Chapter 18 - Alessio Takes the Chair
Vittorio returned to Naples to find every Morelli captain gathered inside the family council room.
Alessio sat in Salvatore’s old chair.
A bandage wrapped his waist.
His face was pale, but his eyes were clear.
The missing ledger pages rested before him.
“You left the city without naming a temporary head,” Alessio said.
“I prevented collapse.”
“You occupied my chair.”
“Our father’s chair.”
“Father is dead.”
“His promises are not.”
Half the captains supported Alessio.
They believed Vittorio’s attachment to Isabella, Renzo, and the children had made him weak.
They wanted immediate retaliation against every family named in the ledger.
Vittorio placed the Palermo ledger on the table.
“If we kill everyone who made a payment, Naples becomes a cemetery.”
“If we do nothing, they call us finished.”
“I did not say we do nothing.”
Vittorio announced that every captain named in the child network would be removed.
Their routes would be divided among men who had not participated.
The hidden schools would be dismantled.
No Morelli business would involve children again.
Several captains laughed.
Alessio did not.
“You want to turn rules into morality.”
“No.”
“I want to turn survival into something other than repeating Father’s crimes.”
Alessio stood carefully.
“And who judges the crimes?”
“The brother who inherited everything?”
Vittorio looked around the room.
“The ledger does.”
Matteo locked the doors.
Prosecutor Bardi had already received copies.
Captains who refused removal would face public exposure and arrest.
Men who cooperated could leave Naples alive.
The room erupted.
One captain reached for a gun.
Renzo, standing beside the rear wall in gardener’s clothes, drew first.
The weapon dropped from the captain’s hand.
Alessio smiled bitterly.
“You brought the gardener into the council.”
“He saw danger before all of us.”
Vittorio looked at his brother.
“You saved my life at the warehouse.”
“That does not erase what you did before it.”
Alessio’s face hardened.
“You will never trust me.”
“I will trust what you do next.”
At that moment, Luca entered the council room.
Sophia walked beside him.
The children had escaped their guards by using an old garden tunnel.
May you like
Luca looked at both brothers.
“Which one of you is going to tell me why my mother is dying?”
