Chapter 2
Nobody answered until Clara did.
“A long time.”
Every adult in the room looked at her.
I crouched.
“What do you mean?”
She wiped her face with the back of one hand.
“Aunt Katherine talks when she thinks I sleep.”
Katherine’s expression changed.
Clara spent afternoons in the family sitting room during holiday preparations. Katherine often held meetings in the adjacent conservatory.
Thin doors.
Old vents.
Children ignored by adults.
Perfect witnesses.
“What did you hear?”
Clara looked at Katherine.
Then Marcus.
Her little face tightened.
“Uncle Marcus gets Daddy’s chair.”
The room stopped breathing.
Marcus stood fully now.
“That’s enough.”
I looked at him.
He stayed where he was.
Good.
Clara continued.
“Aunt Katherine said Daddy drinks, gets sick, then everybody gets scared.”
My hands became still.
Not necessarily death.
Sickness.
Publicly.
During Christmas dinner.
In front of capos.
I looked at Katherine.
The shape of it appeared immediately.
My father used Christmas dinner for one thing beyond family ceremony.
The winter loyalty gathering.
Every major captain attended.
Every senior relative.
Every man who mattered watched the head of the family sit at the center of the table.
If I collapsed there—
chaos.
Fear.
Questions.
Who takes control?
Who keeps the organization steady?
Marcus.
Forty years old.
Senior capo.
Katherine’s son.
My older cousin.
Exactly the man traditional captains would gather around while I lay unconscious.
I looked at Marcus.
“You weren’t trying to kill me tonight.”
His face tightened.
Katherine said nothing.
I continued.
“You wanted the room to think I was dying.”
No answer.
“Long enough for Marcus to take command.”
Marcus snapped:
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Clara buried her face against Salvatore.
That ended whatever patience I had left.
I walked toward him.
“Lower your voice around my daughter.”
He did.
Immediately.
Good.
I turned back to Katherine.
“You told Clara what happens after I’m gone.”
She stared.
“What exactly were you planning to do with her?”
Her eyes changed.
That question frightened her more than the wine.
May you like
And suddenly I understood my daughter was not merely collateral.
Katherine had already planned Clara’s future too.
