Isabella POV

Catherine's threat hung in the suffocating air of the apartment, a heavy guillotine waiting to drop. But if she thought the name of Constantine Gallo would cower my father, she was gravely mistaken.

Marco Falcone let out a low, dangerous snarl. "You think I fear the Don's wrath more than I love my daughter?" He shoved past Sean, his eyes blazing with a reckless, suicidal fury. "I am going to The Old Man right now. I will lay my Caporegime title at his feet and tell him the Brennans are harboring a viper who planned to murder my blood."

"Are you insane?" Sean lunged, his fingers digging into my father's arm with the desperate strength of a dying man. "Marco, you bring this to the Don, and he will slaughter us all! We can fix this! Don't burn our families to the ground over a girl's jealousy!"

"Take your hands off me, Sean, before I blow your head off," my father warned, his hand hovering over his holster.

The room was a powder keg, seconds away from a bloodbath. I needed a weapon to cut through this madness, and fate, it seemed, decided to hand me a scythe.

The temperature in the room plummeted as the splintered door was pushed open entirely.

Silence crashed over us. Sean froze. My father's hand dropped from his gun.

Standing in the doorway was Damien Costello. The Phantom. Don Gallo's chief Enforcer and the most feared man in Chicago. The silver half-mask covering the upper right side of his face caught the dim light, but it was his eyes—hollow, dead, and utterly merciless—that paralyzed the room. Two massive Soldiers flanked him, their hands resting casually on their Tommy guns.

Sean swallowed hard, stepping away from my father. "Damien... we were just handling a minor domestic dispute—"

I didn't let him finish. I broke free from my mother's grasp and sank to my knees on the scuffed floorboards right before the Enforcer.

"He is lying," I said, my voice trembling but clear. I pointed at Jason and Elena, who were cowering by the bed. "Jason Brennan has been bedding my adopted sister. They planned to marry me, poison me slowly, and steal the Falcone dock routes."

Damien looked down at me. There was no pity in his gaze, only a chilling boredom. "A broken heart and a cheating boy," his voice was a low, gravelly rasp that sent shivers down my spine. "What is this to me?"

This was it. The gamble of my life.

"Please," I whispered, looking up into his cold eyes. "Allow me one word in private."

For a agonizing second, he didn't move. Then, he gave a microscopic tilt of his head. I leaned forward, my lips inches from the cold silver of his mask, and breathed the deadly secret I had ripped from my nightmares.

"This isn't about a broken engagement. It's about treason. Alistair Gallo is using them to start a war."

I felt the immediate shift in him. The boredom vanished, replaced by a lethal, terrifying sharpness. Damien straightened, his eyes locking onto mine with a piercing intensity that made my breath hitch. He didn't ask how I knew. In our world, actionable intel was all that mattered.

"Take the boy and the girl," Damien commanded his Soldiers, his voice cracking like a whip. "They are Rats."

Jason screamed as a Soldier grabbed him by the hair. Elena sobbed hysterically, thrashing against the grip of the other man.

Damien turned his dead gaze to our fathers. "You two. With me. The Old Man is waiting at the Drake."

Thirty minutes later, the stench of the West Loop apartment was replaced by the scent of aged whiskey, expensive cigars, and absolute power.

Don Constantine Gallo's penthouse office at the Drake Hotel overlooked the glittering Chicago skyline. The Old Man sat behind a massive mahogany desk, his weathered face unreadable as Damien gave a clipped, emotionless summary of the arrests.

When Damien finished, I crawled forward on the thick Persian rug, keeping my head bowed.

"Don Gallo," I pleaded, letting the raw desperation bleed into my voice. "I beg for your justice. They did not just betray me; they spat on the union you personally blessed. They planned to murder a Falcone to steal the territory you entrusted to us. I ask you to dissolve this cursed engagement and restore my family's honor."

The heavy silence that followed was deafening.

Constantine Gallo did not answer immediately. He leaned back in his leather chair, his hawkish eyes drifting from my kneeling form to the towering, silent figure of Damien standing by the door. The Don's gaze narrowed, a dangerous, calculating curiosity sparking in his eyes as he silently weighed why his most merciless weapon had suddenly decided to play savior to a Capo's daughter.

