Bianca drew the pistol beneath the table, but Dante reached her before the barrel cleared the linen. One twist broke her grip. Sofia caught the falling weapon and aimed it at the woman wearing her family's stolen ring.
“Tell the room who ordered the bombing,” Sofia said.
Bianca smiled through the pain. “Ask your husband. His authorization code opened the gate.”
Every Romano captain looked at Dante. He did not deny the code was his. Instead, he placed Bianca's phone beside Sofia's divorce papers and unlocked a hidden message thread. Someone had cloned his credentials, moved weapons through the eastern ports, and signed every order with a crown Sofia had not seen since her father died.
The families gathered before dawn. Sofia entered the council chamber in the same black dress Dante had dismissed, now with twelve Moretti soldiers at her back. Dante was offered the chair beside her. He remained standing.
“You wanted a clean divorce,” he said. “You have it. You wanted the traitor. Let me help you take her alive.”
“Why?”
His gaze dropped to the burn on her palm. He took her hand before the room could see it and covered the wound with his own. “Because you ran into a burning car for my brother after I gave another woman your necklace.” His voice lowered. “And because the next bullet will be meant for you.”
The tension between them lasted one dangerous breath. Then Sofia opened the Moretti ledger. The newest entry recorded a payment for Dante's assassination—and the beneficiary was his younger brother, Marco, the man Sofia had saved.
The council doors burst open. Marco staggered inside with blood across his shirt and a detonator chained to his wrist.
“Do not come closer,” he gasped. “Bianca wired the palazzo. She says the new queen has sixty seconds to choose which family burns.”