Elena Rossi
13
1The air in the Rossi estate always smelled of expensive tobacco and cold marble, but in the nursery, it smelled of lavender and talcum powder.Elena Rossi—the "Iron Matriarch" who had ordered three hits before breakfast—knelt on the floor, her silk suit staining as she built a tower of blocks for her four-year-old son, Leo. To the world, she was a shadow, a ruthless strategist who kept the Five Families in check with a blood-stained grip. To Leo, she was just "Mama," the woman who sang him lullabies in soft Italian."Build big, Mama!" Leo chirped, his eyes the same piercing blue as the father he’d never known—a man Elena had personally buried for the crime of being weak."As big as the world, piccolo mio," she whispered, her hand brushing his cheek with a tenderness that would have terrified her subordinates.That night, the peace shattered. A rival faction, desperate and dying, breached the perimeter. Glass sprayed across the hall like diamonds. Elena didn't panic; she moved with the practiced grace of a predator. Within seconds, she had Leo tucked into a reinforced safe room behind her wardrobe."Don't come out until you hear my voice, understand? No matter what," she told him, her voice a calm, deadly anchor.She met the intruders in the hallway. She didn't use a silencer; the noise was a message. She moved through the smoke, a vengeful ghost in designer heels, ending lives with a precision born of a singular, burning purpose: protection. When the last man fell, gasping for air, she leaned over him."You made a mistake," she hissed, the fire in her eyes cold enough to freeze blood. "You looked at my son. In my world, that’s a death sentence."An hour later, the bodies were gone, the marble was scrubbed, and the scent of lavender returned. Elena opened the safe room. Leo was fast asleep, clutching a stuffed bear.She picked him up, pressing her face into his hair, the adrenaline finally fading into a fierce, suffocating devotion. She would burn the
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