Isabella POV

The heavy silence in the Don's office stretched, thick enough to choke on. Constantine Gallo finally shifted his hawkish gaze from me to the trembling figure of Jason Brennan, who was pinned between two massive Soldiers.

"Speak, boy," the Don commanded, his voice a low rumble that vibrated through the floorboards.

Jason swallowed hard, sweat beading on his forehead. "Don Gallo, I... I admit to bedding Elena. It was a moment of weakness. A man's urge." He puffed out his chest slightly, a desperate, foolish attempt to salvage his pride. "But the engagement can still proceed. I will marry Isabella as planned, and keep Elena quietly on the side. No harm done to the alliance."

A collective intake of breath sucked the remaining air from the room. My father, Marco, lunged forward, his face purple with rage, restrained only by the sacred rule of no violence in the Don's presence.

"You dare insult my blood in this room?" my father roared, his fists trembling. "You think my daughter is some cheap consolation prize?"

I didn't let Jason answer. I kept my chin high, meeting the Don's calculating eyes. "Don Gallo," I said, my voice steady despite the adrenaline roaring in my ears. "I, Isabella Falcone, would rather die as a daughter of my family than live a single day bearing the shame of a Brennan wife."

A flicker of genuine respect crossed the Old Man's weathered face. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the mahogany desk, and his verdict fell like a guillotine.

"Jason Brennan, your lack of discipline and honor makes you unfit to lead. You are hereby stripped of your status as heir. This union is dissolved." Sean Brennan let out a choked gasp, but the Don wasn't finished. "Take him into the hall," he ordered Damien's men. "Break his leg. A permanent reminder of the foundation he fractured."

"No! Please!" Jason shrieked as the Soldiers dragged him backward.

The Don turned his cold eyes to the fathers. "Sean, for your son's treachery, you will cede control of your two most profitable dock berths to the Falcones. Marco, for failing to manage the vipers under your own roof, you will donate fifty thousand dollars to my war fund."

"Yes, Don Gallo," my father murmured, bowing his head in absolute submission.

From the hallway, the sickening crack of bone echoed through the heavy oak door, followed instantly by Jason's muffled, agonizing scream. A cold, dark satisfaction bloomed in my chest. My first taste of Vendetta. Through it all, Damien Costello stood by the door, a silent, terrifying phantom, his masked face unreadable as he watched me drink in my enemy's pain.

Hours later, the heavy mahogany doors of the Falcone Estate closed behind us, but the air inside was just as suffocating.

In the center of our lavishly decorated living room, Agatha Vance was on her knees, sobbing hysterically at my father's feet. My mother, Sofia, stood nearby, her face a mask of cold disgust.

"Marco, please!" Agatha wailed, clutching the hem of his trousers. "My husband took a bullet for you! He died for the Falcones! You cannot let them kill my Elena! You must go to the Don and beg for her life!"

My father's jaw clenched. The guilt of that old blood debt had always been his weakness. But I was no longer the naive girl who pitied the grieving widow. The memories of my nightmares—the slow, agonizing death by her concoctions—burned in my veins.

I stepped forward, my voice slicing through her theatrics like a blade.

"My father repaid your husband's loyalty with eight years of shelter, luxury, and protection," I said coldly, staring down at her. "And you and your daughter planned to repay us with slow poison. Did you really think we wouldn't find out?"

Agatha froze. Her tear-streaked face snapped up to look at me, and the mask of the helpless widow slipped.

My father's eyes hardened into obsidian. The last shred of his mercy evaporated. "Get this filth out of my house," he ordered the Soldiers stationed by the archway.

As they grabbed her arms and dragged her backward across the Persian rug, Agatha bared her teeth like a cornered rat. "You will regret this!" she shrieked, her voice echoing off the vaulted ceiling. "You ungrateful bitch! You will all burn!"

I watched her being thrown into the night without a ounce of pity. I knew the truth from my nightmares. Agatha Vance wasn't just a desperate mother; she was a Sicilian poison master. She was a loose end, and in our world, loose ends bled.

