Location: Burned Safehouse – East Quarter, 04:11 A.M.
Smoke smothered the air as Isabella stepped into the blackened ruin of what used to be one of her core safe houses. Sirens howled in the distance. Rubble crunched beneath her boots.
Allegra emerged from the wreckage, blood streaking her face. "We lost contact with the North and West bases. No survivors confirmed yet."
Gianna stumbled behind her, one arm in a sling. "We found Matteo's body."
Isabella didn't speak. She simply stared at the fire swallowing the last good pieces of what she'd built.
Nico and Domenico arrived minutes later, ash-covered and panting. "West base is gone," Nico said. "They bombed it before we even hit Ricci's walls."
Isabella turned to him, her voice hoarse but steady.
"Costanzo's fingerprints?"
Nico nodded. "All over it."
She walked into the flames, picked up a melted piece of brass—part of the original crest her father had kept hidden in the vaults. She turned it in her palm until it seared her skin.
"Then we end them both."
---
Meanwhile – Ricci's Escape Route
Beneath a hollowed-out winery on the coast, Ricci boarded a sleek black yacht with Costanzo beside him. Wind whipped around them as engines roared to life.
"Let her rage," Ricci said, sipping wine. "The more she burns, the more mistakes she makes."
Costanzo handed him a file.
"Surveillance picked up DeLuca's mother. She's hiding in a convent outside Florence."
Ricci smiled slowly.
"Blood weakens the spine. Let's test Nico's."
---
Return to "The Hollow" – Makeshift War Room
The survivors gathered. Wounded, raw, furious.
Allegra slammed a new map on the table. "We rebuild with what we have left. It's not much."
Nico took his brother's hand. Domenico was quiet but steady now.
"I'll go to Florence," Nico said. "If Ricci's using my mother as leverage—he dies sooner."
Isabella stared out the window.
"We're done playing defense," she said. "He brought war to my house. We take it to his world."
She turned, eyes cold as frost.
"Every corrupt judge. Every hidden bank. Every politician he's ever bought—I want names. I want accounts. And I want them buried before the sun rises."
---
Final Scene – Quiet Resolve
That night, alone in a small corner room of the bunker, Isabella lit a candle for the fallen.
She whispered every name—Matteo, Lorena, Rafi, Cal.
Then she stood, burned her wounded palm again on the melted crest, and whispered a final vow:
"From your ashes, I will build an empire. But it won't be velvet anymore."
She looked up.
"It'll be steel."