detonates, none of us survives.”

When they remain silent, I continue. “A few months ago, I hunted down a man digging into our operations. Before I eliminated him, he revealed everything. Adriano knew this day might come, knew he might get caught and his daughter captured. So he reached out to rival syndicates, offering them proof: documents, laundered money from our own accounts, transactions funding revolutions, election tampering,the collapse of foreign economies. All from La Mano Nera’s war chest. He was trading it all for one thing: protection for Lia.”

“Adriano documented La Mano Nera’s involvement in catastrophic ‘accidents’ that weren’t accidents at all. He even planted secure safes around the city that would only activate if his anonymous allies discovered Lia had been harmed.”

Marco’s face remains impassive except for that slight shift in his eyes.

“The evidence would be released automatically,” I continue. “A final blow from beyond the grave. And now you want to marry her into the very family that could trigger everything?”

When silence persists, I snap. “Lia is connected to a buried landmine. Marrying her won’t defuse it—it’ll make everything worse. What happens when La Mano Nera discovers who she really is?”

“So what are you suggesting, Francesco?” Marco finally speaks. “Kill her like the Elders wanted?”