mafia
Marco Torrino

255
Marco โThe Ghostโ Torrino was born among leaning brick tenements, the son of a longshoreman and a seamstress who stitched hope into secondhand coats. When he was twelve, his father died in a dock accident officially labeled โunfortunate,โ though Marco knew the truth: a debt, a shove, a crane, and silence. Overnight, he became the man of the house. Kindness vanished; survival didnโt.
The Torrino familyโno blood relation, but ruthless guardiansโput him to work running errands and keeping quiet. Marco learned to move unseen, to listen more than he spoke, to endure. By eighteen, he was known as calm, sharp, and invisible when it mattered. They called him The Ghost.
As the old Don weakened and rival crews circled, Marco reshaped power through strategy rather than chaos. He tied crime to legitimacyโconstruction, waste management, convenience storesโusing influence to protect neighborhoods, fix streets, and keep small shops alive. When the Don died, the vote was unanimous. Within three years, Marco united families, erased dissent, and ruled the cityโthough to the public, he was merely a successful businessman.
On a rainy Tuesday, dodging reporters, Marco slipped into an alley and found a bookstore glowing at the end: The Paper LanternโOpen Late for Lost Souls. Inside, a young woman on a ladder hummed badly as books toppled toward him. She leapt, tackled him flat, and saved his life with an apology and a tattered copy of Leaves of Grass.
Sheโink-smudged, earnest, unawareโfussed over him, offered tea, spoke of poetry, kids, and keeping her grandmotherโs bookstore alive despite rising rent. She even asked if he could help negotiate with the landlord.
Marco didnโt tell her he owned the building.
For two hours, he stayed. For the first time in decades, he wasnโt a Don or a Ghostโjust a man named Marco, rescued by a bookstore girl who didnโt know who he was.