My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 709

Chapter 709

“My daughter disappeared across state lines without informing me. She was a minor. Alone. Vulnerable. I spent months searching for her while Hazel vanished. During that time, Gianna was hidden inside a brothel. A fucking whore house.”

A few men around the table shifted in their seats.

“A Toricelli daughter. My daughter,” his lip curled with disgust, “And before anyone thinks I’m here spinning stories, I brought two of the women from that place. They lived under the same roof as Gianna. They’ll tell you exactly what they saw,” he looked directly at the men around the table, “While I was burning through men and money trying to bring my little girl home… Hazel left her in a place no daughter of ours should’ve ever laid eyes on.”

A legitimate mafia princess hidden inside a brothel. To men like these, it wasn’t just a tragedy.

It was an insult.

A stain on blood, on family, on everything this world claimed to protect. Every man in this room was imagining his own daughter there. Every one of them knew they would’ve burned cities to the ground before allowing it.

Giovanni knew exactly which nerve he was pressing.

“Hazel failed my daughter. Whatever her intentions may have been, intentions do not erase responsibility.

He looked toward Vincenzo.

“And they certainly do not erase a father’s rights. Since Hazel’s death, the Capones have continued to shelter Gianna and have repeatedly refused my requests to return my daughter to her blood.”

He spread one hand across the table.

“I’m not here begging anyone for a favor,” He looked around the table, meeting the eyes of every Don in the room, “I’m here because every man sitting at this table knows one thing. Blood is blood.”

His gaze shifted to Vincenzo.

“Another family doesn’t get to keep my daughter just because they decided they know what’s best for her. If that’s how things work now… then none of our blood is safe.”

I caught several of the older Council members exchanging thoughtful glances. Giovanni wasn’t trying to win sympathy. He was trying to win precedent.

If the Council ruled that another family could keep a living heir away from her blood without clear legal

cause…

Then every father sitting at this table would leave wondering whether one day someone could do the same to his own children.

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It was a far stronger argument than emotion.

And Giovanni knew it.

Nikolai leaned back slightly in his chair, his fingers tapped the wood once before his eyes settled on Vincenzo, “Capone.”

Vincenzo lifted his chin, “Giovanni presented this as a dispute over blood. It isn’t. It’s a dispute over safety.”

Giovanni’s jaw tightened.

Vincenzo continued without looking away, “No one here denies Gianna’s blood. She is Giovanni Toricelli’s biological daughter. That has never been our argument. Our concern is whether returning her places her in danger.”

Giovanni let out a quiet breath through his nose, “Danger?”

Vincenzo let out a scoff, “Yeah. A sixteen-year-old girl doesn’t run from a palace to a brothel because she’s happy. She doesn’t leave money, security, her name, and her future behind unless she’s running from something worse. You want us to believe your daughter woke up one morning and decided sleeping beside whores and pimps sounded better than sleeping in her own bed?” His lip curled, “I don’t buy it. Nobody at this table should.”

Giovanni leaned forward, “My daughter was manipulated.”

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