Chapter 5
Bianca tried to defend him.
“He was trying to stop you from destroying yourself.”
I looked at her.
“You put my bride under the floor.”
“You were twenty-five. Angry. Reckless.”
“I was the boss.”
“You were his son first.”
There it was.
The old order.
Family hierarchy above formal authority.
My father could never accept that the day I became head of Castellano, I stopped needing his permission.
So he found another way to control me.
Through loss.
Evelyn continued.
At first they moved her between hidden rooms inside the estate. One beneath the bridal suite. Another beside the wine cellar. A third under the old service hall.
Nobody outside a small circle knew.
“How many?” I asked.
Evelyn looked at Bianca.
“Six.”
Bianca’s face changed.
“Names.”
No answer.
I stepped closer.
“Names.”
Bianca finally gave me three.
My father.
Her.
A dead house steward named Franco.
I waited.
Evelyn gave the fourth.
“Dr. Keller.”
I knew him.
He delivered Ethan.
The man Bianca told me had no idea who the mother was.
My hands tightened.
“Two more.”
Evelyn looked uncertain.
“One was always masked.”
Bianca snapped, “Stop.”
I turned.
That reaction mattered.
Evelyn looked at her.
“I heard his voice.”
Bianca became very still.
“Whose?”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Antonio Greco.”
My former consigliere.
The man I removed two years ago after my father died because I discovered he had been feeding information to old captains.
I thought I had caught him betraying my routes.
Maybe I had only caught the smallest betrayal.
“And the sixth?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“I never saw him.”
Then she looked at Ethan.
“But he was there when my son was taken.”
The room went silent.
May you like
That meant one person still existed who knew everything.
And nobody had named him yet.
