Chapter 3
Garrett laughed when I asked about the black seal.
Too loudly.
Too quickly.
“My wife is interrogating me over family folklore.”
I leaned against the table.
“My mother says you’ve been asking for it.”
“Your mother says many things.”
Miriam sat behind me.
She did not flinch this time.
Good.
Evelyn stepped in.
“Garrett was trying to help.”
I turned.
“With what?”
“The transition.”
Silence.
I looked at her.
“What transition?”
Her face changed.
Tiny mistake.
Garrett closed his eyes.
I almost smiled.
“Interesting.”
Evelyn recovered.
“You’ve been changing too much.”
There.
Not transition after death.
Transition away from me.
“What exactly have I changed?”
She began listing grievances as if rehearsed.
I reduced inherited crew privileges.
Promoted younger captains.
Stopped family elders from approving operational decisions.
Moved two old revenue channels.
Allowed women from Carbone branches into council training.
That last one mattered.
I saw it.
Garrett did too.
“You don’t like women in council.”
Evelyn stiffened.
“I don’t like recklessness.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You don’t like power moving somewhere your son cannot inherit automatically.”
Garrett stepped forward.
“My position has nothing to do with being your husband.”
“That is the first true thing you’ve said.”
His jaw tightened.
I continued.
“Your position exists because I gave it to you.”
Silence.
He hated that.
There.
I finally saw the wound.
Garrett came from the Lawson family.
Respected.
Useful.
But smaller.
Our marriage elevated him.
For years he enjoyed being beside the head of the Carbone organization.
Then somewhere along the way, beside became beneath.
And he could not tolerate it.
“What was the plan?”
He smiled.
“There was no plan.”
I looked toward Miriam.
She opened her handbag.
Removed a folded piece of paper.
Placed it on the table.
Garrett’s face changed.
“What is that?”
“Something you dropped in my room.”
My mother unfolded it.
Names.
Twelve captains.
Beside each:
WITH ALESSIA.
WITH GARRETT.
UNDECIDED.
I stared at my husband.
May you like
He had not only been asking for an old succession seal.
He had been counting who would stand where after our marriage broke.
