Chapter 7
Nobody spoke.
Serafina’s eyes followed Salvatore across the room.
Victor smiled.
There it was.
The first visible crack.
“You see?” Victor said softly.
“Numbers change.”
Serafina did not react.
Salvatore avoided her gaze.
That hurt more than if he had smiled.
The meeting ended without a formal vote.
Neither side had enough support to force the other out.
For the first time, power was balanced.
Victor loved it.
Nolan loved it more.
He passed Serafina in the corridor under escort.
“Not everyone bows forever.”
Serafina stopped.
Nolan’s smile widened.
She stepped close enough that his breath changed.
“Careful.”
Her voice was almost gentle.
“You're confusing movement with loyalty.”
Then she walked away.
That evening Salvatore came to her office alone.
Serafina did not offer him a chair.
“You have sixty seconds.”
He looked toward the closed door.
“Victor approached me two weeks ago.”
“Fifty-five.”
“He said if I stayed with you, he’d expose something about my son.”
“Fifty.”
Salvatore swallowed.
“My son owes Nolan money.”
Serafina’s expression remained flat.
“Forty-five.”
“I moved because Victor expected me to.”
She finally looked directly at him.
“You want me to believe you're pretending?”
“No.”
Salvatore’s voice lowered.
“I want you to know what Victor whispered when I sat down.”
Serafina waited.
“He said, ‘Lorenzo screamed too.’”
The silence after that sentence felt physical.
Serafina’s fingers curled once against the desk.
“What exactly?”
Salvatore repeated it.
Victor had leaned over and said:
“Good choice. Lorenzo screamed too when he realized courage wasn’t enough.”
Serafina’s eyes became cold.
Her husband had died in a car crash on a mountain road.
He should not have had time to scream to Victor.
Unless Victor had been there.
Or knew someone who was.
Serafina released a slow breath.
“Go back to him.”
Salvatore blinked.
“What?”
“You crossed the room.”
She leaned forward.
“Stay there.”
For the first time that day, fear entered Salvatore’s face.
Not fear of Serafina.
Fear of what she was asking him to do.
May you like
Victor believed he had stolen one of her capos.
Serafina had just decided to let him keep believing it.
