Livia Ximena Di Vittorio

I loathed these meetings with every ounce of my being. If these men had any hope that they could boss me around to their will, then they were sorely mistaken. My hands were clasped together, resting together with my elbows on the table in front of me. My back was straight and my head was high. These people had nothing on me and everyone knew it. But it was involuntary to attend a meeting when they were called, much to my distaste.

There were twelve of us in this room, and I was the only female. Six consiglieres and then my father, grandfather, uncle, Vincenzo and my cousin Diego.

Vincenzo and Diego were both in line to be able to take the spot as my right hand. Luciano had an advantage in position if he decided he wanted to be involved, but at the moment, the two had been trying to prove themselves worthy. Their spots as Capos were guaranteed when I took over the future, though.

The council of consiglieres all sat opposite my family, and I could study them and their emotions. Not that they showed much. These men knew more about the mafia than I did. They had decades' worth of experience on me.

"Livia is worthy of her title." My father declared, "And I find it absurd we are even debating this."

"She messed up last night?" Edgardo states he was the one I hated the most out of all of them.

"Where?" My dad questions. "There was an attack, she responded first and helped all the men who had been attacked because none of our people died last night."

"Fifteen men escaped the scene." Edgardo fights back.

"And we have twenty men in our custody," Dad answers back.

"Enough." The loud booming voice silences the bickering in the room. My grandfather Cosimo Di Vittorio was a very scary man. He had led the Italian Mafia for over forty years before my dad took over. He was still very involved in all affairs. His title now was The Padrino, the godfather of the mafia. He still had the most and almost the final say in all dilemmas. The only time he didn't have the last say was when my father, the current don and I as the heir had our votes together, then we could override his command. Not that we ever did. He knew best all the time. My grandfather was who I went to with all my questions. He was my mentor. "Why are you both acting like children over a silly matter? Livia, explain what happened last night."

"I was called out at lunchtime saying there had been an ambush at one of the docking points. I left here straight away to deal with it. There was a fight, and we were outnumbered, but the backup was on its way. I helped in the fight and went after the man who was calling the shots, but I could not find any identification as they were all wearing ski masks. As backup arrived, many tried to flee, but we contained over half of the assailants. Out of the twenty-five men that were fighting, twenty-one of them were admitted into our hospital and six of them needed surgery, but all are fine now and we have no deaths."

"And you?" My grandfather asks about my injuries.

"Only a minor wound on my ribs. One attacker tried to stab me, but I moved away so it was only a cut." He nods and waits for me to carry on. "In terms of leads, we don't have many at the moment, all men were wearing masks so we cannot identify any of the ones that have gotten away and all the soldiers that were caught are not in any systems nor do they have any identifying marks. I have men trying to get information out of them now."

"Okay." my grandfather nods at me. "And now, Edgardo, why are you counting that as a failure? It seems successful to me."

My grandfather sat tall, proud and powerful, not caring what anyone else thought about him.

"Um, Boss. We just think..." Edgardo stammers out, not expecting to be called out by my grandfather.

"You think what?" I looked at my grandfather out of the corner of my eye. This man was playing with them. I would know, he was the one who taught me everything he knew.

"We just think that we should keep our options open for the heir."

"Who all agrees with this?" my dad asks, the anger barely hidden in his tone. Dad was furious and even more so as five people raised their hands, four consiglieres and my cousin. My eyes flick to Diego. I wish I could say I was feeling betrayed, but I knew this was coming and honestly expected it sooner. He had always been jealous. He had felt that because he was older than I was, he should have been next in line. But he wasn't even close. If something happened to me then my title would pass to Luciano. "And does this have anything to do with the return of my sons?"

"All we are saying is that Dante seems to have the training to be involved, at the very least get connected with the Italian-Americans. I'm sure the Famiglia, the Camorra or the Outfit would take him in." I glare holes into Edgardo, speaking up for the first time without being told to.

"No." My voice was firm and left no room for question but Edgardo still questioned me.

"No?" He challenged, and I answered again with my voice being just as firm and hard as it was the first time.

"No."

All three of the organisations were branches of the Italian mafia. They had left Italy many years ago and were started by men, brothers of the Don who wanted more power than what they had. It was the start of the Italian-American Mafia, a place which held respect for my title but I held no power or claim. All three of them were power and money-hungry organisations that thought men were the superior gender and had little regard for women, much to my distaste. All the men messed around with whoever they pleased but got married to the virgins from their circles to form alliances, while still messing around with other women in their marriages. They took their traditions from here, using all the rules and ideals we have since evolved, but they stay rooted in their ways.

The Famiglia was run by the Romano family, in honour of Romano Di Vittorio who had started the family almost a century ago, the same for the Camorra run by the D'Angelo family in honour of Angelo Di Vittorio, my father's namesake and the Fiore Family who ran the Outfit also in honour of Fiore Di Vittorio.

Even though they had all been formed by a group of brothers and were all distant relatives of one another, they never got along. Their alliances and trust with one another were weak and were often fighting among each other, the Russian Bravta, the Irish Mob and so many other branches of the big mafias for control of America fighting for territories, power and the sake of it. The American mafia didn't get involved with the fighting, they had control over America that didn't interfere with their business, and I think they also knew that it would be a death sentence to mess with the American Mafia they were one of the most powerful mafias in the world.

They didn't have the morals we had. Big mafias knew their titles, they were passed down from generation to generation, each family held their wealth and status no matter what, but there you had to fight for it, fight for your rank and titles and anything else you wanted. And once you were involved, there was no escape but death.

It would be a death sentence to send Dante there. I had only been there a handful of times and even with the protection of my grandfather and title, I still loathe it and struggled in that environment. Dante was an outsider. As much as he knew he didn't have the training I did, he didn't know who to give respect to, who to avoid, and how to stay out of trouble so you don't get yourself killed.

I lived in the mafia yet my quality of life was better than there's, we all had the same money, titles and jobs but I relied on loyalty with my people. There it was a survival of the fucking fittest.

"Livia is right, we will be sending none of her brothers to the Italian-Americans." My grandfather stated firmly, and that was all it took for Edgardo to sink back into his chair.

Men, all they did was want to make me roll my eyes. They listen to my grandfather, yet I was just as much their superior as he was. I was getting drained of this. So I spoke up.

"Why do you think I'm not worthy of my title, Edgardo, besides obviously my gender? At least with Diego, it's obvious. He thinks he's better suited for the position because he's older. It directly affects him because then he will get the power he wants, but what about you? What will you get for someone else in my position?" The room was silent because I was right and they all knew it. "I know how to do my job and I have done it very well for many years, so unless I die or am physically and mentally unable to do this job then it's mine and there is nothing any of you can do about it."

I feel the weight of the blade in my hand, twisting it in my fingers before letting it go. It landed barely an inch away from Edgardo's head and for the first time I saw two emotions in his eyes when he looked at me.

Fear and respect.

Satisfied I stand up and make my way out of the conference room, leaving behind a number of stunned men behind me.

I kind of loved this chapter but what do you think?

Next chapter might be in Romeo's POV but I might change it. I also am at a bit of a loss on what to write next. I had planned it out but the storyline kind of changed a bit so I have to work on it.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did please vote and comment.

Happy reading

Ara <3