Chapter 10
The third man was identified from Luca’s description and security movement logs.
Samuel Rusk.
A retired Rossetti consigliere.
The man who had trained Vittorio after his father died.
The man Vittorio still called Uncle Sam despite no blood relation.
Samuel had been advising Bernadette quietly for months.
Vittorio met him at an old family club in Sacramento.
Samuel did not deny it.
He sat beneath a shaded veranda, one hand resting over the head of his cane.
“You came alone.”
Vittorio stopped across from him.
“You taught me never to enter a room without knowing the exits.”
Samuel’s mouth almost smiled.
“You learned.”
“Apparently not enough.”
A long silence.
Then Vittorio asked:
“Why?”
Samuel’s fingers tightened around the cane.
“Because you're changing the family faster than the family can survive.”
There it was.
Not greed.
Not hatred.
Fear.
Since Luca’s birth, Vittorio had reduced violent operations, removed several old enforcers, separated family business from his home, and begun pushing younger capos toward legitimate ventures.
Samuel believed the transition made the Rossettis vulnerable.
Bernadette believed Vittorio had become sentimental.
Nico believed Vittorio needed pressure.
Three motives.
One plan.
But Samuel revealed the major twist.
The original plan never involved poisoning Luca.
It was supposed to expose Vittorio’s weakness through staged household failures.
Maria’s resignation.
Missed schedules.
A frightened child.
A council intervention.
Bernadette escalated it.
She began giving Luca substances that caused actual pain because earlier staged problems did not create enough evidence.
Nico knew about the plan.
Samuel knew about the plan.
Neither knew how far Bernadette had taken it.
Vittorio’s face remained still.
Samuel watched his eyes.
“That does not make us innocent.”
“No.”
Vittorio’s voice was almost inaudible.
Samuel nodded.
Then he delivered the final blow.
“You keep asking why Bernadette wanted your chair.”
“She didn't.”
Samuel looked at him.
“She wanted you to surrender it willingly.”
Vittorio frowned.
Samuel continued.
“The council would never follow her.”
His grip tightened.
“But they would follow Nico.”
Vittorio understood.
Bernadette’s objective was not to become boss.
It was to install someone she believed she could control.
Nico was the replacement.
Samuel was the legitimacy.
Luca was the trigger.
And the vow Vittorio himself made—
May you like
that he would step aside if his son ever suffered because of his leadership—
was the weapon they had built everything around.
