Page 2 of Roberto

Until everything changed.

On the night of her wedding, Bianca met my cousin Aurelio…

And realizedhewas the mysterious stranger she had seen conspiring with our enemies right before an attempted hit on Lars, Adriano, and Massimo.

But Aurelio wasn’t the mastermind behind the plot; our Uncle Fausto was.

The news was devastating. Fausto had been my father’sconsiglierefor 25 years. He had lived under the same roof as us. I couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t in my life.

But not only was Fausto behind the attempts on our lives…

He was responsible for our father’s death.

It might have been an old Sicilian woman who administered the poison, but Fausto used her like a puppet.

Papa’s blood was on our uncle’s hands…

And now he was coming forus.

After discovering Aurelio and Fausto’s treachery, I immediately double-checked our family’s bank accounts. I wanted to make sure my uncle wasn’t still listed as co-signer on any of them. The last thing we needed was for him to strike at us through our finances.

We were already in dire straits. Since dividing our territory with Fausto eight months ago (beforewe knew of his betrayal), we had made an enormous investment that had depleted half our funds. We had also run up numerous expenses safeguarding the property. As a result, we had maybe six months of operating funds left.

Which meant we couldn’t afford to go to war –

But war seemed to be where things were heading.

It appeared that Fausto’s ultimate goal was to turn the other families of theCosa Nostraagainst us. Through a series of devious machinations, he had framed us for the murders of our longtime business partners in Florence; now no one else in theCosa Nostrawould trust us. In fact, they would most likely seek to destroy us for our ‘betrayal.’ Once my brothers and I were dead, my uncle could swoop in and snap up what was left of our territory.

First and foremost, we needed allies. The morning after Adriano’s wedding, Dario sent my brother Massimo as ambassador to Signora Fioretti, also known as the Widow – themafiosawho ran all of Venice.

I had breakfast with Lars, my brothers, and two sisters-in-law, and then Massimo boarded the family’s private jet and set off on his mission.

Shortly after that, all hell broke loose.

3

After Massimo’s departure, I retired to my bedroom and began my daily routine.

First I did my exercises: one hundred pushups…

Two hundred crunches…

And 20 minutes of calisthenics.

Our enforcer, Lars, had trained our family’s foot soldiers. From the very start, he had requested that my brothers and I join in – both for our own good, and to increase morale amongst our men.

Besides military tactics and marksmanship, Lars had placed a huge emphasis on physical conditioning. Although my duties as the family’s Chief Financial Officer had forced me to abandon the military drills, I still kept exercising on my own.

I wanted precise control over my body as well as my mind. Lars’s punishing routines gave me exactly that.

Sweat dripped off my body when I was finished. I immediately stripped naked and took an ice-cold shower.

As the freezing water rushed over my head and back, I forced myself to breathe deeply and slow my racing heart.

Control.

Always stay in control.

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