Chapter 6
Raffaele did not let Vanessa return to the estate.
She stayed at a hotel under her own name.
The separation was not yet legal.
It was already real.
At home, Lily began following Adrian from room to room.
If he went to the kitchen, she went.
If he sat outside, she carried her stuffed rabbit onto the patio.
At bedtime she asked whether Adrian would “fight the boot men” if they came back.
Adrian laughed the first time.
Then realized she was serious.
“I don’t want her thinking fighting is my job,” he told Raffaele.
They were alone in the garage, surrounded by motorcycles that suddenly felt less glamorous than they had a week before.
“It isn’t.”
“She thinks it is.”
Adrian looked at him.
“And maybe I do too.”
Raffaele leaned against the workbench.
“Your father used to think protecting people meant being the first one to swing.”
“You hit Grant.”
Raffaele had no answer ready.
That bothered him.
Adrian continued.
“You hit Vanessa too.”
“She grabbed Lily.”
“I know.”
“You think I should have let her?”
“No.”
The boy shook his head.
“I think you always make it seem like there are only two choices. Do nothing or hurt somebody.”
Raffaele stared at his nephew.
Fifteen years old.
And saying something nobody in Raffaele’s organization had ever dared say to his face.
“What was the third choice?”
“Get Lily away. Get the cops. Fire Grant. Show everybody the invoices.”
Adrian shrugged.
“Anything that didn’t make her watch another fight.”
Raffaele looked toward the house.
Lily was visible through the windows, eating apple slices with Denise.
He had protected her body.
He had not protected what she saw.
The charity audit produced another setback.
Several payments had Raffaele’s electronic approval code attached.
He had never approved them.
But Grant had administrative access to submit emergency rally expenses under Raffaele’s standing authorization.
Caroline warned him.
“Legally and financially, your lack of oversight matters.”
“I trusted Vanessa.”
“And Grant.”
Raffaele nodded.
Trust had become the family’s favorite excuse for not checking anything.
Then Helen Ward called.
She had found an old email archive.
Grant had not created his emergency authorization himself.
Someone had requested that he receive it.
May you like
Three years earlier.
The request came from Vanessa.
