PART 2 — THE MAN WHO BETRAYED THE KING
The operating room doors slammed shut.
A bright red light above them flickered on.
SURGERY IN PROGRESS.
For the first time in years, Lorenzo De Luca could do nothing except wait.
The hallway had never felt so silent.
Doctors hurried past without making eye contact.
Nurses whispered to one another.
Even Lorenzo's twenty bodyguards stood perfectly still, sensing that tonight was unlike any other.
Their boss wasn't planning a war.
He was praying.
Every few seconds, Lorenzo looked toward the operating room door.
Then at the clock.
One minute.
Three.
Seven.
Every second stretched like an hour.
His chief of security, Matteo, approached carefully.
"Boss."
Lorenzo didn't turn.
"What?"
"We've confirmed Isabella's statement."
That made Lorenzo slowly face him.
"The explosion six months ago..."
"It wasn't random."
Matteo handed him a tablet.
"The bomb had been placed under Isabella's vehicle."
Lorenzo stared at the security footage.
Six months earlier.
Outside their mansion.
He remembered changing cars at the last minute because one of his accountants had called about an emergency meeting.
Instead of taking the black Bentley as planned...
he drove an armored SUV.
Isabella had left twenty minutes later.
The Bentley exploded before she reached the city.
Everyone had assumed Lorenzo had been the target.
Everyone had been wrong.
"They wanted her," Lorenzo whispered.
Matteo nodded.
"Yes."
Lorenzo's jaw tightened.
"If Isabella hadn't noticed someone following her..."
"...she and the babies would've died before they were ever born."
A dangerous silence settled over the hallway.
Then Lorenzo asked the question everyone feared.
"Where is Marco Bellini?"
Matteo hesitated.
"We don't know."
"When did anyone last see him?"
"Yesterday morning."
"And?"
"He canceled every meeting afterward."
Lorenzo's eyes darkened.
"He already knows."
Matteo nodded.
"I believe so."
Lorenzo slipped his wedding ring from his finger.
He had never removed it.
Not even after Isabella divorced him.
Not even after she disappeared.
He stared at the ring for several seconds before closing his fist around it.
"Lock down every airport."
"Already done."
"Every harbor."
"Done."
"Private airfields."
"Covered."
"The borders."
"The government is cooperating."
Lorenzo looked almost disappointed.
"No."
Matteo frowned.
"No?"
"If Marco betrayed me..."
"He won't run."
Matteo looked confused.
"He'll hide somewhere he believes I would never search."
"Where?"
Lorenzo answered without hesitation.
"My own house."
—
Across the city...
Marco Bellini calmly poured himself a glass of twenty-year-old whiskey.
The mansion was unusually quiet.
He smiled.
According to every report, Isabella Rossi had vanished forever.
No witnesses.
No evidence.
No loose ends.
The unborn children had disappeared with her.
Exactly as planned.
His phone buzzed.
A single message appeared.
She's alive.
Marco's smile vanished.
Another message arrived.
Lorenzo found her.
The whiskey glass slipped from his hand.
It shattered across the marble floor.
"No..."
His breathing quickened.
A third message.
She told him everything.
Marco immediately opened a hidden safe behind a painting.
Inside were passports.
Cash.
Gold bars.
Three different identities.
He grabbed everything.
He had prepared for this possibility years ago.
But before he could leave...
The lights went out.
Complete darkness.
Marco froze.
A familiar voice echoed through the room.
"You always hated the dark."
Lorenzo.
Marco slowly turned.
Emergency lights activated.
Standing in the doorway...
wearing the same rain-soaked black coat...
was Lorenzo De Luca.
Alone.
No bodyguards.
No weapons visible.
Only cold, emotionless eyes.
Marco forced a smile.
"My friend."
Lorenzo looked around the room.
"You packed quickly."
"I don't know what you mean."
"You always did lie badly."
Marco laughed nervously.
"Lorenzo, someone is trying to frame me."
Lorenzo stepped forward.
Each footstep echoed like thunder.
"You were chosen to be the godfather of my children."
Marco swallowed.
"You ate at my table."
Another step.
"My wife called you family."
Another.
"You held her hand at our wedding."
Marco instinctively backed away.
"Lorenzo..."
"I trusted you."
Silence.
Then Lorenzo quietly asked,
"Why?"
Marco stared at him for several seconds.
Then...
He laughed.
A loud, bitter laugh.
"You really don't know?"
Lorenzo remained expressionless.
"Know what?"
Marco's face twisted with resentment.
"Everything belonged to you."
He spread his arms.
"The empire."
"The money."
"The respect."
"The woman everyone admired."
"You inherited everything."
His voice became louder.
"And I built half of it."
Lorenzo said nothing.
"I fought beside your father."
"I buried friends for this family."
"I sacrificed my own brother."
Marco's eyes filled with rage.
"And when your father died..."
"...he left everything to you."
Lorenzo answered calmly.
"My father made his choice."
"Because you were his son!"
Marco shouted.
"I was nothing."
His breathing became ragged.
"So I decided..."
"...if I couldn't have the empire..."
"...you wouldn't have a family."
The confession echoed through the mansion.
Lorenzo closed his eyes.
For a brief second...
he remembered birthdays.
Christmas dinners.
Fishing trips.
The man standing before him had been like an uncle.
Now...
he was simply a traitor.
"You tried to murder a pregnant woman."
Marco shrugged.
"I needed certainty."
Lorenzo opened his eyes again.
Whatever humanity had remained inside them...
was gone.
"You know our rules."
Marco slowly nodded.
"Traitors die."
"No."
Lorenzo's voice was colder than ice.
"Traitors answer first."
Before Marco could react—
Two shadows dropped silently from the ceiling.
Lorenzo's elite guards.
Marco reached for a hidden pistol.
Too late.
One guard twisted his arm.
Another drove him to his knees.
The gun clattered across the floor.
Marco struggled violently.
"You can't kill me!"
Lorenzo crouched until they were eye level.
"I won't."
Hope flashed across Marco's face.
Lorenzo continued.
"Death is too easy."
He stood again.
"Take him."
"To the underground vault."
Marco's face drained of color.
"No..."
He began screaming.
"Please!"
"I'll tell you everything!"
"I wasn't alone!"
Lorenzo stopped walking.
"What did you say?"
Marco's voice shook uncontrollably.
"There are others."
"They're inside your organization."
"They've been waiting for years."
Lorenzo slowly turned around.
"Names."
Marco looked terrified.
"If I tell you..."
"They'll kill my family."
Lorenzo's expression never changed.
"If you don't..."
"I will."
Marco broke.
"There are five."
"They call themselves..."
The Black Council.
Lorenzo's heartbeat slowed.
Five traitors.
Inside his own empire.
Watching him.
Waiting.
Before he could ask another question—
Matteo's phone rang.
He answered immediately.
Then his eyes widened.
"Boss..."
Lorenzo looked at him.
"What?"
Matteo smiled for the first time that night.
"The surgery is over."
Lorenzo didn't breathe.
"And?"
Matteo's voice softened.
"You have..."
"...a son."
"And a daughter."
"They're both alive."
For a single moment...
the most feared man in the country closed his eyes in relief.
Then Matteo spoke again.
"But..."
Lorenzo looked up sharply.
"The doctors say Isabella lost a lot of blood."
"They're not sure..."
"...if she'll wake up."
