The Surrender of the Twin Dons Chapter 08

The Surrender of the Twin Dons Chapter 08

Vincenzo’s pov

“Don Rizzo. Don’t you think you’ve crossed a line?”

The man standing before me controlled every smuggling corridor along the East Coast.

My twin brother.

Yet since we were kids, I’d lived in Salvatore’s shadow.

His near-perfect excellence won him the favor of every elder in the family. Coming into power as Don was inevitable.

As for me? I was written off as a reckless, shallow playboy.

Countless outsiders envied my easy life. None saw the rot festering beneath the surface.

I resented him, hated him—yet I feared him, a terror carved into me since childhood.

That raw, tearing rift between us gnawed at me night after night.

“If I recall correctly, you lost her to me that night.”

“But you’re supposed to be celibate! You’ve always claimed you detest women.”

“I thought you found her disgusting!”

I refused to admit it.

Offering Luciana up that night had been about humiliating Salvatore.

A woman I’d grown bored with—one he’d apparently been eyeing for months.

Did he think I hadn’t noticed?

The first time Salvatore saw Luciana, something shifted in his eyes. He’d looked at her legs twice.

That was how the bet came to be struck.

Using a discarded girlfriend to shame the untouchable Don Rizzo? It sounded like a thrill.

What I hadn’t counted on was Salvatore actually touching her.

And after that night… I couldn’t sleep.

I’d cycled through countless women. Never once cared when they left or when I passed them by.

I thought Luciana would be the same.

But I was wrong. Dead wrong.

From the start, Luciana had been different. I’d actually put in effort to win her over.

I’d underestimated what she meant to me.

“Disgusting?”

Salvatore surged to his feet, closing the distance.

It was the first real crack in his composure all evening.

“I don’t know why you’d describe your own girlfriend that way. Nor do I believe a woman with a troubled past is somehow tainted.”

He grabbed my tie, yanked hard, and slammed me against the wall.

“Try saying that about her one more time. See what happens.”

I didn’t struggle. Just stared at that identical face, letting decades of buried hatred rise to the surface.

“Salvatore, you manipulated me. You baited that bet from the start. You wanted her for yourself. You wanted to steal her from me—”

“If it was real, no one could steal her. So I’ll say it again, Vincenzo. The choice was yours to keep her. You handed her straight to me.”

I burst out laughing. “So what? You think she’ll stay with you willingly? She’s poor, from the lower class. But she’s stubborn as a mule. If she finds out you’ve been impersonating me… do you think she’ll accept it quietly? She’ll hate you as much as she hates me—”

“So what.” Salvatore’s voice was ice. “If I hadn’t taken that bet, if I hadn’t taken her home… did you intend to cast her aside for some other man?”

“I didn’t—”

“You did!” Salvatore’s rare outburst cut through me. “You know it’s true. You were bored. Sick of her. That blonde model had been waiting for you to take her on vacation. Vincenzo. Tell me I’m wrong.”

I clenched my jaw, chest heaving. Couldn’t refute a single word.

Salvatore released me, looking down with pure disdain.

“Worry about yourself first. If you can’t explain the Jersey docks disaster, you’re finished. You’ll lose all access to the family’s operations.”

“It was you?” A brutal realization slammed into me like a fist to the gut.

The timing—him returning stateside, my territory going up in flames.

He’d done this. Over Luciana. Risking the entire family’s livelihood just to get one over on me.

“It was me. Had you possessed even a fraction of competence, you wouldn’t be so easily manipulated.”

Salvatore lit a cigar, the smoke instantly veiling his features. His calm returned.

“Will you tell her? Or shall I?”

“Why?” My vision swam with red fury. “Why do you always have to overshadow me? Why did you even come back? Women throw themselves at you. You have a high-society engagement waiting for you. Why her? Why Luciana?”

Salvatore looked down, stubbing out the cigar. “Overshadowing you is just a byproduct of competence. As for ‘stealing’…”

He regarded me with cold detachment, like I was trash. “What exactly do you think you own that would ever interest me?”

“And Luciana—”

Salvatore opened his mouth to answer.

The study door flew open.

Luciana stood there, tears carving tracks down her cheeks.