My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 711

Chapter 711

I scoffed, “Having dyslexia doesn’t make someone incapable of telling the truth. Dysgraphia doesn’t erase someone’s judgment. Depression doesn’t make someone incompetent,” I looked around the chamber, “She understands exactly what she’s saying. Exactly what she’s choosing.”

Giovanni sighed, “Does she? After Hazel died, my daughter suffered a severe mental health crisis. She experienced a complete psychological collapse. She required emergency psychiatric intervention.”

Giovanni looked around the table.

“And what did these geniuses do? They made her into their house and played happy family while she was falling apart. If I hadn’t stepped in, you’d be discussing a funeral instead of a hearing. And now, they are asking this Council to place the future of an empire in the hands of a young woman whose medical history documents years of serious psychiatric illness,” he looked directly at Nikolai, “I cannot allow that.”

The first voice came from the opposite end of the table.

Leonardo Visconti.

He shut the medical file with a dull thud, “A girl who’s spent half her life bouncing between doctors, shrinks, and breakdowns isn’t exactly the kind of witness I’d bet a fucking empire on.”

Valentino Falcone grunted his agreement, “He’s right. A witness has to stand on her own two feet,” his eyes narrowed, “These records paint a different picture. They paint a scared kid who’s been easy to push

around her whole life.”

Luciano Deverecci rested both hands on the table, “I don’t give a fuck whether she’s clever. The question is simple. Are those words coming out of her mouth or out of somebody else’s?”

The balance had shifted.

I could feel it.

Giovanni hadn’t attacked Gianna. He’d done something far more dangerous. He questioned whether she could speak for herself and judging by the faces around the table…

Too many of them were beginning to believe him.

The heads of the families looked toward him. The decision belonged to the Council, not to a single man.

Leonardo Visconti spoke again, “I’m with Toricelli on this one. The paperwork’s there. The custody order’s there. Whether Giovanni was a good father or a shitty one isn’t the point.”

Valentino Falcone gave a slow grunt, “The Capones kept the girl alive. I’ll give them that but keeping somebody breathing doesn’t suddenly make them yours. Blood’s still blood.”

Luciano Deverecci nodded once, “And if we start pretending otherwise then every family in this room better start worrying. Because the day we ignore blood and precedent is the day every greedy son of a bitch starts claiming somebody else’s heirs belong to him.”

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One by one, heads around the table began to nod, and I felt my stomach grow heavier with each one. Giovanni didn’t react. It was as if he’d already known this was exactly how the room would turn.

Without rushing, he called forward two of Gianna’s friends. They confirmed the dates, identified photographs, home videos, and old messages, each one backed by timestamps.

Then he showed records, building the timeline piece by piece until there were no obvious gaps left to attack. Only after everything was laid out did he look around the Council with a cold, contemptuous

smirk.

Nikolai finally turned his attention to Vincenzo, “Capone. I don’t doubt why you did it. I know you took the girl in because you thought you were doing right by her but good intentions don’t mean a fucking thing if they tear the foundations out from under this life.”

He glanced around the Council.

“We run this world on rules. If I let one boss keep another boss’s rightful heir because he thinks he has the better reason, then every power-hungry son of a bitch in this life will start snatching each other’s children and calling it protection. That’s how wars start. And I don’t bury generations of men just because somebody thinks his reasons are nobler than the rules.”

His eyes narrowed.

“So don’t mistake this for me siding with Toricelli. I’m siding with order. Because the day this Council stops enforcing it, is the day this whole thing turns into a pack of rabid dogs tearing each other apart.”

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