Chapter 8
Victor recovered fast.
“That's ridiculous.”
I almost admired it.
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
“You weren't dividing my crews?”
“No.”
“Then why did Clara know the assignments?”
He shrugged.
“She overheard names.”
“Specific territories?”
“Coincidence.”
Mother's favorite word had apparently spread.
The senior capos began arriving.
Eight men.
Then twelve.
Some came confused.
Some wary.
Two looked at Victor before they looked at me.
I noticed.
So did he.
I placed the crescent pin on the dining table.
Nobody spoke.
Then I asked:
“Who has seen this in the last month?”
Three men looked away.
Good.
I pointed.
“You.”
Raymond Pierce.
He sighed.
“Victor gave me one.”
Victor laughed.
“Decorative.”
Raymond looked at him.
“No.”
Victor's face changed.
Raymond continued.
“You said wearing it at the north dinner meant we were ready.”
I looked at Victor.
“Ready for what?”
Raymond swallowed.
“To support temporary command.”
“Whose?”
Silence.
Victor leaned forward.
“Ray.”
Raymond looked at him.
Then me.
“His.”
There it was.
One answer.
I turned toward the others.
“Who else?”
Two more admitted it.
Then Gavin.
Then Merrill.
Four.
Not enough for a takeover.
Enough for a faction.
Mother entered despite being told not to.
Of course she did.
She walked into the room dressed perfectly.
Hair fixed.
Pearls straight.
No sign that she had been thrown into a nursery display an hour earlier.
And she smiled at everyone.
“My goodness.”
Her voice was warm.
Public Evelyn.
The loving matriarch.
“I leave for twenty minutes and Daniel turns a family concern into a tribunal.”
Several men shifted uncomfortably.
She walked toward Clara's room.
I blocked her.
“Stay here.”
Mother smiled at the capos.
“You see?”
Sweet voice.
“He's exhausted.”
Then she lowered it so only I heard.
“You're humiliating yourself over a woman who couldn't even stay conscious long enough to feed her own baby.”
My hands curled.
She smiled wider.
Publicly:
“Daniel has always loved deeply.”
Then privately:
“Too deeply.”
I stared.
There it was.
The hypocrisy Marissa had lived with for six days.
Mother turned to the room.
“Clara needs rest.”
I almost laughed.
Now.
Now she needed rest.
Mother continued.
“And Daniel needs people around him who understand responsibility.”
Victor straightened.
There.
The endorsement.
I looked at every capo.
“My mother believes Victor should take temporary control because I chose to stay with my wife after she gave birth.”
Mother sighed.
“Don't simplify it.”
“Correct me.”
She stared.
“You've become unreliable.”
“How?”
“You leave meetings.”
“For the hospital.”
“You reject opportunities.”
“Dangerous ones.”
“You refuse to expand.”
“Into routes my father closed.”
She smiled.
“Your father closed them because he was old.”
“No.”
One of the older capos spoke.
“He closed them because men died.”
Mother looked at him.
He looked away.
Interesting.
I continued.
“Victor told these men I would step aside.”
Mother said nothing.
“That my son would eventually inherit.”
Still nothing.
“And until then Victor would rule.”
She finally smiled.
“Someone has to preserve what Noah will receive.”
There.
She admitted it.
Victor looked pleased.
Too pleased.
I looked at him.
“You told her Noah was the future.”
“Of course.”
“And you?”
“Caretaker.”
He said it smoothly.
Too smoothly.
I almost believed he believed it.
Then Marissa appeared.
“Boss.”
Victor's eyes sharpened.
She held one of his jackets.
“I'm sorry.”
She reached into the inside pocket.
Pulled out a second crescent pin.
Black.
Not silver.
The room changed.
Older capos recognized it immediately.
So did Mother.
Her face went pale.
I looked at Victor.
“What's the black one?”
Nobody answered.
One capo finally whispered:
“Permanent command.”
I looked at Mother.
Then Victor.
May you like
The silver pin had been the story he told Evelyn.
The black pin was the plan he hadn't.
