Chapter 18 - The Harbor Reckoning
The rain had turned into a torrential downpour by midnight as the black Maybach rolled down to the abandoned concrete piers of South Boston.
Paolo Moretti was thrown roughly onto the wet concrete near the edge of the pier, his hands securely bound behind his back. The roaring waves of the Atlantic crashed against the wooden pylons below, spraying salt water across his face.
Adriano stood beside Dileia under the shelter of a corrugated iron overhang, watching impassively as the old capo struggled to his knees.
"You're making a mistake, Adriano," Paolo spat out, rain plastering his gray hair to his forehead. "The other captains will see this. They'll know you executed the oldest loyalist in the family over a kid who isn't even blood!"
"He is my family," Dileia stepped forward into the rain, her voice cutting through the howl of the wind with terrifying authority. "And you violated the only law that mattered."
She turned to Adriano. "Throw him into the tide."
Adriano didn't hesitate. With one brutal, swift motion, he grabbed Paolo by the collar and hauled him to the edge of the pier.
"Wait—Adriano, please—" Paolo’s voice cracked with sudden, pathetic terror as he stared down into the churning black water below.
"You had thirty years, Paolo," Adriano said coldly. "And you traded it all for a ghost."
May you like
Splash.
The Atlantic swallowed the traitor without a sound, leaving behind only the relentless pounding of the rain and the howling wind.
