Chapter 4
Anthony Rizzi had served my father for thirty-one years.
That was exactly why Nolan trusted him.
It was also why I hadn't seen him coming.
I had grown up around him.
He taught me to drive.
He stood behind my father at funerals.
When Ella was born, Anthony sent a silver rattle engraved with her initials.
Betrayal rarely arrives wearing a stranger's face.
That would make things too easy.
I cleared everyone from the patio except Anthony, Hattie, Nolan, Adelaide and four bodyguards.
Ella went inside.
This time she didn't argue.
She had seen enough adults behaving like animals.
I looked at Anthony.
“Why?”
He didn't pretend not to understand.
“Mercer.”
Daniel Mercer.
The man I was supposed to meet tomorrow.
“What about him?”
“You think peace with him ends a war.”
“It does.”
“No.”
Anthony leaned forward.
“It ends us.”
Hattie watched him like she had heard some of this before.
Not all.
Good.
“You've spent years cutting away everything that made your father feared.”
“My father died at sixty-one with three bullets in his chest.”
Anthony's face tightened.
“That fear didn't save him.”
“Fear kept this family alive.”
“No.”
I looked toward my mother.
“She did.”
Adelaide's eyes lifted.
My father fought wars.
My mother held everything together after them.
She fed widows.
Kept children in school.
Settled grudges between families before men reached for guns.
People remembered my father's violence.
They followed my mother because she remembered their names.
Anthony had never understood the difference.
“You wanted the old capos to abandon me before the Mercer meeting.”
“Yes.”
That answer surprised Hattie.
Nolan too.
I noticed.
“You told them what?” I asked.
Anthony didn't answer.
Nolan did.
“That Mercer was setting a trap.”
I looked at him.
“Proof?”
“He had proof.”
I turned back to Anthony.
“What proof?”
Silence.
Now I understood.
There wasn't any.
“You lied.”
Anthony's jaw tightened.
“I prevented you from walking into a grave.”
“By starving my mother?”
“That wasn't my decision.”
Nolan looked at Hattie.
Hattie looked at the ground.
Anthony continued.
“I needed Adelaide to say the phrase. That's all.”
“Why her?”
“Because if I said it, men would question my motive.”
Of course.
But Adelaide?
The matriarch.
The widow of the previous boss.
If she condemned my leadership, the old guard would listen.
“You used Nolan because he wanted more.”
“Yes.”
Nolan stared at him.
“And me?” Hattie asked.
Anthony barely looked at her.
“You wanted to matter.”
That hurt her.
I could tell.
Good.
Then my mother spoke.
“You still haven't told him.”
Anthony's face changed.
I turned.
“Told me what?”
Adelaide stared at him.
“The phrase wasn't the only thing he wanted.”
My eyes returned to Anthony.
Mother continued.
“He asked about Ella.”
The patio went silent.
My hand tightened around the back of a chair.
“What about my daughter?”
Adelaide's voice became quieter.
“He wanted to know who would take her if you didn't come back from the River House.”
Anthony looked away.
That was the moment the entire conspiracy changed.
May you like
They had not simply been preparing for me to lose power.
Someone had already been planning what happened after I died.
