Chapter 6
Nobody left.
Alessia ordered the doors closed.
Not dramatically.
One quiet gesture.
The bodyguards obeyed.
Six capos.
Miriam.
Dante.
Two security officers.
Alessia stood at the head of the table.
She let the silence work.
Men who had faced guns without blinking began watching one another.
Miriam whispered:
“Alessia.”
Her daughter turned.
“Don’t let him make you punish the wrong person.”
Alessia’s eyes softened for half a second.
Then hardened again.
“Phones on the table.”
Nobody argued.
One by one, devices appeared.
A communications specialist checked recent transfers.
Nothing.
No photo sent.
No hidden messaging app.
Then Miriam’s phone vibrated.
Everyone looked at her.
Miriam froze.
Alessia’s breathing stopped for a fraction of a second.
Her mother slowly placed the phone on the table.
An incoming message.
From Garrett.
You were always the weakness.
Alessia stared at the words.
Miriam went pale.
“I haven't spoken to him.”
“I know.”
But the room did not.
Several capos shifted.
Garrett had created exactly the image he wanted.
Alessia defending her mother.
Miriam somehow receiving private messages from the husband who attacked her.
Doubt.
Not proof.
Doubt was cheaper.
And often more useful.
The specialist examined Miriam’s phone.
No outgoing contact with Garrett.
But her device had recently connected to an unknown cloud account.
Someone had added remote access.
Miriam’s fingers began trembling.
“I don't understand.”
Alessia crouched beside her.
“Look at me.”
Miriam did.
“You didn't do this.”
Miriam’s breath broke.
“I know.”
“No.”
Alessia tightened her hand around her mother’s.
“I need you to know I know.”
The remote profile had been installed three weeks earlier.
At a charity luncheon.
Miriam remembered giving her phone to Evelyn because she could not get the event-ticket application to open.
The room went still.
Evelyn had held it for less than five minutes.
Long enough.
Then Dante’s phone chimed.
Another anonymous message.
Check Alessia’s private authorization folder.
Alessia looked toward her office safe.
Only three people knew it existed.
Her mother.
Her husband.
And herself.
May you like
When she opened it, one document was missing.
Her emergency succession directive.
