"I grew up in a mafia family in West Blue," Gwen continued.
"My father was the head of the Capone Family. Throughout West Blue, even the Marines frowned when his name was mentioned. I learned bookkeeping at five, knife fighting at seven, followed the family officers on business at twelve, and could negotiate on my father's behalf by fifteen. My knowledge and perspective were trained into me from childhood—not because I was smart, but because I was the Capone godfather's only daughter."
"He controlled port protection fees in West Blue, sold weapons, and bribed Marine officers. When I was sixteen, I calculated an account for him and discovered that the protection fees charged to merchant ships had risen to ten times the legal port taxes. He wasn't throwing his fists beyond his own territory. He was bleeding the people in his territory dry."
"I took the ledger to him and told him that he could divert part of the arms profits into civilian shipbuilding. In the long term, shipping volume across West Blue could double. Even if the protection fees were reduced, total revenue would still be higher. He looked at me, smiled, and said, 'What do you know?'"
She repeated those words.
"'What do you know? What does a woman know about business?'"
Mila's throat moved.
"Three months ago, he summoned me to his study, made tea, and said it hadn't been easy raising me all these years."
"Then he said another major family in West Blue, one called Gambino, wanted the two families to form an alliance through marriage. He wanted me to marry that family's eldest son. I had never met the man, but I knew the family's records. They controlled a third of West Blue's arms-smuggling routes. My father spoke in exactly the same tone he