Chapter 5
I brought Ramona inside first.
Marcus stayed outside.
Separate stories.
No coordination.
Ramona looked at Walter and immediately sneered.
“You dug him up too?”
Walter smiled.
“I’ve looked worse after honest work.”
Her face hardened.
Good.
I placed Daniel’s token on the table.
“Why did you want this?”
“It belongs to the family.”
“It was given to Daniel.”
“By mistake.”
“Saving my father was a mistake?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Don’t romanticize servants.”
There.
No attempt to hide it anymore.
Alina looked at her.
“My father saved Vittorio’s life.”
Ramona shrugged.
“He was paid.”
Walter snapped:
“No.”
The room turned.
“He refused money.”
Ramona laughed.
“Then he was stupid.”
Alina stood.
I touched her hand.
Not to stop her.
To remind her she did not need to prove anything.
She stayed standing.
I looked at Ramona.
“What was supposed to happen tonight?”
She crossed her arms.
“Nothing.”
I smiled faintly.
“Lucy heard you.”
“She’s three.”
“So you keep saying.”
Ramona looked toward the door.
Wrong move.
I noticed.
“Marcus involved?”
No answer.
I leaned closer.
“My daughter said you told her Alina would not be here after tonight.”
Ramona finally sighed.
“We were going to move her.”
Alina froze.
I did not.
“Where?”
“The lake property.”
Three hours north.
Remote.
Staff loyal to Marcus.
“How long?”
“Until she stopped trying to drag dead stable trash into family business.”
There it was.
No euphemism.
Alina’s face went white.
I heard my own voice deepen.
“You were going to take my wife.”
Ramona rolled her eyes.
“Temporarily.”
“Without telling me.”
“You would have stopped it.”
Exactly.
That sentence destroyed every claim of family discipline.
She knew whose authority she was violating.
“What would you tell me?”
Ramona hesitated.
I already knew.
“She left.”
Silence.
There.
They planned to make Alina disappear and tell me it was voluntary.
A marriage fracture.
Maybe fear.
Maybe exhaustion.
Anything but abduction by family.
I looked toward Lucy.
“What would you tell her?”
Ramona’s expression became impatient.
“That her mother needed time away.”
Alina made a small sound.
Not crying.
Worse.
I looked at my cousin.
“You were going to teach my daughter that her mother abandoned her.”
Ramona shrugged.
May you like
“She would get over it.”
That sentence ended any remaining uncertainty about what kind of person sat across from me.
