CHAPTER 10

The first mistake wasn't his.

But it looked like it was.

Andrea Romano, Matteo's newly hired personal assistant, was brilliant on paper—sharp, methodical, unshaken under pressure. He worked with military precision, always a step ahead, anticipating Matteo's needs before they even arose.

Sasha studied him. Watched. Learned.

And then, when she was certain of his strengths—she turned them into his weaknesses.

The first error was simple.

A misfiled contract.

A deal with a high-ranking politician in Palermo—millions at stake, a power shift waiting to happen. Andrea sent the wrong version to the legal team.

Or at least, it looked that way.

In reality?

Sasha had switched the documents herself.

A simple mistake, but one that cost Matteo three sleepless nights cleaning up the mess.

Andrea apologized. Matteo dismissed it.

"These things happen," he muttered.

But they wouldn't stop happening.

The second mistake was more visible.

A forged email—one that Andrea had supposedly sent.

Sasha crafted it carefully. The tone almost identical. The phrasing near-perfect. But there was one key flaw—a decision that Matteo would never have approved.

A shipment.

Matteo's shipments were everything. Precision. Control. Secrecy.

And in this email?

Andrea had allegedly approved a route change without consulting anyone.

When Matteo found out, the rage was volcanic.

"Who the f** told you to change the route?"* Matteo slammed his hands against the conference table, his voice sending a shockwave of fear through the room.

Andrea stood frozen.

"I… I never—"

"Don't f*ing lie to me, Romano!"

Matteo tossed a printed copy of the email across the table. Andrea grabbed it, scanning the words. His own name. His signature. His approval.

Except…

He never sent it.

But what could he say?

"This wasn't me?"

"Someone framed me?"

The room was watching. Matteo's top men, his executives. Any excuse now would sound like a coward scrambling for cover.

Andrea clenched his jaw. Took the hit.

"It won't happen again."

But Matteo's trust had taken its first, irreversible hit.

Sasha didn't just stop at Matteo.

She planted doubts in the minds of those closest to him.

"Andrea's good, sure," she would say, in casual passing conversations. "But… he's not as sharp as Isabella was."

"I get the feeling he's in over his head."

"Did you hear about that email screw-up? If Matteo wasn't so stressed, I bet he would have fired him already."

The words were gentle. Not too forceful.

Just enough to make people think it themselves.

Sasha engineered it flawlessly.

A missed call.

Matteo had been waiting on a crucial response from an overseas connection—a weapons supplier in Istanbul.

Andrea was in charge of making sure the line was open, the call secured.

But at the exact moment the call was supposed to come through?

The number had been blocked.

By mistake, of course.

Or at least, that's what it looked like.

Andrea sat in his office, staring at his screen. His security settings had changed. The call logs showed the supplier had tried twice to get through.

Matteo never received a single ring.

By the time the connection was fixed, the deal had fallen apart.

Matteo was furious.

"You had one f*ing job."

Andrea tried to explain.

But Matteo wasn't listening.

This wasn't a simple misfiled contract anymore.

This was millions lost.

This was the empire suffering.

This was incompetence.