One Don, Two Faces

Chapter 1- Isabella

My phone buzzed just before I reached the reception desk. I didn’t need to check the screen to know who it was. My grip tightened slightly anyway.

I answered.

“I’m inside,” I said.

There was a pause on the other end.

“Good,” his voice came, calm as ever. “Then you understand what that means.”

I did.

I knew I had already gone too far the moment I stepped through the glass doors of the Moretti headquarters.

Don Lorenzo never needed to raise his voice, never needed to threaten. The silence in his tone always said enough.

Failure cannot be an outcome; it would always come with a consequence.

“I’ll get what you need,” I replied, keeping my voice steady like I had practiced.

“You already know what happens if you don’t.”

The line went dead.

The Moretti headquarters looked like any other high-end corporate structure in Milan. Clean lines, polished floors, voices low, eyes focused.

Everything about it screamed perfection but nothing is ever perfect and I was here to find out their blemish.

For a second, I stood there, staring at my reflection in the glass panel beside me. I looked elegant, professional and unbothered a lie I had perfected.

“Miss Ricci?”

I turned.

The receptionist smiled politely, unaware that my entire life had just been placed on a scale. “We’ve been expecting you.”

Of course they had. I nodded once and followed her instructions, moving deeper into the building. Every step deliberate, I was aware of everything. The security cameras. The positioning of doors. The way people glanced up just a second too long before returning to their work.

This wasn’t just a company, it was a system and I had just stepped into the center of it.

The files were waiting for me when I got to the office they assigned—too neat, too organized, too perfect.

I sat down slowly, flipping open the first document. Numbers lined up cleanly across the page. Transactions mapped out in flawless sequence, nothing out of place that was the problem.

Real systems are messy which meant it had been intentionally cleaned.

My pulse slowed, good that meant I was right. And being right in a place like this was the most dangerous thing you could be.

I reached for the next file, already tracing patterns in my head, following the money the way I always did. It was instinct at this point numbers didn’t lie.

A shadow fell across the desk I looked up.

And for a second, everything else disappeared.

He was leaning casually against the doorframe like he had all the time in the world. Dark hair, sharp features, an aura that didn’t ask for attention but took it anyway. His eyes were on me, not curious, or surprised.

He smirked, which was even worse. “You’re the new analyst,” he said.

His voice was smooth, almost amused, like he already knew the answer and just wanted to hear me say it.

“I am,” I replied, closing the file in front of me without rushing. “And you are…?”

He smiled slightly. That kind of smile should come with a warning.

“Someone who owns the building you’re sitting in.”

Arrogant huh?

That kind of confidence only came from bastard f**k you money.

I held his gaze anyway. “Then you probably already know why I’m here.”

“Yeah I was told,” he said, stepping into the room fully now. “ But I’m more interested in what’s not being said.”

I leaned back slightly in my chair, crossing one leg over the other like I wasn’t standing in the middle of something I didn’t fully understand yet.

“And what do you think isn’t being said?”

He watched me for a moment, like he was deciding how much to reveal.

“I’d prefer you tell me because people who look at numbers the way you do,” he said slowly, “don’t come here for surface-level work.”

My fingers tightened slightly against the edge of the desk. So he had been watching.

Or at least observing enough to notice.

“Maybe I just like being thorough,” I said.

“Maybe,” he echoed, though his tone said he didn’t believe it.

Silence stretched between us, but it wasn’t empty. It felt… the tension wasn't subtle. I should have been uncomfortable.

I wasn’t that a problem. “What’s your name?” I asked.

“Rafael.”

Of course it was.

It fit him too well.

“And you always walk into rooms uninvited, Rafael?”

“Only when something interesting is happening inside them.”

His eyes flicked briefly to the files on my desk, then back to me.

“Should I be worried?” I asked, keeping my voice neutral.

He tilted his head slightly, studying me like I was the puzzle now. “That depends,” he said. “Should I be?”

I almost smiled.

“You tell me.”

For a moment, neither of us spoke. It felt like a standstill, but the kind where everything is happening, just beneath the surface.

Then he straightened. “I’ll let you get back to work, Isabella.”

My name I hadn't told him.

I didn’t react or should I say couldn’t afford to.

“Enjoy your audit,” he added and then he left just like that.

The room felt different after he was gone.

It was too still.

I exhaled slowly, forcing my focus back onto the files in front of me. This was what I was here for, not him, not whatever that was.

But no matter how hard I tried, my mind kept circling back to the same thing how had he known my name? By the time I left the building, the sky had darkened.

The city lights reflected off the glass exterior, turning it into something almost unreal.

I stepped outside, the cool air hitting my skin, grounding me for a moment.

Then it came back, that feeling like I was being watched.

I paused slowly observing without being obvious about it.

My eyes moved subtly across the street and it caught nothing.

People walking, cars passing, that's normal but something was off.

The weight of it settled between my shoulders, and I knew, without knowing how, that it wasn’t Rafael.

This felt different, a more cold aura. I forced myself to keep walking.

Don’t react, don’t panic, don’t give anything away. That was how you survived.

My phone buzzed in my hand.

I stopped this time and looked down.

A message from an unknown number.

But I already knew it was Don. I opened it.

“You’re in deeper than you think.”

My chest tightened slightly.

Then the second line came through.

“Be careful who notices you.”

I lifted my head slowly, scanning the street again and this time…

I was sure someone was watching me.

And whoever it was… was not the man who had just smiled at me upstairs.

I had just walke

d into something I didn’t understand.

And for the first time since this mission started…

I wasn’t sure I was the one in control anymore.