Chapter 1
Alessio’s first order was not for Trent.
It was for his sister.
“Get Sylvia downstairs. Doctor first.”
Sylvia caught his sleeve with her good hand.
“No.”
Her voice was thin, but firm.
“I’m not leaving my phone.”
Alessio looked at it.
The screen was cracked. Sylvia held the device against her chest as if Trent might still reach through four bodyguards to take it.
Trent pushed himself upright beside the overturned liquor cart.
“She’s hysterical.”
Sylvia flinched.
Alessio noticed.
Raymond Walsh straightened his jacket.
“This is a marital disagreement that got out of hand.”
“A marital disagreement?”
Alessio looked at Sylvia’s sling.
Then at the bathroom door Trent had nearly broken off its frame.
Raymond’s face tightened.
“You don’t know what happened.”
“That’s why nobody is leaving until I do.”
Caroline Brooks, Alessio’s longtime attorney, was summoned from downstairs.
She arrived irritated at being pulled away from the charity committee dinner.
Then she saw Sylvia.
Her expression changed.
“Hospital.”
Sylvia shook her head.
“Copy the phone first.”
Caroline studied her.
“What’s on it?”
Sylvia looked at Trent.
He stopped rubbing his jaw.
That reaction answered more than words would have.
Alessio stepped closer to his sister.
“What did he want from you?”
Sylvia swallowed.
“He kept telling me to unlock it.”
“For what?”
“I have emails. Invoices. Messages.”
Raymond suddenly interrupted.
“Whatever she thinks she found, she doesn’t understand the business.”
Alessio turned toward him.
Sylvia’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“That’s what Trent said before he broke my arm.”
Nobody moved.
Alessio looked back at her sling.
“You told me you fell.”
“I lied.”
His sister’s eyes filled.
“Because the first time I tried to tell somebody what was happening, Trent convinced me I’d destroy this family if I opened my mouth.”
Alessio stared at her.
May you like
Sylvia whispered one final sentence.
“And tonight he found out I was finally going to do it anyway.”
