Chapter 2
The private council papers were already prepared.
Not on the table.
In Marcus’s briefcase.
Salvatore found them beneath his chair.
No signatures.
No legal language.
We did not need either.
D’Angelo decisions often began socially long before anyone formalized them.
The heading read:
CONTINUITY DURING TEMPORARY INCAPACITY.
Temporary.
There was the word again.
Katherine had expected me unconscious.
Not dead tonight.
Clara’s wording came from something else.
I read further.
If Roman became medically unavailable for an extended period, Marcus would assume operational command.
Expected.
Then:
Clara D’Angelo to reside temporarily in Katherine’s household for continuity and security.
My jaw tightened.
“She lives with me.”
Katherine answered quietly:
“If you were incapacitated, someone would have to manage her.”
“Her mother’s family exists.”
Clara’s mother, Sofia, had died eighteen months earlier.
Her sister Anne still saw Clara weekly.
Katherine dismissed them as civilians.
Of course.
Then another line:
Primary family education to begin immediately under senior D’Angelo supervision.
Clara was three.
“Education?”
Marcus shifted.
“Tradition.”
I stared.
My daughter had already been assigned a future.
Not asked.
Assigned.
Katherine finally admitted the plan.
Not to kill me.
At least not tonight.
The altered wine was meant to keep me out of the council.
During that meeting, several older capos would endorse a temporary continuity structure.
Once established, repeating it later would feel normal.
Marcus takes command when Roman is unavailable.
Katherine takes Clara.
A habit disguised as contingency.
Then why tell Clara I would die?
Katherine said she never did.
Clara heard enough words and translated them.
“After your father is gone.”
That phrase.
Katherine had said it more than once.
Maybe meaning someday.
Maybe not.
May you like
Children do not understand euphemism.
Sometimes that makes them the only honest listener in the room.
