Chapter 11 - THE ULTIMATUM AT THE ESTATE
Despite our overwhelming tactical victory, the patriarch of the Moretti family—aging, desperate, and cornered like a wounded animal—made one final, reckless play to salvage his crumbling legacy. Rather than fighting through our guarded docks or attempting another corporate sabotage, old man Moretti requested a direct, face-to-face parley at our secluded family estate in the northern suburbs, claiming he wished to surrender unconditionally and negotiate peaceful territorial borders. Romano strongly advised against the meeting, suspecting a suicide mission or a hidden explosive trap, but Dante accepted the invitation without a moment's hesitation. "If he wants to look me in the eye when his empire falls, I will give him that courtesy," Dante declared, though he doubled the perimeter security and insisted I remain safely locked inside the reinforced panic room in the east wing during the summit.
True to form, when Moretti arrived at the grand iron gates accompanied by only a single driver, he carried no weapons, but his eyes burned with the fanatical desperation of a man with nothing left to lose. Sitting across from Dante in the sunlit conservatory, Moretti sneered, pouring himself a glass of whiskey. "You think you won, boy? You think marrying a clever little stray dog from the streets made you invincible?" Moretti rasped, his hand inching slowly toward his coat pocket. "I may be going down, but I ensured the Caruso bloodline ends with you." Before Moretti could draw the concealed derringer from his lining, the conservatory glass shattered inward as a sniper bullet fired from the estate perimeter clipped Moretti’s wrist, sending his weapon clattering across the marble floor while Marco and our tactical team swarmed the room from all exits.
