Vito leaned back in his leather armchair, swirling brandy in one hand as he reflected on his ascent to power. He had lived in Palermo as if he was a mere scrappy immigrant child, as if orphaned and homeless on the streets even though his father was a Don and Lord who despised him.
Taking odd jobs for the mafia families, he soon caught the eye of Lord Carlo, head of the conti clan then. Carlo had seen the raw cunning in him and taken Vito under his wing, raising him alongside his son, Vicenzo.
Over the years as Carlo's protégé, Vito had systematically eliminated rivals, exploited weaknesses in other families, and sabotaged his own family to seize control of his clan's empire. By age 21 he had become the Don, at age 30 he had become a Lord, forging the smaller families into the formidable Moretti Syndicate through shrewd strategy and ruthlessness.