But as the front doors slammed shut, sealing her fate, the silence in the living room shifted. My father turned slowly toward me, the exhaustion in his eyes replaced by a sharp, demanding suspicion.

Isabella POV

The heavy oak doors had barely settled into their frames when my father sank into his leather armchair. The firelight cast long, flickering shadows across his exhausted face. He looked every bit the hardened Caporegime, yet the guilt of harboring those vipers under his roof weighed heavily on his broad shoulders.

I stepped behind him, gently kneading the tense, knotted muscles of his neck. "It wasn't your fault, Papa," I murmured into the quiet room. "You couldn't have known."

He reached up, his calloused hand gripping my wrist with sudden, bruising force. His dark eyes locked onto mine, sharp and demanding. "What did you say to him, Isabella? To Damien Costello. The Phantom does not intervene out of the goodness of his heart. What did you trade?"

I kept my breathing steady, masking the terrifying truth of my nightmares and the treasonous plot I had uncovered. "I gave him a secret he couldn't refuse," I answered softly, holding his gaze. "A secret concerning the future of the Gallo family. It was our only leverage."

Marco searched my face, his jaw tight. Slowly, he released my wrist. His suspicion didn't entirely vanish, but it morphed into a wary respect. He was realizing his little girl was playing a dangerous game with the Don's deadliest weapon, and a new, unspoken boundary formed between us.

The sharp clatter of footsteps in the foyer shattered the fragile quiet. The parlor doors swung open, and Lorenzo stood on the threshold. My eldest brother, Enzo, wasn't supposed to be back from his law studies in Chicago until the week of the wedding. His tailored suit was rumpled from travel, but his sharp eyes immediately took in the suffocating tension in the room and my red, swollen eyes.

"Bella," he breathed, crossing the room in three long strides.

I threw myself into his arms, the dam finally breaking. The tears weren't just for tonight's humiliation, but for the agonizing memories of his brutal death in my past life—a fate I was desperately trying to rewrite. I buried my face in his chest, sobbing as his familiar scent of cedar and old parchment enveloped me.

Over my head, my father delivered the cold, clinical truth of Jason Brennan's betrayal and the Vances' poison plot.

I felt Enzo's body go rigid. When I pulled back, his handsome face was twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. "I'll kill him," Enzo snarled, turning toward the door. "I'll gather the Soldiers right now and put a bullet between Jason's eyes myself."

"Stop!" Marco's voice cracked like a whip, carrying the absolute authority of a Capo. "The Old Man has made his ruling. To strike now is to challenge Don Gallo himself."

"He insulted our blood!" Enzo roared back.

"And he paid with his leg and his inheritance!" my father countered fiercely. "We will have our Vendetta, Lorenzo, but on our time, and in our way. Discipline, son. Discipline above all."

Enzo halted, his fists trembling at his sides. He forced a sharp nod, but the fire in his eyes didn't die; it merely hardened into ice.

Before Enzo could argue further, the front door opened again, bringing a gust of crisp night air. My mother, Sofia, stepped into the foyer, stripping off her leather gloves with a chilling, elegant satisfaction.

"It is done," she announced, walking over to the window and gesturing for me to join her. "I supervised her packing myself. Not a single coin of Falcone money left this property."

I stood beside her, peering through the glass. Out by the grand wrought-iron gates, under the harsh glare of the streetlamps, Agatha Vance was on her knees in the mud, scrambling to gather her meager belongings.

"I made sure the guards and the neighbors heard every word," my mother continued, her tone as sharp as a blade. "I declared her a Rat. I told them all: anyone who offers that woman a crust of bread or a roof over her head makes an enemy of the Falcone family."

A public execution of her reputation. In our world, social exile was a death sentence.

I watched Agatha's pathetic, retreating figure disappear into the shadows of the streets. There was no pity left in my heart, only a cold, dark thrill. But as I stared into the night, I knew Agatha and Elena wouldn't just roll over and die. A cornered rat always bites back, and tomorrow, the real war for our survival would begin.