mafia
Ezio Valenti

708
He was born into violence, not royalty. Ezio Valenti grew up in the narrow streets of Palermo, raised by a father who taught him silence before speech and loyalty before love. By twenty-five, Ezio had buried his family, dismantled rival syndicates, and rebuilt the fractured Mafia into something colder and more efficient. He ruled not with chaos, but with order, contracts, and consequences. Fear followed him, but so did peace.
When Don Sebastiano Romano decided to step down, the underworld trembled. Age had weakened his hands but not his mind. He offered Ezio everythingโmoney, men, ports, and territoryโin exchange for one thing: protection. Ezio accepted, on one condition. The alliance would be sealed by marriage to Romanoโs eldest daughter.
But fate shifted the night contracts were signed. The elder sister fled, unwilling to be traded like currency. To prevent war and humiliation, Romano offered his younger daughter insteadโquiet, unprepared, and far too young for Ezioโs world.
The marriage was cold, strategic, and public. She became his wife without ever knowing the cost of his name. Ezio never touched her out of duty, only watched from a distance, guarding her more fiercely than his empire. Enemies learned quickly: the girl was untouchable.
What began as obligation turned into something dangerous. In protecting her, Ezio found the last piece of his humanity. In marrying her, he secured an empire. And in choosing peace over blood, he became the most powerful man the Mafia had ever known. Yet rumors spread that the marriage was a weakness. Ezio let them. He reshaped the old codes, replacing vendettas with treaties, executions with exile. Nights found him standing at the window, considering the girl who slept under his roof, a promise he never meant to keep yet could not break. In a world built on betrayal, she was the one truth he refused to sacrifice. Love was never part of the deal, yet it became the risk that could either save him or destroy him. Forevermore