Chapter 12 - THE NEW QUEEN OF THE WATERFRONT
By noon, the penthouse had been thoroughly purged. The custom Italian mattress where Matteo had betrayed her was slashed and hauled away by a private waste disposal crew, replaced within hours by minimalist, austere furnishings that felt more like a corporate command center than a matrimonial suite.
Luca Rossi, nursing a cracked rib and a bruised ego from the Vermont ambush, stood hesitantly in the doorway of the master study. He wasn't wearing his shoulder holster anymore. Orders had changed.
"The delegation from the eastern waterfront is downstairs," Luca said, his voice clipped, stripped of its old arrogance. He didn't dare look her directly in the eye. "They want to meet the new principal stakeholder. They brought tribute ledgers and territory proposals."
Vivien didn't look up from the dense architectural drafts spread across her glass desk. "Tell them to wait in the boardroom. I’ll be down in five minutes. And Luca?"
"Yes, ma'am?"
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"Next time you walk into a room where I am, knock first."
Luca swallowed hard, nodded stiffly, and backed out of the room. The power dynamic had shifted completely. These hardened criminals, murderers, and extortionists who had once laughed behind Vivien’s back while she played the dutiful trophy wife now realized that the woman running the Vescari syndicate was infinitely more intelligent, calculating, and ruthless than Matteo had ever been. She didn't rule with brute force; she ruled with absolute legal and financial leverage.
