Chapter 1
Nobody at the Caruso table moved.
Dante stood with Ava against his leg, the loose cufflink resting in his palm.
Marcus was on one knee near the edge of the carpet, breathing hard after the punch. Two bodyguards had already moved between him and Dante.
Celeste remained beside her chair.
Her face had gone pale.
Dante looked at Marcus’s wrists.
Both cuffs were fastened.
Same dark suit.
Same silver-and-black enamel design.
The cufflink Ava had found looked similar, but not identical. The edges were slightly older, the Caruso crest shallower from years of wear.
Dante knew his brother’s jewelry.
Their father had given Marcus several sets over the years.
“Which pair is this from?” Dante asked.
Marcus wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
“Mine.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Marcus looked toward Celeste.
She immediately said, “I have no idea where Ava found it.”
Ava pulled on Dante’s jacket.
“Mommy’s room.”
Celeste snapped, “Our room.”
Dante looked at her.
The distinction did not help.
Ava pointed down the hall toward the residential wing.
“Beside Mommy’s bed.”
Marcus closed his eyes for half a second.
Dante saw it.
Not embarrassment.
Fear.
“Everyone leaves,” Dante said.
One of the older capos shifted.
“Dante—”
“Now.”
Family members stood. Staff began clearing the room only until Dante told them to stop touching anything.
Within three minutes the long dining room contained only Dante, Ava, Celeste, Marcus, and four senior bodyguards.
Dante handed the cufflink to his security chief, Leo Marin.
“Bag it.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“You’re preserving a cufflink like it’s evidence?”
“You tried to shove a three-year-old out of the way to get it.”
“I panicked.”
“That part is obvious.”
Celeste folded her arms.
“This is ridiculous.”
Dante looked at Ava.
“No. What happened to my daughter is ridiculous.”
He crouched.
“Ava, sweetheart, I’m going to ask you one question. Then we’re done talking about this tonight.”
Ava nodded.
“Have you seen one of those before?”
She held up three fingers.
Celeste’s expression changed.
Dante noticed.
“Three?”
Ava nodded.
“Little shiny things.”
Marcus stared at the floor.
Dante did not ask where or when.
He had enough sense to know a three-year-old should not be interrogated at a dinner table.
He lifted her.
“Leo, have Mrs. Bennett stay with Ava upstairs.”
Celeste stepped forward.
“I’ll take her.”
“No.”
The word came so quickly that even Dante heard the finality in it.
Celeste stared at him.
“I am her stepmother.”
“And tonight you grabbed her hard enough to leave marks.”
“I was trying to stop her from embarrassing this family.”
Dante’s face went still.
Ava rested her head against his shoulder.
“You were trying to stop a three-year-old from embarrassing adults.”
Celeste said nothing.
Mrs. Bennett, Ava’s senior nanny, arrived moments later.
Dante kissed his daughter’s forehead.
“You’re not in trouble.”
Ava whispered, “Okay.”
“Nothing you found is your fault.”
She nodded.
Only after she was gone did Dante look at his wife and brother.
The old Caruso instinct in him wanted a simple answer.
An affair.
A betrayal.
One guilty wife.
One guilty brother.
Violence made simple stories attractive.
But the extra cufflinks did not make sense.
Neither did Marcus still wearing a full pair.
And neither did the expression on Celeste’s face when Ava said she had seen three.
Dante turned to Leo.
“Lock the residential wing. Nobody removes anything.”
Then he looked at Celeste.
“You sleep in the east guest suite.”
Her eyes widened.
“This is my house.”
“Tonight it’s a place you’re staying.”
He turned to Marcus.
“You stay in the downstairs office under guard.”
Marcus laughed once.
“You think I slept with your wife.”
Dante stepped closer.
“I think my daughter just walked into dinner carrying something you were willing to knock her down to recover.”
Marcus looked away.
May you like
Dante’s voice lowered.
“That worries me more.”
