Ava Bellini looked innocently across the table at Dominic and revealed that Grandma had told her she would have to call Uncle Dominic "Daddy" once her father was gone

Dominic let out a ragged, desperate sound from the doorway, realizing that Helena’s confession had just sealed both of their fates.

"She's lying!" Dominic shouted, pointing a shaking finger at the matriarch. "She manipulated the whole thing, Matteo! She came to me! She said you were planning to cut me out of the logistics network! I only agreed because she told me my life was in danger!"

Matteo slowly straightened up, turning his back on his mother. He walked deliberately toward Dominic, closing the distance until he stood mere feet from the younger capo. The contrast between the two men was stark; Dominic was sweating, disheveled, and breaking under the pressure, while Matteo remained an immaculate, terrifying pillar of absolute control.

"You agreed to murder me because you were afraid?" Matteo asked, tilting his head slightly. The few loose strands of wavy hair on his forehead gave him an almost philosophical appearance, entirely at odds with the violent reality of the room.

"Yes!" Dominic lied frantically, nodding his head. "I was terrified, Matteo! You know how she is! She controls half the elders on the board! I didn't have a choice!"

"You always have a choice, Dominic," Matteo replied slowly, his cold eyes dissecting the man. "If you were truly afraid, you would have come to me. You would have knelt in my study and told me of her treason. But you did not."

"I panicked!" Dominic pleaded.

"You did not panic," Matteo corrected, his voice dropping another octave. "You saw an opportunity. You looked at the empire I built, and you coveted it. You looked at my daughter, and you saw a pawn you could manipulate to secure the loyalty of the traditionalists. You are not a victim, Dominic. You are a parasite."

"Matteo, please, we are blood!" Dominic begged, dropping to his knees on the polished floor. The tailored suit bunched around his legs as he clasped his hands together. "I swear to God, I will leave the country! You will never see me again! Just let me walk out that door!"

Matteo stared down at the kneeling man. He raised his right hand, examining the artistic, refined tattoos that crept across his knuckles.

"Who else?" Matteo asked quietly.

Dominic blinked, confusion temporarily overriding his terror. "What?"

"A coup of this magnitude requires infrastructure," Matteo explained, his tone conversational but laced with deadly intent. "You and an old woman could not possibly secure the perimeter of this estate, disable my personal security, and orchestrate an assassination without operational support. Who else sitting at this table is involved?"

The remaining guests at the dining table stiffened simultaneously. The bright cinematic light suddenly felt like the harsh glare of an interrogation room. Capos who had been loyal to Matteo for decades suddenly felt the invisible crosshairs resting squarely on their foreheads.