Capo Dei Capi (Secrets of the Famiglia Part 1) novel Chapter 48

"Marrying you is a guaranteed death sentence to Sartini's daughter. You know how he feels. The Famiglia won't be happy with your sudden choice of bride, no matter your fucking reason. I say she is fine where she is."

"Why, because she's a half-breed? Just say it, brother!" I stare at the bare grey walls, a mirror to everything that surrounds this entire fuck up we in.

"I am not going to say what you already know. Wait for the Moretti girl, have a son. Once you take over from DeMarco, divorce her, hell, force a marriage with Sartini's daughter. I don't care. But, right now, I am not in the mood for another war. Remember Vince and Lucca? All over fuckin' pussy, look where that ended up? 6 years of fuckin' headaches. The damage it has caused our family, still is causing our family, look at what Lucca did to Amariya, Mischa."

My brother is acting logically. That is Deno, always thinking of everything from all angles. But logic is my brother's strength and weakness. And that will be his downfall.

I am proud of him, he turned out better than the rest of us. He is the wiser out of my father's 5 children- strong, brave, intelligent, and deadly. The things we need to survive in our world.

Now we were down to four.

I get up and walk toward the glass windows looking at just one of the Cities soon to fall on my shoulders. The weight of it all has been sitting on my shoulders since I got back from the Navy. Taking over territory is one thing, ruling an entire Continent is another altogether. I never wanted to be the Capo.

I never wanted the life gifted to me on my birth.

Refusing it wasn't an option, but life had a more challenging road for me when it took the decision out of the equation. I am not sure when I decided to tempt fate and landed up with all of it.

But here I am, the un-wanting heir, the Future King of Kings, and all I can think about is a face of a girl in a green dress, standing barefoot in a glass cage staring at the stars with a challenge in her gaze, yet so lost, empty.

"Do you remember the day when we first saw her? How old was she?" I ask Deno.

"Twelve, where are you going with this, Marco?"

"Sartini handed her a Glock; she didn't need words. She shot that man. You said she wouldn't, but she did. Do you recall her pause, her face, do you remember that?"

"Yes, she looked like killing him was logic. He killed her mother, she was exacting revenge."

"A Mezzosangue," I say.

"Sartini should have never let her do it. He was crazy, still is. He holds her in high regard. Everyone knows she's his favorite, but he puts her life at risk as is. Aliyana doesn't deserve the fate you want for her, or the one her father has thrown at her, and she certainly doesn't deserve the fucking mess she will inherit from her mother." No, she doesn't

"In the Bratva, when a person kills your parent, their life and death belong to the first child. Sartini was teaching her. How many women in The Famiglia can kill someone?" I ask Deno.

"A handful. Our dead mother being one of them, but Aliyana isn't the firstborn."