Chapter 9
By two in the morning, everyone involved was inside the estate.
Not because they wanted to be.
Because the Vescari men had carried names.
Salvatore carried others.
Katherine knew more.
Marcus finally started talking when he understood nobody had ever intended to make him boss.
The conspiracy had looked large from the outside.
It was smaller than that.
Smaller and uglier.
A handful of old men who hated the direction I had taken the family.
Two bitter relatives.
One trusted security chief who believed a divided house would make him indispensable.
And Marcus.
A man who thought sitting beside my chair meant becoming me.
They had spent months weakening me.
Katherine increased the amount in my wine.
Marcus helped switch bottles.
Salvatore controlled cameras and access.
The outside crew waited for collapse.
Then Clara ruined everything because she repeated one sentence she was never supposed to hear.
At three years old.
With tears on her face.
That was all it took.
I brought Katherine, Marcus and Salvatore back into the dining gallery before dawn.
The broken bottle rack still leaned against the wall.
The decanter stand remained overturned.
Clara's chair sat beside mine.
I didn't sit.
Neither did they.
I looked at Marcus first.
“Your pin.”
His hand went instinctively to the capo pin on his lapel.
“Roman—”
“Your pin.”
He removed it.
Slowly.
Placed it on the table.
“You don't speak for this family again.”
His jaw clenched.
“What am I supposed to do?”
I looked at him.
“Learn who you are when your mother isn't promising you someone else's chair.”
Then Katherine.
She looked older.
Not remorseful.
Just defeated.
“You will never be alone with Clara again.”
Her mouth trembled.
“She loves me.”
“She trusted you.”
“That isn't the same thing.”
She looked down.
Good.
Finally Salvatore.
He stood straighter than the others.
Still trying to keep one piece of dignity.
“Seventeen years,” I said.
“I know.”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“You knew my father.”
“Yes.”
“You held my daughter when she was six hours old.”
His face changed.
“You were the first person I called when her mother died.”
He looked away.
That hurt him.
I wanted it to.
“You didn't betray a boss.”
Silence.
“You betrayed a man who trusted you with the only person he couldn't replace.”
Salvatore whispered, “I never meant for Clara to be hurt.”
“That sentence is what cowards say when their plans fail.”
He closed his eyes.
I signaled the guards.
They took him away.
Marcus followed.
Then Katherine.
At the doorway, she stopped.
“Roman.”
I didn't answer.
She turned.
“If Clara asks for me?”
I looked at the chair she had shoved my daughter away from.
“Then I'll tell her the truth.”
Katherine flinched.
“Which truth?”
“That you loved power more than you protected family.”
She left.
The gallery finally became quiet.
I sat down.
Then I pulled Clara's chair closer to mine.
Exactly where it had been before Katherine touched it.
That was when I noticed something beneath the table.
A small red ribbon.
Clara's.
From her dress.
May you like
I picked it up.
And for the first time that night, my hands shook.
