Chapter 11
Serafina did not confront Victor.
That was what he expected.
Instead, she went to breakfast.
Victor was already at the long terrace table.
Nolan sat beside him.
Salvatore sat across from them, still playing his role.
Victor looked up.
His eyes searched Serafina’s face.
Nothing.
“You sleep well?”
Serafina poured coffee.
“Enough.”
Nolan smirked.
“No threats this morning?”
Serafina lifted the cup.
“No.”
Nolan leaned back.
He mistook restraint for weakness.
Exactly as she needed.
Victor watched longer.
He knew her better.
Not well enough anymore.
During breakfast, Serafina announced that she would accept a formal council vote on control of the family’s operations.
Nolan nearly laughed.
Victor did not.
“When?”
“Friday.”
Three days.
Victor’s fingers tapped once against his cup.
“And if you lose?”
“I step away.”
Nolan looked openly delighted.
Victor narrowed his eyes.
“What do you want if you win?”
Serafina took one slow sip.
“Everything.”
Silence.
Then she stood and walked away.
Victor watched her leave.
That afternoon he began calling undecided capos.
Offering positions.
Contracts.
Protection.
Salvatore reported every conversation back to Serafina.
Victor was rebuilding the exact shadow network ORCHARD had always been designed to create.
Only now, people were documenting it.
Then Nolan made his own move.
He sent Serafina a private message.
I’ll give you my father.
She read it once.
Another message followed.
He knew the car was unsafe before Lorenzo drove it.
Serafina’s eyes remained on the screen.
Then:
You protect me, I tell you everything.
Nolan had spent his entire life under Victor’s protection.
Now that the balance had shifted, he was willing to sell his father to survive.
Serafina typed only one response.
Come alone.
Across the estate, Victor received a different message from an unknown number.
May you like
Your son is talking to her.
For the first time, father and son began moving against each other.
