Chapter 14
The hidden camera was exactly where Rafael said.
Inside one of the broken wooden presentation models.
Nora found it beneath a false base.
The footage had begun an hour before the reception.
Dario entered first.
Augusto followed.
They believed the foyer empty.
Dario looked nervous.
“What if he refuses to step aside?”
Augusto answered calmly. “Then the council removes him.”
“And if they don’t?”
“We split the house.”
Dario frowned.
Augusto continued.
“North goes with you. Bellandi gets temporary access. The men who stay with Luciano lose supply protection.”
Dario looked uncomfortable.
“You said no civil war.”
“There won’t be one if he understands numbers.”
Luciano watched without blinking.
Celeste stood beside him.
Then Dario asked the question that mattered most.
“And the baby?”
Augusto paused.
“Ferraro blood.”
Dario looked at him.
“That doesn’t answer me.”
Augusto sighed.
“If Luciano is removed, Celeste and the child stay protected inside the family.”
Celeste went cold.
Protected.
That word again.
“What does that mean?” Dario asked.
Augusto’s reply was quiet.
“It means she does not leave with him.”
The room fell silent.
Luciano paused the recording.
Celeste stared at Augusto.
He looked older now.
Not weaker.
Smaller.
“You planned to take my child.”
Augusto shook his head. “Protect the heir.”
“From his father?”
“If necessary.”
Luciano finally understood the full shape of the plan.
Destroy his authority.
Keep his wife and baby inside Ferraro control.
Install Dario.
Use Bellandi pressure.
And call the entire thing stability.
Dario sat down slowly.
“You never told me that.”
Augusto ignored him.
Dario stood again.
“You were going to make me boss and then use the baby against me too.”
Augusto’s silence answered.
Dario laughed.
Not with arrogance this time.
With disgust.
He had finally realized he was never the heir.
Only the next controllable man in the chair.
Luciano looked at his brother.
Then his father.
May you like
The conspiracy had not been designed to choose between sons.
It had been designed to preserve Augusto’s control through whichever son proved easiest to use.
