Chapter 8
The birthday party disappeared in thirty seconds.
Children inside.
Family away from windows.
Capos in position.
Diane stayed in the garden under guard.
Sabrina beside her.
The east camera went dark.
“Three vehicles,” my captain said.
“How did they open the gate?”
“Old command authorization.”
I looked at Diane’s signet ring.
She smiled.
“You never changed everything.”
I held out my hand.
“Ring.”
“No.”
“Mother.”
“You do not strip a Whitfield matriarch in her own garden.”
“You stopped being matriarch three years ago.”
“According to whom?”
Every guard around us answered without moving.
Diane saw it.
Slowly, she removed the ring and dropped it onto the lawn.
“Pick it up.”
I looked at her.
“If you’re humiliating me, finish properly.”
“No.”
Her expression shifted.
“You don’t direct this scene either.”
Gunfire cracked beyond the orchard.
Short.
Then silence.
Diane looked toward the garden pavilion.
Instinct.
Fear.
I noticed.
“What’s in there?”
“Nothing.”
Sabrina looked too.
Another answer.
I sent four men.
Diane finally shouted:
“Stop them.”
No one obeyed.
Sabrina laughed bitterly.
“With what authority, Mom?”
Minutes later, my men returned carrying a small black transmitter.
It had been hidden inside a pink birthday box.
Bella’s name on the outer tag.
Grace’s on a smaller card beneath it.
My stomach turned.
“What is this?”
Sabrina answered.
“A tracking beacon.”
Diane snapped:
“She doesn’t know.”
Sabrina stared at her.
“You gave it to me.”
“Shut up.”
I held the gift.
“For Grace?”
Sabrina nodded.
Diane finally explained.
“You take her everywhere when she’s frightened.”
I understood.
The humiliation.
The haircut.
The questions.
They wanted Grace terrified enough to cling to me Thursday.
The beacon would travel with her.
My daughter had been turned into the tracker.
I stared at Diane.
“You call this strategy?”
“Efficient strategy.”
A minute later, my guards dragged a captured Vale operative onto the lawn.
He looked directly at my mother.
“Mrs. Whitfield.”
Diane closed her eyes.
The man smiled.
“You said the little girl would already be carrying the beacon.”
May you like
Every capo heard him.
And my mother finally lost the ability to call any of this a misunderstanding.
