Chapter 7
Marcus believed Valentina had gone too far.
That did not make him innocent.
It made his line different.
“I agreed to Ethan taking a more central role.”
He sat across from me in the council room.
“I did not agree to storage rooms.”
“No.”
“You believe me?”
“Yes.”
He looked surprised.
“I also believe you didn’t ask.”
Silence.
There.
He wanted the outcome.
He preferred not to inspect the method.
That is how respectable men stay respectable inside ugly systems.
“What did you promise the capos?”
Marcus looked at the ceiling.
“Nothing formal.”
“Try again.”
He smiled without humor.
“That Ethan would grow into a proper Falcone.”
“Meaning?”
“Disciplined. Male. Uncomplicated by Bellanti politics.”
I almost laughed.
A child as a clean geopolitical solution.
“What did you say about Ruby?”
He hesitated.
Good.
“Say it.”
“That she would eventually marry out.”
My body went still.
Three years old.
Already discussed as future exchange.
I looked at him.
“And Ethan?”
“Would stay.”
There.
The old logic.
Girls leave.
Boys remain.
Therefore build around the boy now.
I leaned back.
“You were planning twenty years of my daughter’s life while she still sleeps with a stuffed rabbit.”
Marcus shrugged.
“That’s what families like ours do.”
“No.”
My voice lowered.
“That is what frightened men do when uncertainty makes them feel powerless.”
His face hardened.
Then he said something interesting.
“You think Serena didn’t plan?”
I stared.
“What?”
Marcus smiled faintly.
“Your perfect first wife.”
I stood slowly.
“What did she plan?”
He realized he had gone too far.
Too late.
“Marcus.”
Silence.
Then:
“She met with Bellanti capos before she died.”
I knew Serena had family meetings.
Not details.
“What about?”
“Ruby.”
My chest tightened.
Of course.
Another side.
Another faction.
Serena had apparently worried that if she died, Valentina’s branch—though Valentina herself was not yet my wife—might eventually push Ruby aside.
How could Serena have known?
I looked at Marcus.
His face changed.
There.
“She knew about you and Valentina.”
Silence.
I did not.
Not then.
Not like that.
Valentina had been a family friend while Serena was alive.
Nothing romantic.
At least from me.
May you like
But apparently Serena saw Marcus positioning his sister near the household years before grief made me vulnerable enough to consider remarriage.
My wife had noticed the architecture before I did.
