Chapter 7 - the bloodline of the dragon
By 11:30 PM, a heavy autumn rain hammered against the high arched windows of the grand ballroom in the Moretti mansion.
Dozens of silver candles illuminated the long mahogany table, where twelve senior captains and elder syndicate bosses from across the Midwest were gathered in formal dark suits.
Sitting at the head of the table was Adrian Moretti, his posture regal, dark, and imposing in a custom black suit. Sitting to his right was Elena, dressed in an elegant emerald silk dress, her dark hair flowing loose over her shoulders, looking radiant and majestic.
Sitting on a high chair beside her was five-year-old Sophia, wearing her pink floral puff-sleeve dress, happily sipping a glass of warm milk while Titan sat faithfully at her side.
Bound in heavy iron chains at the foot of the table stood Dante Russo, flanked by four armed Moretti enforcers. His face was bruised, his hands tied, his posture defeated.
Don Lorenzo Russo—the seventy-year-old patriarch of the rival Russo syndicate—sat near the center of the table, his eyes filled with bitter, arrogant disdain.
"This tribunal is an outrage, Moretti!" Lorenzo slammed his fist onto the mahogany wood. "Dante Russo is my nephew! You have no right to hold him in chains over the word of a common maid!"
Adrian didn't raise his voice. He reached into his suit coat, pulling out Julian's handwritten journal alongside a certified DNA paternity report from Dr. Reynolds.
He tossed the documents into the center of the table.
"The evidence is absolute, Lorenzo," Adrian announced, his deep voice carrying a terrifying thunder that silenced the entire hall. "Dante attempted to assassinate me using Venetian neurotoxin. And six years ago, he betrayed my brother Julian."
Don Carmine, the eighty-five-year-old senior patriarch of the council, reviewed the DNA report under his spectacles.
May you like
"The bloodline is confirmed," Carmine declared, his raspy voice echoing through the silent room. "Sophia Castillo Moretti is the biological daughter of Julian Moretti... and the sole legal heiress to forty percent of the Moretti global holdings."
Lorenzo Russo went pale as paper, his eyes darting frantically toward Dante as his leverage completely evaporated.
