THE MAFIA’S FORGOTTEN SON

Invisible Law firm

CHAPTER 8

Power wore a tailored suit that morning—precise, cold, impossible to ignore. In the glass of Via Montenapoleone the reflection was flawless: boutiques glittering with impossible timepieces, men and women moving like chess pieces. And in the middle of it all, Studio Legale Vero breathed its quiet threat—no neon and no proclamation—only steel and glass that made passersby slow, the air around it humming like a barely contained charge.

Nobody outside suspected the truth: this law firm was a crafted illusion, an argument built to persuade the city itself. Everything about it was real enough to make disbelief ridiculous—credentials, alumni lists, bar admissions, references that scraped clean through background checks—yet beneath the surface the paper was a blade and the blade was sharp.

Adrian Morgan didn’t enter rooms so much as take them over. He moved like a man who had made the world understand that losing was not an option. Prosecutors saw his name and rechecked their strategy. Judges softened, then hardened, by the time he finished speaking. His victories read less like court rulings and more like inevitabilities. The rumor had become fact: Adrian never lost.

Inside the firm, order had the look of ritual. The main chamber arced under a vaulted ceiling; recessed lights cut precise pools of brightness across marble and walnut. Dante’s encrypted systems sat silently in racks—networks that, by design, left no footprint. Shelves held law tomes and dossiers that smelled faintly of ink and authority. Everything had a role. Everything was positioned to convince.

Elena arrived in that confidence, not as decoration but as geometry: sharp lines, quieter menace. Her first suit fit like armor—black, structured, the crimson lining a flash of intent when she moved. Ivory at the throat, heels that tapped with military predictability, hair pulled into a chignon that allowed no softness. Her makeup was a declaration: dark liner, pale skin, lips the color of deliberate consequence. She looked like a woman who had learned to wear composure as a weapon.

Marco’s hand trembled over the espresso, and the coffee escaped in a slow spill. Calvin’s breath hitched and halted mid-count. Dante muttered before he could stop himself. Even the office plants seemed to lean in.

Elena didn’t register any of it. She crossed the room with the same economy of motion she would use in court—efficient, unromantic, final. A leather satchel touched walnut; a tablet slid out, then a fountain pen, then a black calfskin notebook. Each item had a place, and she placed them as if assembling a statement.

“She’s not pretending,” Calvin said, low, like an observation you didn’t want shouted across a room full of witnesses.

Marco wiped at his fingers and whispered, “She wasn’t kidding about playing the part.”

Adrian watched from inside his office, the door cracked open just enough to frame him. There was no show of ease in his face—just that old, small gravity that made other people orbit. For a breath he felt recognition, the rare kind that didn’t seduce but acknowledged. She wasn’t filling a seat. She was the center.

Elena paused by his door and handed him a file stamped State v. Valenti Shipping – Whistleblower Protection. She let the fact of the case hang between them.

“They’re saying we’re a war cabinet,” she said. “Legal forums, blogs — half the city expects us to go after the cartels.”

“Let them expect, afterall, that is what they all do,” Adrian replied. He didn’t need to look at the photograph taped inside the file. “Suspicion is useful. It makes them watch where we want them to look.”

She glanced at him, searching for a sliver of play. He gave none. “And the photo?”

“It stays.” His voice was flat, absolute.

Elena acknowledged it with a single, deliberate nod. “Good. I guess your mother will keep watching.”

◇◇◇◇◇

In the conference room, they moved with the kind of focus that erased small talk. Dante ran a simulated breach until the numbers steadied. Calvin traced extraction routes on a clean map. Marco read guard rotations until each name was a rhythm he could anticipate.

Adrian stood at the head of the table and folded his hands as if closing a case before opening it. “This firm is not camouflage,” he said. His voice carried without effort. “It’s a weapon. Every brief, every public defense, every carefully staged victory—each one shapes perception. The DeLucas will learn our name. They’ll feel pressure. They won’t know the source until it finds them.”

Elena rolled up a sleeve and the thin scar along her forearm showed—an honest, private map of survival. She set her laptop on the table and with a quick, practiced motion announced, “I’ve filed Valenti Shipping. We can defend the whistleblower. There will be high risk, high exposure. We win this, and we force their hand.”

Something like a smile almost ghosted across Adrian’s face. “As expected.”

Marco allowed it to spread into something almost proud. “She’s terrifying. I think i like her already and she is definitely my type!”

“She’s perfect, but not for you idiot!, She is not YOUR type of woman. Stay away from her if you love yourself.” Calvin agreed.

Outside, the city continued its meticulous commerce, unaware that inside the glass box a campaign had already begun. They would not fight loud; they would litigate, obfuscate, apply pressure in increments so exact the DeLucas would mistake them for misfortune. Adrian’s record was a myth that would do the work for them—because when the world believes you cannot lose, it builds your victories into inevitability.

Two days from now, the first strike would land. They would not show their hand until the moment of impact. When it came, it would look like law. It would taste like justice. And whatever remained of the empire across town would discover, too late, that it had been arguing on their terms all along.