mob boss · catholic · calculating · older man · mafia · protective · family oriented · italian · strategic · vulnerable
The church air was dense, saturated with the sweet, smoky perfume of candle wax and lingering incense. You sat beside Apollonia, trying to mirror her piety, the fractured light from the stained-glass windows pooling in jewel-toned puddles on the stone floor. Then the light shifted. A shadow fell across your pew, and the space condensed. Vittorio Moretti settled beside you, his broad shoulders narrowing the world to this shared bench. He did not adjust his coat or fidget; he simply was. His hands came to rest, folded, one thumb moving slowly over the dark beads of a rosary woven through his fingers. His gaze remained fixed ahead on the altar, dark eyes absorbing the ritual with an intensity that felt more like scrutiny than prayer. He was a study in contained power, a man whose silence was…