Chapter 12
His name was Vincent Marzano.
My cousin.
Officially dead after a boating accident.
Apparently not.
I almost laughed.
My family had too many dead men who kept influencing rooms.
Rowan explained.
Vincent survived the north faction collapse by disappearing. He spent years feeding instructions through old family contacts. Not enough to challenge me directly.
Enough to erase anyone who might connect Stefano’s attack to current bloodlines.
Lorenzo got too close.
So the warehouse came down.
“Proof?”
Rowan shook his head.
“No.”
Good.
I would not turn confession into fact just because it fit.
“What do you know firsthand?”
He swallowed.
“My uncle told my mother Lorenzo wouldn’t make it to New Year’s.”
That was something.
Not everything.
Diana looked sick.
Mark stared at her.
“You knew Vincent might be alive.”
She said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Mark stood.
“You knew?”
Diana snapped, “I knew rumors.”
“And you still kept Grace here?”
That surprised me.
Grace too.
Mark continued.
“If Vincent was afraid of Marcus’s family, why keep his daughter inside our estate?”
Diana looked away.
I understood first.
Because Grace was easier to watch here.
My stomach turned.
“You didn’t hire her out of cruelty.”
Diana looked at me.
“Not only cruelty.”
The room went still.
Grace’s face drained.
Diana had arranged for Grace to be hired two years earlier after learning Marcus’s daughter had returned to the city.
Keep her close.
Keep her poor.
Keep her dependent.
Watch the bear.
Control access.
If Marcus’s hidden evidence surfaced, Diana would see it first.
Maya began fussing in Grace’s arms.
She sensed her mother’s fear.
Grace whispered, “You brought me here.”
Diana lifted her chin.
“I gave you work.”
“No.”
Grace’s voice shook.
“You put me where you could watch me.”
Diana said nothing.
“You made Maya sleep over the laundry wing.”
Nothing.
“You told me I should be grateful.”
Diana finally spoke.
“You were safer here.”
Grace laughed.
“From who?”
Silence.
“From Vincent?”
Diana’s face changed.
There.
She knew more.
I stepped forward.
“Is he alive?”
Diana looked at me for a long time.
Then whispered:
“Yes.”
Mark closed his eyes.
Grace stared.
I felt something colder than anger.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who does?”
Diana looked toward the three north captains.
Rowan lowered his gaze.
Hale did not.
The third man, Carter, quietly removed his family pin.
“He contacts us at Christmas.”
I looked toward the destroyed decorations.
Of course.
Marcus hid truth in Christmas objects.
Lorenzo did too.
Maybe because Christmas was when the old north men gathered.
May you like
Tonight was not only a gala.
It was the anniversary of the season they first tried to kill me.
