Don Bowed To Me Chapter 25
In that instant, every whisper in the Great Hall dies.
Sebastian Marchetti is standing in the doorway.
A deep navy three-piece Brioni. Two Marchetti soldiers behind him.
The murmurs erupt across the hall.
“Is that… Sebastian Marchetti?”
“Don Salvatore’s oldest grandson?”
“The next Don Marchetti?”
“Why would he be at a Newport Prep reunion?”
Dante Falconieri lurches to stand up.
His chair falls behind him.
He doesn’t dare straighten all the way. He hovers there, bent at the waist, frozen.
Sebastian’s gaze sweeps the entire hall and lands on me.
“I hear,” he says, “someone in this room is questioning whether Dr. Vitale has the authority to make decisions on behalf of the Marchetti family.”
He gives a small smile.
“Then let me, as Don Salvatore Marchetti’s named heir, make a formal introduction.”
Dead silence in the room.
Sebastian speaks slowly, one word at a time.
“Dr. Hazel Vitale.”
“Technical shareholder of Marchetti National Defense Subsidiary. Twenty percent equity.”
“She has full authority over the finances of every affiliated Marchetti crew, every land acquisition, every consolidation of every union line.”
“Her signature carries the same weight as my Nonno’s.”
Sebastian pauses for a second.
“Every word she has said at this table tonight is the Marchetti family’s position.”
Sebastian’s gaze falls on Camilla.
“Camilla Draghi.”
Camilla is trembling.
“That thing you just said, ‘what gives her the right’?”
Sebastian’s laugh is cold.
“Go home and ask your father whether the Draghi family even has that right.”
Camilla drops down into her chair.
Her face is as white as the tablecloth beneath the Baccarat chandelier.
Sebastian turns to Dante.
“Dante Falconieri.”
Dante drops to his knees.
On the deep red carpet of the Great Hall.
“Mr. Marchetti,” his voice shakes. “Please. I didn’t know she was—”
“When you didn’t know who she was,” Sebastian cuts him off, voice cold. “That’s when you should have kept your mouth shut.”
Sebastian turns to the soldier behind him.
“Notify his father. Nine AM tomorrow morning. Providence. To see Nonno.”
The soldier nods.
Dante collapses onto the carpet.
Sebastian finally looks at my mother and Isabella, still on their knees.
The entire hall holds its breath.
Sebastian’s tone is ice cold.
“Mrs. Vitale. Ms. Vitale.”
“Six months ago, at Matteo Marchetti’s wedding, Nonno publicly announced Dr. Vitale’s identity in front of every Family on the East Coast.”
“You have known who she is since that night.”
“What you two put on tonight in this room is a display of disrespect toward a member of the Marchetti family.”
Sebastian says it one word at a time.
A collective breath is sucked in across the hall. That framing changes everything.
This is no longer “a Vitale family matter.”
This is “two women from the Draghi and Vitale families publicly humiliating a Marchetti shareholder in Newport.”
The blood drains from my mother’s face.
Sebastian looks at them.
“The Marchetti family will remember what you have done.”