Chapter 5
Maria kept notes in her head.
Not on paper.
She said writing things down in a Mafia house was a good way to make them disappear.
I almost smiled.
Then she told me what she remembered.
Every time Victoria removed Noah’s hearing aid, Marcus appeared soon afterward.
Once for dinner.
Twice for private drinks.
Once during a weekend when I was away.
“What did they discuss?”
Maria shook her head.
“I couldn’t always hear.”
Noah could.
That was the irony.
The child they treated as partially excluded from sound had become the person catching pieces everyone else missed.
I crouched beside him again.
“What else did you hear?”
He played with Maria’s apron.
“Uncle Marcus said Daddy gets tired.”
My jaw tightened.
“And?”
“He said Victoria tells you who is good.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
There.
“What does that mean?”
Noah shrugged.
Maria understood.
“Staff.”
She looked at me.
“Three people have been dismissed in the last year after Victoria called them unreliable.”
I remembered.
A driver.
A cook.
One guard.
All people who had served during Isabella’s lifetime.
Interesting.
“Why were they removed?”
Victoria answered:
“Because they were difficult.”
Maria laughed bitterly.
“They asked questions.”
The driver objected when Marcus began using my cars without clearance.
The cook overheard Victoria asking which capos attended breakfast after council nights.
The guard refused to let Marcus into my private study while I was away.
Each became “difficult.”
Each left.
I had approved every removal.
My stomach tightened.
They were not building a coup.
They were pruning my environment.
Remove friction.
Remove memory.
Remove people whose loyalty existed before Victoria entered.
Then Noah.
Then Maria.
Eventually I would stand inside a house where almost every voice reaching me belonged to people chosen by the same two individuals.
Marcus watched me understand.
“You make it sound sinister.”
I looked at him.
“You selected my fiancée.”
Silence.
“She filtered my household.”
Another pause.
“You filtered my captains.”
His jaw tightened.
“And now you want my son and the woman who remembers my first wife moved two hours away.”
May you like
I leaned forward.
“I don’t need to make it sound like anything.”
