Chapter 6 - The Fall of the Viper
Matteo’s hands began to shake violently. “Lies! She’s an impostor! Gabriel hired an actress to dress up in old rags and wear a fake ring!”
“Silence, Matteo!” barked Don Carmine, the oldest member of the council, his dark eyes locked onto Madeline’s ring. “I would know that emerald anywhere. I was in Palermo when Lorenzo gave it to Eleanor. She is blood.”
Don Carmine turned to Madeline, his expression softening with immense respect. “Speak, child.”
Madeline slid the financial documents across the table toward the council members.
“Over the past six months,” Madeline explained, her voice entirely devoid of fear, “three hundred twelve thousand dollars was systematically funneled out of the transit accounts. However, my brother Nathan did not authorize those transfers. The encryption keys used belonged exclusively to account holder clearance code 09-Matteo.”
Matteo slammed his hands on the table. “He forged my codes! The boy was an accountant! He had access to my computer!”
“Nathan noticed the theft three weeks ago,” Madeline countered, looking Matteo directly in the eyes. “He printed out the physical paper trails and hid them in a safety deposit box at First Chicago Bank. Gabriel and I retrieved those physical documents two hours ago. They bear your personal thumbprint authorization, Uncle Matteo.”
She pulled a stamped bank certificate from her folder and laid it over the table.
“Furthermore,” Gabriel added, his voice dropping into a deadly, echoing whisper that chilled the air in the room, “you contacted Nathan personally through a burn phone. You told him that I was executing anyone with Eleanor’s bloodline to consolidate my power. You terrified an innocent young man into taking the fall for your theft, and then you sent Dominic to drag his sister into my penthouse, hoping I would commit an unforgivable sin against my own family.”
The old council members looked at Matteo with pure disgust and lethal fury.
“Traitor,” Don Carmine spat, slapping his hand against the table. “Stealing from the family is bad enough. But using Eleanor’s children—the children of the woman who saved our legacy—to stage a coup? You are a dog, Matteo.”
Matteo realized he was utterly trapped. His eyes darted wildly toward the side exit, his hand reaching inside his jacket for his concealed sidearm.
Before his fingers could even touch the leather holster, Gabriel moved with blinding speed.
He crossed the room in a single heart-stopping second, grabbing Matteo by the throat and slamming him violently against the oak-paneled wall. The heavy impact rattled the glass paintings frame hanging nearby. Gabriel’s right hand clamped down around Matteo’s neck like a vice of solid steel, lifting the older man inches off the floor.
“Did you really think,” Gabriel whispered, his storm-gray eyes burning with black fire, “that you could touch her family and live to see another sunrise?”
“Gabriel... please...” Matteo choked out, his face turning dark purple as he kicked his legs uselessly in the air. “Family... we’re family...”
“Eleanor was my family,” Gabriel said softly. “Madeline is my family. You are merely a cancer that I am removing tonight.”
Gabriel did not snap his neck in front of the council. He dropped Matteo onto the floor, where the older man curled into a wheezing ball.
“Dominic,” Gabriel commanded without looking back. “Take my uncle to the basement on 14th Street. He will remain there until Nathan is found safe and unharmed. After that... dispose of him.”
“With pleasure, Boss,” Dominic grinned, dragging the weeping Matteo out through the side doors.
Gabriel turned back to the council, straightening his tie with perfect composure.
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“The Harper debt is officially erased,” Gabriel declared. “And Madeline Harper is hereby recognized as a high-ranking executive and equal partner in Costello Holdings.”
The old council members stood up one by one, bowing their heads in deep respect to both Gabriel and Madeline.
